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ing Ja
ant Shah
y
emember
Remembering Jayant Shah
R

J ayant in name, giant in character. Just 12 months ago
the motorsport fraternity was shocked with the sad
Ken Block passing of one of the true legends of the sport. Jayant
Shah entered every single Safari Rally between 1975,
his debut, and 1991 before making a welcome return
for the inaugural Classic Safari Rally in 2003. Since then
Jayant had not missed a single one of these nine day
marathons.

From his 18 WRC Safari Rally starts Jayant had a best
ever finish of fourth overall on the 1983 edition, with
Aslam Khan calling the notes. If ever there was a man
loyal to a brand, it was Jayant. He only ever campaigned
Datsun and Nissan models throughout his incredible
Safari career. This trait continued when he began classic
rallying, using a 180B for the first two Classics before
upgrading to a Datsun 240Z for the next 4! In 2013
Jayant made a shock move across to Porsche and
th
promptly finished 15 overall.

Alex Gelsomino

Jayant may have finished well inside the top ten on his
last two editions but he was as successful outside of
East Africa – winning the Himalayan Rally with Aslam in
1983 and again a year later, with Lofty Drews. Jayant
also chalked up a number of top ten finishes on other
tough WRC events such as the Acropolis and Argentina!

Jayant was well loved in both Kenya and Tanzania and
always had time to chat to anyone, especially if it was
about rallying. It is sad to see his name missing from
the tenth edition Classic Safari Rally but we are sure he
and fellow rally legend Bjorn Waldegaard (who he
shares the same number of WRC Safari Rally starts!)
will be watching everyones antics from above!

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