Discussion and the idea of participation in Safari Rally develops. My experience of year 1998 Safari, gets Jari´s love of adventure awake. Here starts the project, which ends at Safari Rally podium on 22nd of July 2001.

10th of July 2001 Helsinki-Vantaa airport

The moment of truth, I am with Jari at the airport for check-in. The flight would take us first to Amsterdam and from there an overnight lasting flight to Nairobi, Kenya.
This journey´s first problems we faced at the check-in counter, our luggage weighed 20 kilos too much. However, a long travel requires a lot of things and we managed to lighten the luggage, but in any case, there will be extra costs.
In Amsterdam we had two hours to waste, waiting for the continuation flight. Atmosphere is pleasant and our thoughts are already in the bushes.
During the one hour time, we were sitting in our seats, eight different drug dogs were walking and sniffing the area to check every passengers luggage.
Finally to the plane and after a well slept night, we arrived at the destination at 06.20 in the morning.

11th of July 2001 Kenya, Nairobi

There are people meeting us at the airport and we hire straight away a jeep, with that car we are going to make the notes for the rally.
And ex tempore to the chaotic traffic of Nairobi, on the wrong side of the road and even steering wheel of our car is in the wrong side, to what we have been used to.
And before you know it, Jari drives in the middle of local traffic quite nicely.
Our hotel is cosy and has good standard. Swedish Sven Neby, who belongs to our service team, is already waiting for us. His experience about local conditions is great help and he is sitting the two reconnaissance days at the back seat of our Pajero. And I can tell you that this performance is awesome. It is really not a simple sightseeing tour.
We go to see the garage we have rented. There we hear that the container, where our rally car is, is still somewhere on the way to Nairobi!
Otherwise all the arrangements are okay. In the same trip we went to head quarters to pick the material up and we are told that the route has never been so bad it is now.
This is really comforting to know.

12th of July 2001

Reconnaissance begins. Our goal is to do two stages/day and try to drive them through two times, but there isn´t enough daylight.
We drive stage three, length 50 kilometres and after that stage four, length 72 kilometres. Then it is so late, that we should go back to Nairobi. Darkness comes at 18.30 and you should be off the road by then. It is hard to explain, but it is not safe to drive after the dark outside the city, if you want to stay alive.
The roads are really in poor condition and at the end of stage two, we hit a stone, Neby tells us that it is the same stone where Carlos Sainz broke his front bar suspension. Car is not damaged, but the bang frightens an unknown bird, which wing´s distance is at least four meters.

13th of July 2001

Again to the road, though we are very sleepy. Now we drive stage one, 117 kilometres and stage three, 112 kilometres.
We should mention that driving stage one lasts 3 ½ hours with jeep, the fastest rally drivers drive it through in less than an hour and us one hour and twenty minutes. That says a lot about condition of that road.

14th of July 2001

We start leg two, which goes north from Nairobi, to equator area. Even driving to there is hard. Start will be on small hours and there is 200 kilometres to drive and we have time only two hours. Does not sound bad with a rally car, but situation is a bit different when you consider the circumstances and state of roads. We are driving over high mountain, where there is usually thick fog. 50 kilometres per hour feels like wild speed.
In this leg stages are a bit better and every now and then you even remember the road. We drive the first stage 6/9, 85 km, which runs through on land of lord Delawere. Stage is quite nice, except five kilometres of rocky part, which we mark to drive on first gear. The base of the road, sharp lava stone originates from a volcano eruption.
On the stage the route has been marked to go over a river, where there is also a bridge near. Some manufacturer teams training car has stopped by the river and it doesn´t encourage us to cross it.
Later we are notified that in the contest the route goes via the bridge.
Stage eight is 80 km and the condition of the road is good. We could say that it is a really good road in Kenya scale.
The next night we spend in a jungle bungalow inside mosquito nets. In bamboo roofed hut there is a terrible noise, when millions of birds and other creatures make a noise outside. Instead of a window, there is only a net. But because the day has been so rough, we have no troubles of falling asleep.

15th of July 2001

In the morning our service crew, Vesa and Jouni arrive to Nairobi, but we are on the route hundreds of kilometres away.
We have stage five 124 km ahead of us and also stage seven, 72 km.
Stage seven starts at altitude of 3700 metres and goes down to 1500 metres and route is only 20 kilometres long.
From the finish of stage seven there are yet 300 km to Nairobi. Darkness catches us and driving starts to be really dangerous. On the motorway on its´ overtaking lane there is a truck with no tyres and lights, but we get over it with luck.
A curious group waits for us at the hotel and we catch up latest news.
Then we hear the bad news, our car has still not arrived.

16th of July 2001

17th of July 2001

Our last reconnaissance day. We drive stages one, two and four and we have finished our job. Now every stage has been driven through twice.
We return to Nairobi and we find out that finally our rally car has arrived. Service crew has eventually been able to do the last touches to our Safari Mitsubishi.

18th of July 2001

Our inspection time was between 13.00 - 14.00. We got the local insurance certificate at 11.50 and after that we were in a terrible hurry to get the road toll stickers from local authorities.
Rush can make you to do wonders. I was the only white man in the office and I had to jump the queue in the middle of about 100 black men, but I was lucky to get straight to the right counter. Then I found out that this particular permit writer is out for lunch and he will be back at 13.00. So I had to return to workshop and be back in the office after one hour.
All went well and we were at inspection site within given time. The car was approved and all was ready for contest.
In the afternoon we went for a little test drive and all seemed to be okay.
When we were test driving, our service team had new experiences.
A jeep came to service site and there were men who had pointed at guys with machine guns.
Then they had found out that men in the jeep were police, who explained that in this area some people has robbed cars by shooting the driver!!

19th of July 2001

20th of July 2001

Stage one. Our tactic is to drive our own pace to finish line.
When we have driven about 30 km, Kenyan group N Championship winner passes us, but we continue the same pace as we have started.
In 80 kilometres we overtake the same guy, he has broken his car and in 117 kilometres our stage times are about the same. So we found out that our tactic must be right.
On stage two we had to avoid rocks but stage went without problems. At the same time driver realises that transitions must be driven at full speed and stages a bit slower. This makes the contest very hard, when the only break is when car is at service, about 20 minutes few times a day.

Stage three. Quick part, speed about 160 km/h. After one hill comes a pick-up truck with about ten men at the back. Jari dodges instinctively to the right, but notices the car dodges also to same direction. Jari corrects to other side and luckily nobody falls from the platform to the road ahead of us.

Stage four. The worst nightmare of my life...

We knew that it is going to be dark but then it started to rain cats and dogs. Lightnings were enormous.
We start and in few minutes the road changes to river. The windows are steamy and it is hard to see anything.
At some point Jari asks if we shouldn´t be in the finish soon. I have to be a kill-joy and say that we have driven 28 km and stage is 72 km long. We have been on the stage 26 minutes and yet we are driving rally!
On stage there were a lot of rivers to cross. When we were training all of them were dry, but now water was rising very fast. We had to stop before the river and check it and then drive full speed over. In one crossing the car was about to go with the flow.
Every now and then the road changed to mud, where there was a great risk to get stucked. With four-wheel drive on 2nd gear with full gas, the car just and just moved.
Visibility got worse all the time and in the car there was water so much that clothes were wet to the knees.
Then according to pace notes we had another river ahead. Suddenly our pick-up truck was sideways on the road. We had to stop and I stepped out of the car to ask for a roundabout way over the river. We found the way, but then the car died. For a moment our mood was gloomier than the weather, but finally the car started again.
The car had malfunction and it didn´t run properly.
During the starting attempts the main current switch neutralized the distance gauge, and we didn´t know anymore how much stage we have left.
It got spookier, when we saw Auriols Peugeot, which was still on the road and burned despite of the pouring rain.
Finally the rain stopped and the last kilometres were dusty.
Frankly, on stage we thought that if we have to retire in the middle of the stage, nobody would pick us up before morning (maybe not even then).
We shared the same opinion that if we get over this, nothing would stop us.
We still had the long service ahead and we arrived to finish at midnight.

21st of 2001

After generous four hours of sleep the contest continued and we had 200 kilometre road section in the darkness and a terrible fog ahead of us, which I mentioned before.
When the fog faded and the day dawned, we drove the last 60-70 kilometres about 180 km/h.
The speciality of this contest is, that speed limits don´t concern competitors.
It has rained during the night and we got a warning from Tommi Mäkinen´s front car that in the beginning of the next stage there is a lot of water and we should be cautious.
Notes didn´t help much when the road waved with water and we had to circle along the bushes.
In the end of the stage Jari had a bit problems with the seat, when it slipped down a bit and causing pain to his back. Yet we made finish.
The next stage went without problems and our tactic seemed to work splendidly.

Stage seven was a bit more problematic. On the final phase of the road section the car started to malfunction and it was doing that on special stage as well, at least 30 km. There wasn´t enough oxygen in this altitude and we had a snorkel on the roof of our car, which brings air to the engine. The stage was however dry and a normal air inlet would have given more air to the engine.

Still stage eight, which was the day´s shortest, only 62 kilometres. This could be characterized as a super special stage. The sky turned darker and there was a possibility for rain, but this time we stayed dry.
Stage nine was the same as stage six. Darkness caught us and finally the rain started. It wasn´t easy this time either. We were running wide in some of the corners because road was slippery. Luckily we didn´t have any bigger problems.
Again we reached the service and then full speed (200 km/h) to Nairobi.

The day was really rough, when we drove about 500 km special stages and 800 km transitions and all at full speed!! At night time we were again in Nairobi and we slept sumptuous four hours.

We have proceeded the rally just as planned, even if the weather was not like we have thought.
On the last day we had the same stages as on the first day. When we were in start, we noticed that rally was stopped. The situation was that Mäkinen and Rovanperä had been started, but Petter Sohlberg declined to start without his helicopter. Finally rally started again. We didn´t have any helicopters, and yet we have been driving without any troubles so far.
Due to this delay the second stage was cancelled and we went straight to stage three. The route was quite nice and after we had driven 20 kilometres we reached the car, which had left before us.
Then we drove 60 km in dust, because there was no possibility to overtake the car safely and the driver didn´t look at his rear-view mirror.
But finally we had a chance to pass and we drove to finish.

We had the last stage ahead. That was the same that we drove on the first day´s on nightmare like circumstances.
It wasn´t easy this time either. We lost our rhythm, when we drove as slowly as we could to avoid problems.
Stage was in terrible condition after the rain. We only just got through in worst places. In a long and straight stretch we had to go around mud ponds when suddenly the car slid badly and we went straight to a bush. Velocity stopped and for some time we thought that do we have to retire here. But then the car came off from the bush and we could continue.

It was a great feeling in the stage finish and in the next service halt, where our whole team was waiting for us. But we had still one road section to go.
We were in Nairobi city area, when it again started to rain heavily. In two lane road somebody hit our car on the left hand side, but we didn´t stay there to wonder the situation. We had just been driven normally on our own lane. With a really bad luck our car could have been damaged and we had been forced to retire.

We continued and at last we drove to the podium in centre of Nairobi escorted with Masai dance group. Spraying the champagne was well-earned, last time we did that, was in Turku, when we won the Championship.

Ultimately we would like to thank our excellent service team, to which belonged Pekka Asunmaa, Arto Lehtonen, Tuomas Helkamäki and Sven Neby. They did miracles. We had also part in that, we kept the car in one piece. We didn´t have any punctures, and nothing significant broke down.
Also thanks to our support group and Finnish rally tourists Hulkkonen and Viita, who also had to take part to service.
Big thanks also to Lasse Lampi from Mitsubishi team, Lasse helped us a lot.
Big thanks also to luck, "Tuuri" became well known.

After the rally, driver Jari Latvala had an opinion that he doesn´t long for such experience anymore, but let´s see...

Our final result was 11th overall and 5th in group N. We were the first Finnish private contestants who have driven to the finish podium of Safari rally.

Story by co-driver Kari Mustalahti