Duncan’s winning touch

IAN DUNCAN AFTER WINNING AUTO-X 4

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Defending Champion Ian Duncan avenged earlier North Coast humiliation by eclipsing erstwhile motorbike rival Steve Anthony during Sunday’s Autocross showdown at Jamhuri Park.

Duncan beat Anthony-a multiple Motocross Open Class Champion-by a mere 10 seconds as the eight-leg Kenya National Autocross Championship series entered halfway stage.

Fears that the Security Group-sponsored race would this time turn into a cliffhanger- as was the case at last month’s Coast tour- evaporated soon enough moments Duncan gathered up his familiar fast and furious antics. “It was a really great fun day,” Duncan quipped as he sort to rock the winning boat Steve has been sailing through. Duncan- despite skipping the opening round- has won two races and so is Nairobi based mechanical engineer Anthony.

Indeed, Duncan and Anthony appeared to have forgotten the rest of the field on Sunday to aptly engage in a somewhat private battle.

Early exchanges were noticeable in the early stages of the heats. Duncan was the quickest though in practice session beating Anthony by milliseconds. Come the first heat, Duncan was raring to go with the fastest heat run of 4.43.55minutes. But Anthony replied with the quickest run of 4.48.47minutes in the second heat. Steve who beat Duncan to the third round accolade in Nguu Tatu North Coast last month staunchly admitted that Duncan was charged up for the weekend. “The first heat was slippery; we then changed tyres for better traction in the second heat and had it within our grasps. We had a great day. Ian was very quick,” said Anthony who consolidated his series lead with 76 cumulative points. Duncan secured two bonus points for setting the Fastest Time of the Day- (heat 4) 14.39.43minutes.

Duncan garnered 22 points on the fourth round tour to move up from third to second on 52 cumulative points. Teenage contender, Arthur Kinyanjui slumped to second on 44points with 5th overall position. Coast Pekee ace Izhar Mirza -all the way from Mombasa- completed the podium in third as Teddy Ghir’s comeback this year saw him in 4th overall. The youngest driver, Ken Anunda, 16, had to contend with two boogey times (7 minutes each) on the last two heats after breaking a steering rack in heat two.

The surface on Sunday was quite slippery owing to very loose soil. But Kenya Motor Sports Club (KMSC) got a short in the arm when Kenya Motor Sports Foundation (KMSF) pledged Ksh. 400,000 towards the development of the course. KMSC Treasurer John Kamau said the move was a step in the right direction.

Full Results:

1. Ian Duncan 14.05.90; 2. Steve Anthony 14.15.42; 3. Izhar Mirza 14.53.27 4. Teddy Ghir 15.19.08; 5. Arthur Kinyanjui 15.28.38; 6. Charles Mugo 15.39.80 7. Tanveer Oshan 15.45.38; 8. Bobby Sehmi 16.06.60 9. Samir Khan 16.08.88 10. Sukhi Jandu 17.27.13 11. Taran Jandu 17.32.93 12. Kena Anunda 17.34.62 13. Amit Bhatt 21.00.00; 14. Sukhi Parma 21.00.00 15. Vicky Seehra 21.00.00

Standings as at 4th Rd..

1. Steve Anthony    76

2. Ian Duncan         52

3. Arthur Kinyanjui 44

4. Keith Henrie       29

5. Izhar Mirza         28

6. Tanveer Oshan   27

7. Bobby Sehmi       27

8. Jeremy Andrade 27

9. Charles Mugo      25