The Safari Rally revved off early Friday morning without the African Rally defending champion Don Smith.
Smith pulled out of the event at the eleventh hour sighting unfairness in the start order.
The final start order released on Thursday night had placed Smith as car number thirty three (33) on the road. The Provisional start order had placed him at number two (2).
“That is really unfair of us. We are the ARC champions and the regulation states clear where we should be.”
“But putting us that far, behind several 2WD cars is going against ARC rules,” explained Smith.
The frustration has been commonly shared with in the team.
“We wrote the letter to the officials with our complaints but nothing changed.”
“So we decided to just pull out on technical matters, since we could not predict what would happen next if the rules were undermined,” added Bob Kaugi’s Smith’s co-driver.
According to article 45.3, the rules gives the ARC contenders a priority on a start order of an ARC event.
Gurvir Bhabra, the Clerk of Course (COC), admits that Smith’s concern may have been justified but was responded to appropriately.
“You see the problem, drivers don’t want to attend driving briefing. They should have raised that in the briefing instantly. But what I know he was moved up by the time of flag off,” he told Kawowo Sports.
Smith was moved five places ahead to twenty eight (28).
The FlySax team however says that was still out of the ARC regulations.