Remembering the legendary international motor rally driver Shekhar Mehta

It will be five years since the death of the world famous motor rally driver

Shekhar Mehta. He was the only man to finish the gruelling Kenya Safari Rally

five times, creating a world record.  London journalist SHAMLAL PURI

who covered this tough East African motoring event for many years and

met Mehta several times, remembers the man who rose from humble ranks

to become a legend in the world of motor rallying.

                Remembering the legendary international motor rally driver Shekhar Mehta

                                        By SHAMLAL PURI  

     ON April 12, 2011, it will be the fifth death anniversary of the legendary international motor rallying driver Shekhar Mehta. He died in London on 12 April. 2006, aged 61, after being admitted to hospital a few days earlier suffering from pneumonia and Hepatatis C.

     Mehta, who zoomed into the record books after winning the gruelling East African Safari Rally (later Kenya Safari Rally) for a record five times consecutively is the only man in the world to have achieved this distinction. His unmatched feat was recorded in the Guinness Book of Records. He always nurtured an ambition to win the event ten times. A couple of months before his death Mehta had been appointed acting chairman of the World Rally Championship Commission of the motor rallying body Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA).  

     Upon his death, the FIA sent a condolence message to the Mehta family saying: "Throughout his life Shekhar made an enormous contribution to motor sport, and rallying in particular, both as a successful competitor and as a highly respected member of the FIA. Shekhar's experience, commitment, sense of honour and humour will be greatly missed."

     Mehta, was born in Lugazi, Uganda, on 20 June 1945.. His full name was Chandrashekhar Mehta but the rallying fraternity and millions of his fans knew him by his short name – Shekhar. He was the son of a wealthy businessman Khimji Mehta, operating large tea and sugar plantations. He studied in Europe before returning to help his family business in Uganda. The family was forced to move to Kenya in the 1970s after all Indians and Asians were expelled by the dictator Idi Amin in 1972.

     His record five Safari Rally victories, four of which were consecutive, is yet to be matched, even by the Europeans who dominated the later stages of the event when it was a major part of the World Rally Championship.

     The Kenyan newspaper, the Daily Nation's writer Twincam observed that former world champions Bjorn Waldegaard of Sweden and Finland's Juha Kankkunen are the only drivers who came close to achieving the feat with four victories each. Mehta's position as a rally driver was unmatched by any other driver. They are still trying to this day to equal Mehta's unique achievement.

     Mehta started his rallying career in 1968 at the age of 23, driving a Peugeot 204. He was then a young unknown driver. But he was rapidly building up his reputation as a fearless driver. He established himself as one of the top touring and saloon car drivers, in addition to winning Hill Climb Championships in a BMW. He was voted the East African Motor sportsman of the Year in 1969 but the best was yet to come. His greatest achievement came between 1973 and 1982 when he dominated the Safari Rally in Kenya. Mehta was truly a crowd puller. I have covered this gruelling motoring event for around quarter of a century, travelling on the route, and remember vividly the ecstatic crowds cheering him whenever his car zoomed by in the forests of Kenya. Like a true showman he would give his fans a taste of his driving skills on the wheel. I photographed him for many years on various rally routes as his car would zoom by leaving behind a heavy cloud of dust.

     The first of Mehta's five wins came in 1973 with Lofty Drews in a Datsun 240Z model, which would become synonymous with his name in the following years. He tried driving other makes of cars, including Lancia, BMW, Peugeot, but there was no car that could match the Datsuns, later re-named Nissan. He was very comfortable driving Nissans.

     He won the Safari Rally in 1973, 1979, 1980, 1981 and 1982. He took part in the rally every year and always had a desire to better his own record of winning the safari rally 10 times. He completed the 1986 Safari rally in the eighth overall in a Peugeot 205.

     Mehta respected his navigators and throughout his career had three regular co-drivers – Mike Doughty, Lofty Drews and the late Rob Coombes. His first co-driver was Chandu Radia, a well-known Ugandan driver, who lives in North America.  With these three co-drivers, his performance was unmatched. Mike Doughty, who later became Safari Rally Ltd's boss, treasures his moments with Mehta.

     While his dominance of the Safari Rally made him a legend at home, Mehta had a burning desire to compete in events outside Kenya. He proved to be an equally strong and competitive in those events. He produced results to match the greatness of an international motor rally legend. He competed and produced good results in Morocco where he took the sixth position; Kuwait (first);  United Kingdom (eighth), Cyprus (first), Cote d'Ivoire (third), New Zealand (fourth), Argentina (fourth), Acropolis, Greece (third), Australia (third) and Finland. More offers started flowing in for the young driver.

     Mehta gave Datsun its first ever ever victory in the Raid Rally by winning the Kuwait Rally in 1979. He also won the Middle East Rally Championship and India's Himalayan Rally. This event was modelled on the East African Safari Rally with the enthusiasm of Shekhar Mehta and Jayant Shah, among other Kenyan Indian drivers.

     His co-driver in the events outside Kenya was a young and pretty British woman, Yvonne Pratt. The two fell in love and Yvonne later went on to become Mrs Mehta. The couple have a son Vijay.

     Driving a Peugeot 205 T16, Mehta then tackled the 1987 Paris-Dakar Rally, the most difficult rally going from France through to the deserts of Africa and ending in Senegal. His co-driver was Mike Doughty and they finished fifth overall in this gruelling event.

     In 1987, he also tackled the world famous Pike Peak Holl climb in the US, driving a Peugeot. He finished the event in the fourth position.

     Mehta's rallying career ended in 1987 when disaster struck at the Pharoahs Raid Rally in Egypt. He and his co-driver Mike Doughty survived a near fatal accident at the end of a high speed rolling involving their Peugeot 205 T16. The car rolled several times in the Arabian Desert before falling apart and leaving both Mehta and Doughty with life threatening injuries. Shekhar spent months in hospitals in the United Kingdom and France followed by long periods of physiotherapy. The accident left him with a permanent back problem. He was unable to take part in any future motor rallies.

    His last ever Safari rally was in 1987, where he retired at the wheels of a Nissan 240RS. I was there among the journalists to witness the event.

     In spite of the accident, Mehta was undaunted and continued his interest in motor rallying albeit He spent a lot of his time in the backstage making valuable organisational contributions to rallying with his expertise and years of experience. He was leading official of the world motor rallying body FIA. He also set up his business and was based in London.

    At the time of his death, Mehta held several posts at the FIA headquarters in France. He was the President of World Rallies Commission, acting of the World Rally Championship and vice-president of FIA.

     I met Shekhar Mehta several times in Kenya and in other parts of the world where I covered motor rallies as a journalist. He was a very humble man and a fantastic person to talk to. He never had a bad word for anyone. I met him many times at Kenyatta International Conference Centre in Nairobi, event headquarters of the Safari Rally. He always greeted me like a friend.

     One day we met in the lobby of the Ivoire Intercontinental Hotel in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, in West Africa, and Shekhar Mehta introduced me to his wife Yvonne, and invited me to have lunch with them. This was after winning finishing the Rallye Cote d'Ivoire. I always found him charming and humble. He never had a chip on his shoulder in spite of his status as a legend. At press conferences or when talking to journalists around the world, he would always pay attention to me and answer my questions with a smile. He always recognised me as a regular rally sport journalist from the hordes of journalists. It was such a privilege to talk to him and to have private chats whenever we could.

     Never will another motor rallying legend like Shekhar Mehta walk on the earth again. His death is a huge loss to the motor rally fraternity. – Shamlal Puri

                                                    email: shamlalpuri@gmail.com