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20-544: The FFSA French Rally Championship or Championnat de France des Rallyes is France's leading domestic motor rally competition. It's a championship that has been won three times by Didier Auriol , Guy Fréquelin , Patrick Bernadini and Philippe Bugalski . Reflecting the highly developed nature of France, for the past 20 years the championship has been a tarmac championship, unlike the bulk of rally championships which are off-road or mixed surface events. Sourced from: Didier Auriol Didier Auriol (born 18 August 1958)

40-444: A puncture - allowed drivers to tackle the event flat out, despite the length of the event. In 1996, the event adopted the special stage format, and servicing cars from helicopters was prohibited. From that edition until 2002, it featured around 2000 km of timed stages, with stages well over 60 kilometres (37 mi) long, unlike most rallies which had under 500 kilometres (310 mi) of total timed distance. This meant that

60-538: A co-driver, while his brother Gerrard was also a former rally driver. At the age of 21, Auriol started rallying in an old Simca 1000 . He drove the Simca for two years before getting a Renault 5 Turbo to compete in the French Rally Championship. In 1986 he competed in a Metro 6R4 . With this car, he won his first French Rallye Championship. He contested it again the following year, the first of

80-728: A comeback to the WRC in 2021 after an eighteen-year hiatus from the 24–27 June, with a successful event held in Kenya on the floor of the Rift Valley in Naivasha , Nakuru County. Sebastian Ogier and Julien Ingrassia emerged as winners in their Toyota Yaris WRC. The Safari has a WRC contract until 2026. Kenyan drivers Shekhar Mehta and Carl Tundo have been the most successful competitors, with five outright victories each. Mehta won first in 1973, then consecutively from 1979 to 1982 - all while

100-524: A private Ford, and drove couple of rallies with Toyota's new Corolla WRC. In 1998 Auriol became a Toyota full-time driver. he earned one win and four podiums, finishing fifth in the overall standings. In 1999 he scored one win and seven wins, which placed him third in points. As Toyota retired from World Rally Championship after 1999, Auriol moved to SEAT Sport , driving the SEAT Córdoba WRC E2 . Using Auriol's experience, SEAT managed to grab

120-1411: A record jointly held with Bernard Darniche . 1977   S. Munari (FIA Cup) 1978   M. Alén (FIA Cup) 1979   B. Waldegård 1980   W. Röhrl 1981   A. Vatanen 1982   W. Röhrl 1983   H. Mikkola 1984   S. Blomqvist 1985   T. Salonen 1986   J. Kankkunen 1987   J. Kankkunen 1988   M. Biasion 1989   M. Biasion 1990   C. Sainz 1991   J. Kankkunen 1992   C. Sainz 1993   J. Kankkunen 1994   D. Auriol 1995   C. McRae 1996   T. Mäkinen 1997   T. Mäkinen 1998   T. Mäkinen 1999   T. Mäkinen 2000   M. Grönholm 2001   R. Burns 2002   M. Grönholm 2003   P. Solberg 2004   S. Loeb 2005   S. Loeb 2006   S. Loeb 2007   S. Loeb 2008   S. Loeb 2009   S. Loeb 2010   S. Loeb 2011   S. Loeb 2012   S. Loeb 2013   S. Ogier 2014   S. Ogier 2015   S. Ogier 2016   S. Ogier 2017   S. Ogier 2018   S. Ogier 2019   O. Tänak 2020   S. Ogier 2021   S. Ogier 2022   K. Rovanperä 2023   K. Rovanperä 2024   T. Neuville Safari Rally It

140-480: A variety of roads and terrain - from fesh fesh (very fine powdered sand), fast farm tracks, and very rough roads up or down the Great Rift Valley . In heavy rain, roads would often turn into thick, deep mud. The event was run on open roads, with all of the route being competitive mileage. The driver with the lowest accumulation of penalty time between time controls was declared the winner. The rally

160-565: Is a French former rally driver. Born in Montpellier and initially an ambulance driver, he competed in the World Rally Championship throughout the 1990s. He became World Rally Champion in 1994, the first driver from his country to do so. He was a factory candidate for Lancia , Toyota and Peugeot among others, before losing his seat at Škoda at the end of 2003. His sister Nadine was also involved in rallying as

180-555: The Group A years, in a Ford Sierra RS Cosworth and with his car he was French Rally Champion 1987 and 1988. Auriol won his first World Championship event, the 1988 Tour de Corse , whilst driving a works Ford Sierra RS Cosworth. It was the only time that season when Lancia were beaten in a straight fight, and the Lancia team signed him for the following year. He remained with the team for four seasons, driving three successive versions of

200-874: The Monte Carlo Rally . He did not win again that season, but the following year he won the Corsica, Argentina and San Remo rallies and went into the final round, in Great Britain, vying again with Sainz for the championship. Despite a poor showing on the rally he emerged as World Champion after the Spanish driver went off the road on the final day. In 1995, he took the first win for the Celica GT-Four ST205 in Tour de Corse with Denis Giraudet , who replaced his regular co-driver Bernard Occelli who

220-805: The World Championship. Two editions of the rally - 2007 and 2009 - were also part of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge . In 2013, President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta announced a plan to return the Safari Rally to the world championship. On the 27 September 2019, it was announced that the 2020 edition would be part of the World Rally Championship. This event was later cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic . The Safari Rally eventually made

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240-647: The event was part of the world championship. Tundo won five editions when the event was part of the African Rally Championship - the 2004, 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2018 events. Tundo has also finished on the podium twelve times, ahead of fellow Kenyan Ian Duncan with nine podium finishes. Notes: IMC = International Championship for Manufacturers , WRC = World Rally Championship , 2LWC = 2-Litre World Cup , ARC = African Rally Championship , IRC = Intercontinental Rally Challenge , KRC = Kenya National Rally Championship The East African Safari Rally

260-421: The event, with bullbars , snorkels (for river crossings) and bright lights to warn wildlife. In the 1990s, Toyota Team Europe had a full-time test team in Kenya, preparing and testing the rally cars for the event. During the rally, repairs had to be regularly made to the cars, which added to the elapsed time of the competitors. In later years, tyre mousse - allowing tyres to maintain functionality despite

280-456: The then-dominant Lancia Delta Integrale . In 1992, driving the final evolution of the car, he won six events in one season (a record until beaten by Sébastien Loeb in 2005), but poor results on other rounds and retirement on the last event of the season, the RAC Rally , handed the world championship to Carlos Sainz . In 1993 Auriol switched to Toyota, and won his first event for the team,

300-526: The third podium place at the Safari Rally in Kenya, and later that season to launch their third evolution of the Córdoba WRC. However at the end of the season the Spanish manufacturer retired from WRC to focus on the development of a special series of high performance cars. Auriol landed a drive with Peugeot Sport for the 2001 season, but he had a largely difficult season; only on asphalt-rallies

320-529: The winner's total time penalty was above 12 hours in 1996 and decreased to two seconds shy of 8 hours in 2002. Despite this, the rally continued to be run on open roads. The event was excluded from the WRC calendar due to a lack of finance and organisation in 2003. From the 2003 edition, the event became part of the African Rally Championship . The event was modernised, with shorter stages and running on closed roads - like other events in

340-453: Was Auriol able to be quicker than his teammate, Marcus Grönholm . Auriol's only win that year came in Spain, whereas he scored three third places at Sanremo, Corse and Australia. 2002 was a kind of gap year for Auriol, and for 2003, Auriol signed with Škoda Motorsport , and played a notable part in the development work of the Škoda Fabia WRC. Auriol is a six-time winner of the Tour de Corse ,

360-695: Was experiencing a family problem at that time. However, later in the same season, on the Rally Catalunya , Toyota were found to have used an illegal device in the turbocharger to increase the power of the engine, and were excluded from the results of the 1995 championship and banned for next year. In 1996 Auriol contested only two World Championship events. He drove for Subaru in Sweden and for Mitsubishi in San Remo. 1997 he entered in Monte Carlo with

380-633: Was first held from 27 May to 1 June 1953 as the East African Coronation Safari in Kenya , Uganda and Tanganyika , as a celebration of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II . In 1960 it was renamed the East African Safari Rally and kept that name until 1974, when it became the Safari Rally. From 1973, the rally was part of the World Rally Championship. The 5,000 kilometres (3,100 mi) route featured

400-458: Was historically one of the fastest events in the world championship with average speeds over 100 kilometres per hour (62 mph). However, the roughness of the terrain and the long stages meant that the winner was often the most reliable or the fastest cautious driver. In later years, top rally teams would use helicopters to fly ahead of the cars to warn of animals or other vehicles on the rally route. Teams built specially strengthened cars for

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