Renowned rally driver Giancarlo Davite is in Kenya representing Rwanda at the Safari Rally going on in Mombasa from June 23-26.

The Kenyan Rally is one of the 13 races listed by the International Automobile Federation (FIA) on the World Rally Championship (WRC) calendar this year.

According to Rwanda Automobile Club (RAC) president, Christian Gakwaya, Davite is the lone Rwandan representative who showed interest in participating at the Kenyan Rally.

The driver, who is participating at a WRC race for the first time in his career, told Times Sport that, "It's an accomplishment of a dream after we couldn't participate last year because of Covid problems"

"The objective is simply to finish the best we can," he added.

The likes of Japanese Takamoto Katsuta, Elfyn Evans, Craig Breen and Adrien Fourmeaux are among the favorites to win the race.

The starting ceremony was held in Nairobi on Thursday before drivers headed on for the Super Special stage in Kasarani from where the cars will proceed to the KWS Naivasha Training institute.

Several stages have been tweaked to include new sections and the itinerary unveiled on Monday saw the Geothermal stage (10.8 kilometres) and the 19.2-kilometre Narasha stage as new additions from last year’s edition with the latter stage set to be used for the first time since 2002.

Hell’s Gate remains as the power stage while Sleeping Warrior, the stage that turned the rally on its head last year when it suddenly rained, is the only full-length test to remain unchanged from 2021.

A total of 19 stages are up for contest during the four-day race with a distance coverage of 363.44km.  

The Safari Rally is infamous for its merciless conditions with dusty roads dominating the itinerary, raising the questions over whether the hybrid rally cars will survive to routes.