Racing

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Car Racing in my family started back in the 60s and 70s, when my dad started rallying in Ethiopia. These Rallies where real endurance trials, which lasted upto 5 days covering upto 5000 kms of Ethiopian rough roads. The conditions were always challenging, from hot, dry and dusty sections to wet and muddy ones. Preparation was fundamental, and engine power was never the most important factor that lead to victory. Preparation started months before the Rallies, and carefully taken notes meant a much greater chance to win. Cars also had to be in a perfect overall condition and the suspensions were always the first thing to go wrong. Driver and Co-driver exchanged places during the rally in order to maintain the best possible physical condition for every special stage since every stage was very long and tyring.
Every year the famous Ethiopian Highland Rally took place and this was the most looked forward event of the year. The routes covered great part of Ethiopian lands, and teams from as far as Europe came for this event. There have been 11 Highland Rallies, the last one being in 1973. The last Rally lasted for 5 days and covered around 5000 kms, and extended all the way to Asmara, the now capital city of Eritrea. This Rally was won by my father, Luigi Ferrari and Romano Ott, driving the Toyota Carina you see below.

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Left is the car with all the trophies won during this rally, that is overall wins, class wins and fastest stages.

At the end of the rally the classified drivers had the honour of meeting Emperor Haile Selassie (or Ras Teferi from where the name rastafari comes from ) who wanted to congratulate the drivers for their achievements.

Far left in light blue is my father while the Emperor is shaking Romano Ott's hand.

Unfortunately this had to be the last rally before the goverment fell, and 20 years were awaiting untill it all started again in 1993. This was a very sad end because the Rally had become so important that in the following year it was calendered as an International Rally, valid for the World Championship.

Although 20 years had past, for most drivers all those great times were never forgotten and the will to make it all come back again meant that the time had finally come to start all over again, and create another era of this great sport. There have been great difficulties in achieving this goal, but improvement has been made in the past years and about two to three rallies and a few city races are being organized each year now.

Below is a picture of our Corolla in action in one of the last Rallies:

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Thanks to this I was able to enter this great world of Rallying. In 1993 when the sport was re-introduced we started participating with a 1972 Renault 12 TL which proved a great car for such rallies due to the unbreakable suspensions. The first Rift Valley rally which replaced the highland rally was won by my father and Anteneh Techane with the Renault and this was a great event after 20 long years. I was still very young then but the next year at the age of 16 I was finally able to participate in a race. It was a city race though and my mini was my companion, and I finished 3rd with my completely original 1972 mini. After that I did a few rallies with the Renault 12 before changing to a Toyota Corolla 1.6 Gti, and have always managed to achieve good standings both in my category as well as overall standings, but not a win yet.

Below: My brother Simone Ferrari and Anteneh Techane in
a Renault 12 TL during a Rift Valley Rally where they had good possibility for an overall win, but due to an electrical problem
they were only able to finish 4th overall.

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In my family we're 4 drivers, and we've created the Blue Tops Racing Team with 3 cars including my mini which I convert into racing version just before every city race.This sport is still practiced and the annual Highland rally attracts participants from Djibouti, Kenya, and Italy. This Rally is now about 1200kms and lasts 3 days.

Here is a picture of our Corolla at the start of a Highland Rally.

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