Legend Loeb back in WRC Safari Rally
World Rally Championship legend is bracing for a grand
comeback to next month’s WRC Safari Rally Kenya for the first time in two
decades.
The Frenchman has a sentimental attachment to the
picturesque Great Rift Valley terrain where he finished fifth in the 2002 WRC
Inmarsat Safari Rally navigated by Daniel Elena in a Citroën Xsara WRC.
The nine-time WRC champion made a comeback to top tier
rallying during January’s WRC Monte Carlo Rally where he beat rival and
compatriot Sebastien Ogier to score an 80th career win.
Loeb is tackling his first gravel rally of the 2022 season
in an M-Sport Ford Puma in Portugal this weekend where he joined a strong field
of 12 Rally1 hybrid entries.
In Kenya, the legendary driver will renew his rivalry with
Safari’s defending champion and eight-time world champion Ogier who is in the
Toyota Gazoo Racing line up for Safari.
Loeb is part of a six-car M-Sport World Rally Team line up
for Safari alongside Briton Gus Greensmith, Frenchman Adrien Fourmaux, Craig
Breen of Ireland, Martin Prokop (Czech Republic) and Belgian Jourdan Serderdis.
Loeb said: "The first feeling in the Puma on gravel at
our test was quite good, I was quite happy with the feeling I had as we worked
on the suspension and the differential setups," said Loeb, who is also set
to participate in the WRC's 50th season celebrations this weekend.
Loeb is the most successful driver in the World Rally
Championship (WRC). He won the world championship a record nine times in a row
and holds several other WRC records, including most event wins, most podium
finishes and most stage wins.
Loeb retired from full-time WRC participation at the end of
2012. He currently drives part time in the WRC for M-Sport Ford World Rally
Team, full time in the World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) for Bahrain Raid
Xtreme and full time in the Extreme E Championship for Team X44.
Originally a gymnast, Loeb switched to rallying in 1995 and
won the Junior World Rally Championship in 2001.
He was signed by the Citroën World Rally Team for the 2002
season, and together with co-driver Elena racked up their maiden WRC win that
same year at the Rallye Deutschland.
After finishing
runner-up to Petter Solberg by one point in 2003, Loeb took his first drivers
title in 2004.
Still with Citroën, Loeb went on to take a record ninth
consecutive world title in 2012. Loeb is a tarmac expert, having won all but
three of the WRC rallies on that surface in which he has participated between
2005 and 2013.
In 2018, Loeb won the
Spanish round of that year's World Rally Championship, in a rare entry six
years after his retirement as a full-time WRC driver.
WRC Safari Rally Kenya is being sponsored by KCB Bank Kenya
and Toyota Kenya among others. The event will revolve around Nairobi and
Naivasha covering a total distance of 1226.23km between June 23 and 27.
Shakedown returns to Ndulele Conservancy on June
22. The Super Special Stage also returns to Kasarani on June 23 where WRC crews
will recce in their Rally 1 hybrids
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