LEE TRIUMPHANT

Asad Anwar in Action

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AFTER a two months lull, Nakuru wheat farmer and two-time Kenya champion Lee Rose showed signs of little rust when won the KCB Easy Pay Loans Rally at the Mogotio sisal farmlands on Saturday. It was gratifying for Rose after skipping the Thika round last month and
coming out extremely formidable on comeback.Forget about the controversial Lomolo river crossing that ended Rose’s
rally last year when his car got stuck. Jasmeet Chana (VW Golf), the 2007 Formula Two Champion, rediscovered his
winning ways to claim the 2WD Class with 54.01minutes beating Munir Khan (Toyota Levin) by 3.04minutes. There were a total of 4 finishers in the2WD out of the seven starters.Rose was usually fast and furious in the Rift Valley Motor & Sports Club
(RVMSC) event appeared to thwart series leader Carl ‘Flash’Tundo’s three round winning streak.

Tundo’s run was impeded by steering problemsinto the second loop of the repeat Mogotio and eventually his Mitsubishi EV09 packed up on CS9 Solai Market stage. Tundo’s exit now puts the title chase wide open into halfway stage.

Chager was happy with secondoverall after a somewhat troublesome day. Rose beat Chager by a 2.42minutes. Ian Duncna of National Oil came home third 5.12minutes from Rose with Cavenagh of Dalbit taking 4th overall.After the second loop, Rose was leading the rally by a huge 2.03minutes margin from Alastair Cavenagh. The twisty and challenging nature of the Mogotio sisal farmlands was a
real menace to formula two drivers. Defending 2WD champion Leo Varese andhis partner Kigondu Kareithi who incidentally lost 6minutes while fixing a puncture. James Kirimi (VW Golf) retired in the first loop with Charles Hinga also bidding the event farewell with mechanical problems. “It was our first puncture of our career and we couldn’t drive on it as we had only done 12km of the Kampi ya Moto stage (26.90km),” Leo said.
Azar Anwar who set impressive stage times in Thika encountered a tormenting run incidentally with two punctures on Cs1 Kampi Ya Moto and Cs6 Lomolo River 2 that cost him 10 minutes. Chager was unhappy after he drove the last 10km of CS6 Molo River without brakes. “We lost the breaks in the first loop when our brake pads wore out so fast and we had to fix them at the two service stops,” Chager said.
The competitive nature of the route claimed a number of cars. The Casualties Were Car Number 11 Of Anwar Pandya (Subaru N10), No.28 of Rommy Bhamra (Datsun 260z), Alex Horsey (Evo8), Jaswinder Chana (Toyota Celica Gt4), Robert Gow (Subaru) and Quentin Mitchell had kissed the rally goodbye by the time the cars regrouped at second service. A total of 28 cars in the main class (KNRC) were flagged off from KCB Nakuru branch by sports minister Prof. Hellen Sambili.