Victory again

By FEVERPITCH REPORTER

After winning the Motor Sports Personality of the Year 2010, Ian Duncan won his sixth career Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC) title in style, but failed to secure his 12th Guru Nanak title.

Duncan, who has won the prestigious Guru Nanak Rally a record 11 times with unassailable 485 points against Tundo’s 370, appeared to back off in the dry and dusty event which marked the seventh and penultimate round of the eight-leg KCB KNRC series.

With no realistic chance of winning the KNRC title, Tundo drove his Mitsubishi EVO9 contraption flat-out to win the Guru Nanak Rally in 1:30:05hours, beating Duncan by a 1.37minutes margin.

Andan Suhail registered his second win of the season in the 2WD Class to add up to his April’s KCB SME Rally victory in Eldoret.

Niaz Bashir savoured his second runner up position after Voi, following retirement in his Kisumu event last month. He clocked 44:20minutes. Joel Muchiri and Riyaz Kurji sealed the 2WD podium dash in 44:51minutes.

Duncan’s navigator Amaar Slatch had this to say after registering his first ever KNRC career (navigator’s) title.

"It’s been a long year but we’ve worked very hard to achieve this. We were lucky that some of the big boys like Cavenagh (Alastair) and Tundo had problems. But I must admit that we were really consistent," said Slatch.

Tundo, who was enthusiastic with the win said: "We were really pushing in this rally to try and get a lead then in the last two stages backed off a bit. It wasn’t really rough, we encountered some rocks that could easily catch you out. Since the championship was over, I think Duncan backed off as he’s usually a lot quicker," Tundo said.

This was Tundo’s third Guru Nanak win since 2009 when he won his second career championship.

The 2008 Champion Baldev Chager finished third overall. Chager was initially lying second and was charging hard until a broken shock absorber in the second last stage slowed him down.

"The more we drove it the better it felt. We were running really well and managed to post the fastest time in the fourth section," said Chager on claiming his maiden podium slot.

The 2010 Champion Alastair Cavenagh, navigated by Gavin Laurence, found his Classic Ford Escort Mark 2 a completely different ball game as compared to his championship winning Mitsubishi Evo9 he rested for the Guru Nanak.

Cavenagh was testing his Escort machine for the Kenya Airways East Africa Safari Classic Rally in Mombasa on November 19.

"It’s just a test for the Classic which wasn’t too bad. It feels so different to the EVO and so hard to drive," said Cavenagh.

The last round (KCB Mtaani Rally) of the Championship takes place in Mombasa in December.