Page 15 - EA Safari Classic Rally 2019

COMPETITORS: Ian Duncan

Ian Duncan – from Debe to Rover in 26 years

2019 will mark Ian Duncans' 26th anniversary since he
made his Safari Rally debut, with four wins to his name!
(1 WRC, 1 KNRC, 2 EASC). Who would have thought that
the young man starting his first World Rally
Championship event in 1983, finishing an impressive
ninth overall in a standard Datsun 1200 pick-up, would
join the works Toyota team just a few years later, scoring
5 podiums, including outright victory in 1995, for the
In Classic rallying, Ian has an eye for the unusual. For
Japanese giants!
Ians' desire to be different might have started with 2019, following an unsuccessful stint with a V6 engine in
the Capri, he has moved across to a new project.
that small Debe pick-up but his uniqueness has almost
For the 2019 East African Safari Classic Rally Ian will
become a brand in its' own right. From campaigning
team up with long time friend Antony Nielsen in a V8
mighty 4x4s' from Toyota and Nissan in the KNRC (that
Rover 3500. The brand was made famous by British rally
Patrol that he still races to this day is the most popular
legend Tony Pond in the UK but this will be the first time
car on the Kenyan circuit), to V8 Mustangs and Capris'.
one has rallied in Kenya. When asked why he had chosen
to go with the British brand Ian's reply was typical – “I
had a tidy shell lying around and the engines are
affordable!” Considering that the same engine in an
older car, the TR7, won the 2017 EASC Ian might be onto
something here!