East African Safari Rally; Two´s company.

“A holiday with a purpose,” is how Keith and Mary-Anne Callinan view the Kenya Airways Safari Classic rally. However it´s clear from their past record that this husband-and-wife team are not just going for the sun and a look at the wildlife. They are going to be a force to be reckoned with.


Keith started rallying in 1979 at the Australian club event level in a Mazda RX3, moving in 1982 onto State events. In 1994, he won the Queensland Rally Championship in category P5. In 1998 he competed in the four week Around Australia Rally in the Brock-prepared Holden Commodore that Peter Brock drove in the 1995 event. Keith was in the top five for the first half of the event until a front strut snapped and he had to retire. In 2000 he shared a drive in the London Sydney in a 1968 Alfa Romeo and could not believe how much he enjoyed marathon rallying. So much so that he managed to convince his wife, Mary-Anne to co-drive for him in the 2002 Midnight Sun to Red Sea in their own 1968 Holden Monaro HK. Clearly the partnership proved to be successful, as they went on to enjoy their first win on the East Coast Targa driving their 1972 De Tomaso Pantera. They competed in the Otago Classic Rally for the next three years, again using the Monaro, as well as contending the inaugural Silver Fern Rally in New Zealand.


They have done nine Classic Adelaide rallies and have also notched up experience on the Rally Tasmania and the Targa West. They competed in the 2004 London-Sydney where they led for a couple of days but unfortunately their Holden Monaro then suffered problems and they retired in Italy with a broken engine. In all they have had five wins and numerous podium finishes. And if this doesn´t prove their enthusiasm for classic cars then their unusual stable of vehicles certainly does, as it also includes an Austin Healey BN106 and a 1926 Dodge Bros Hearse which they apparently use for “transport”.


This year they will be contending the Kenya Airways Safari Classic in a Mk I Ford Escort prepared by Mike Solloway´s Historic Rally Sport company from near Carmarthen in Wales. Although Keith sold Ford Escorts during the 1970´s, he has never competed in one and is looking forward to driving what he calls “a bullet proof” Escort in the Safari. The couple have already taken the car for a trial run in the Harry Flatters Rally on Epynt in mid-Wales, where according the Keith the car went fantastically. “It´s the first rally where all we had to do was put the petrol in,” he said.


In terms of rallying as a husband-and-wife team, the couple say that there are only advantages to the partnership: “I can tell in her voice if she´s confident in my driving and when I should back off,” Keith says. “And so far she´s never threatened to get out or throw away the pace notes.” But it seems the biggest advantage for the Callinans is the opportunity to share the experience of the rally together. And the Kenya Airways Safari Classic is undoubtedly going to be an experience to remember.


» Pressrelease från Safarirallyt, www.eastafricansafarirally.com.

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