RALLY GOES TO MERU AND TIMAU

HUSSEIN MALIK/GEORGE KIAMA

Its all systems go as KCB Asset Finance Rally moves to Meru and Timau on July 17-18.

Rightly so, the fifth round of KCB Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC) series brings to the fore some phenomenon rivalry with drivers and navigators fighting to stand out at various divisions and classes.

Division one comprises the top 10 fastest drivers including Lee Rose, defending KCB KNRC Champion Baldev Chager of Oilibya Racing, 1999 Champion Alastair Cavenagh and Oilibya’s Anwar siblings Azar and Asad who won this event in 2006 when it last ran in Timau.

In Division Three are the likes of Ben Muchemi, Alex Horsey and Dinesh Sachania. Peter Horsey and Mombasa’s Izhar Mirza belong to Division Two and yearning to break into topflight division before curtains come down on the 2009 season.

Chager is incidentally the defending champion of Nanyuki where he returned triumphant last year navigated by the late Farakh Yusuf. Chager returns with the same winning Subaru Impreza N12 but with a new navigator in Raju Sehmi; who will be partnering him for the third successive event this season. Sehmi was crowned the 1998 navigator Champion when the late Farak Yusuf skipped the season-ender and amusingly the same year Chager almost became the youngest Kenya champion at 20.

The 1998 drivers’ title went Azar Anwar on the last day minus his regular navigator Farak.

In reality, the 2009 KCB KNRC tussle revolves around fast and furious Lee Rose, leader Carl Tundo (Dalbit Team) and defending Kenya Champion Chager. CRS Motorsports’ Jaswinder Chana has reloaded his Toyota Celica GT4 with new suspensions he has ordered from Toyota Sweden. “We tested at Ngong Hills and Suswa last weekend and witnessed a great turn of speed and performance,” Jaswinder said.

The 2WD class will be a result battle pitting Oilibya Racing’s Charles Hinga and leader Jasmeet Chana. Earlier pacesetter Hinga has had to contend with misfortunes this season as he forfeited the lead to Chana. Yana Tyres’ Chana will be going for nothing short of victory.

This year’s edition will be a sprint kind of competition what with short and flat-out stages.

Rally Director and Nanyuki Rally Group Chairman Bimal Patel said the event will be flagged-off outside KCB Meru Branch early morning on Friday, July 17 prior to a liaison distance of 4.51Km through to the 2.2Km-CS1 Meru Showground spectator stage.

The cars will then head to the perc ferme in Meru before restarting on Saturday, July 18 with a transport section of 30.4Km and onward to two new stages in Kisima Ngano. Indeed, the Nanyuki tour has five stages, three of which will be repeated around Timau area. At Kisima there will be two stages that will be run once-the 8.8Km CS2 Kisiman Ngano-Kisima Downs and the 6.8Km run between Kisima Maua-Polo.

The route is technical and dusts apart from Loldaiga which is of medium nature and not as fast.

As is the tradition with Nanyuki, entire stage runs will be restricted on private land with public roads being incorporated on transport road section between Lolomarik and Loldaiga. Away from Ol-Pejeta Conservancy which has hosted Nanyuki Rally for the past two years, stages around Lolomarik and Loldaiga in Timau are a repeat of the 2006 edition where Asad Anwar registered his one and only KNRC career win. According to Bimal, the rally finish is designated for Nanyuki’s Sportsman Arms Hotel which hosted this event in the past five editions.