The KCB Racing Team driver will compete in the Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC) category, where crews will score points towards the local series.
Kenyan Group N driver Evans Kavisi has yet to finish the iconic Safari Rally over the period of seven years he has tackled the "man and machine " sport.
But the Coast-based career architect hopes to nurse his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X to the finish in his fifth Safari attempt.
The KCB Racing Team driver will compete in the Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC) category, where crews will score points towards the local series.Unfazed by his Safari gremlins, Kavisi is counting the days to the fabled rally with great expectations.
Elucidating his approach for the 2025 Safari, Kavisi, reiterated: “I’m trying to ask the rally gods for their favors, we are trying really hard as a team to repair the car properly, so that we have the mechanicals sotted; and we want to take it one day at time, and without overexerting ourselves, we do not want to compete with the elephants, so to speak.”
He added: “The people who will be ahead of us, let them be ahead of us. The ones we can deal with, we can measure our days as we go. That’s how we plan to tackle the Safari this year.”
Kavisi is working round the clock to ensure his Evo is in good nick well in time for the event slated for March 20-23 in Naivasha and Nairobi.
This year's WRC Safari rev-offs with the Shakedown Stage in a new location on March 19. Since 2021, Loldia has handed local fans the first look of the WRC machines in action, but this time round, Shakedown relocates to the world-famous Sleeping Warrior, named after a hill that looks like a sleeping Masai warrior.
Flag-Off
The Ceremonial Start of the 2025 Safari Rally will be centred on City Hall Way instead of the traditional starting location at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC). The change, according to Event Director Norris Ongalo, was affected to make the rally more accessible to fans.
Asked about his preparations, Kavisi continued: “Between now and the rally, we are preparing the car, we are preparing ourselves mentally and we are preparing the full team to be able to assault the ground properly, whether its wet or dry, whatever conditions that are thrown at us. This time round, I am just looking for a finish.”
“The car has been prepared in different ways, there is what has been done from a bodywork perspective and there is the mechanical facet, the engine, gearbox, those are being rebuilt so that we can have a fresh car almost by the time we are going to the event,” explained Kavisi.
Kavisi says it is better for him to err on the side of caution and finish his maiden Safari. He is meticulously working round the clock to get his Evolution X fine-tuned to just make sure everything works together.
“The essence for the Safari is that we don’t get overexcited or exuberant; at least we can keep our head in the game. In 2025, I would like to do the WRC Safari, then see if I can manage two or three ARC events that are just within the region, either in Kenya, Uganda or Tanzania and maybe Rwanda. Beyond that, maybe we are looking at local events as they will appear on the 2025 calendar,” Kavisi said in finality.
KAVISI’S SAFARI RECORD
2018: Safari Rally Kenya/ Absalom Aswani (#56 Subaru Impreza WRX Wagon S) Retired
2019: DNP
2020: Event cancelled due to Covid
2021: Safari Rally Kenya / Absalom Aswani (#50 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X) Retired
2022: Safari Rally Kenya/ Absalom Aswani (#40 icon Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X ) Retired
2023: Safari Rally Kenya/Aswani Absalom (#41 icon Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X) Retired
2024: Sabbatical
2025: Fifth Attempt