Burns 'comfortable' as Subaru goes Safari.

The Subaru team will be entering three cars for the Safari Rally of Kenya, with nominated entries for last year's winner Richard Burns and Petter Solberg, while Toshihiro Arai will once again be behind the wheel of a third Impreza.

Although there has been a break of four weeks since the last WRC round in Greece, the Subaru team drivers have hardly sat still thanks to a busy schedule of testing, reconnaissance of the Rally of Deutschland, social engagements and nursery preparations...

Petter Solberg and his co-driver Phil Mills have announced that their girlfriends are both expecting babies on exactly the same date, December 17th, while Richard Burns has been enjoying the jet-set lifestyle, spending time at his home in Andorra and a couple of days on his boat before flying to the UK to catch up with friends.

While in England he indulged his passions for music and boats by watching Madonna in concert in London and enjoying a leisurely day out at the Henley Regatta.

However, it hasn't all been fun for Subaru's two lead drivers; the team's preparations for the Safari have included two pre-event tests in Africa, where Solberg and Burns completed a six-day preliminary test at the end of March near Lake Baringo, and just last week were joined by Toshihiro Arai for a three-day test near Naivasha.

Using a section of last year's rally route that won't be used this year, the team covered almost 800kms at an altitude of 2,300 metres in temperatures that ranged between 26 and 30 degrees centigrade.

Last week's testing concentrated on fine-tuning tyre, engine and suspension settings on terrain that was representative of the conditions expected this week.

The Subaru team's Test Manager Tom Hunt said: "I'm very happy with what we've achieved here this week. During our earlier test we identified some areas on the car that could be improved, and after some hard work back in England we've seen the benefits of the modifications on this second test.

"Over the last three days we've been concentrating on optimising the engine settings to deal with the high altitude stages, determining the correct suspension set-ups and testing a new tyre from Pirelli," added Hunt. "We could have done with some hotter weather to really test the car to the limit, but we pushed it far harder than we would expect to do on the actual rally, and it's proved extremely strong."

The event itself is easily the longest in the championship and can truly claim to be the ultimate test of durability for cars and drivers alike. This year it is made up of 1129 competitive kilometres that take the crews though the rugged countryside to the north and south of Nairobi.

The long days, scorching heat, and high speeds of the rally are tough on drivers, and despite running on public roads, the dusty and rutted stages of the Rift Valley are notoriously unkind to mechanical components.

Frequent long stretches of barren plains with few reference points are a real test for co-drivers, who need all of their pace-note skills to pinpoint the exact location of the car and give the correct instructions to their drivers. The crews are assisted on this event by spotter helicopters, which fly above the cars to give advanced warning of animals or other hazards.

"The Safari is a good event for me, I rank it with the Rally of Great Britain as one of the events I'm most comfortable with in the championship," said Burns. "I've had some good results there over the last few years, especially last year's win, and I don't see why it should be any different this time. The pre-event testing that I have done has been positive, so I'm looking forward to (this) Friday. "

Solberg has less experience on one of the most daunting events on the calendar, but is looking to build on his promising performance on the Acropolis Rally. "Safari is an event that I'm not too experienced on, but after the encouraging result in Greece my confidence is good and I'm feeling very positive about it," said Solberg. "Obviously I would like to beat the fifth place that I achieved there last year, but I'm not making any predictions, I will try my best and we will just have to wait and see."

Toshihiro Arai explained what a driver faces on the Safari, and the challenges that must be overcome: "The rally has a bit of everything, sometimes it is rough, then fast, then slow again You always have to be careful of holes in the road, of stones and of rocks - so you must concentrate all the time to check that you are judging the speed correctly."

Adding to Arai's remarks Subaru Team Principal David Lapworth explained further the treacherous mix of durability, high speed and punishing terrain that the WRC teams' will face.

"For a car to be competitive in Kenya it needs to be fast, tough and reliable, but the key to making it a rally winner is to find the ideal mix of those three components," said Lapworth. "A car that has been built purely to be quick may prove too fragile, while on the other hand, building it like a tank would affect the speed and handling.

"We're satisfied that with the Impreza WRC2001 we have the right combination. We achieved the best possible result with a 1, 2 victory in Kenya last year and the new car shows the same strengths on rugged terrain, it's quick, and not so heavy.

"With that as a solid base, our philosophy for this rally is to use the speed of the car when we can, but to take it easy through the extremely rough sections. I prefer this approach to the alternative of building a car that can tackle the tough sections flat out, but at the expense of speed and agility.

"Additional modifications for the Safari cars include an increased ride height, sturdy bull bars at the front, and a roof-mounted air intake to help the engine breathe cleaner air," explained Lapworth.