By Feverpitch Reporter
After taking a six-year leave, rally driver Steve Gacheru returns to action this weekend.
Gacheru will be driving one of Ben Muchemi’s Subaru Impreza N10 cars during Saturday’s KCB Mobi Bank Rally. He will be co-driven by David Kinoti, his partner during the 2007 KCB Safari Rally in a Subaru when their car caught fire and razed Dalamere Estate’s grasslands near Lake Elementaita Lodge.
One would expect that sitting out of the cockpit would make Gacheru rusty, but the word ‘rusty’ is an understatement.
“I guess it will only take one single stage to get back in the groove,” said Gacheru who will be racing under the Safaricom/KRT team livery.
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Gacheru, who was at Muchemi’s Subawrex rally workshop on Lusaka Road, Nairobi, on Saturday to finalise preparations, took the car out on a test drive at Athi River’s quarry section yesterday along with Joe Muchiri, who will be entering an ex-Richard Onyoni ‘Vuvuzela’-sponsored Subaru Impreza gc8.
“Standards have been set and only the sky’s the limit. The car handles really well and I can’t wait to attack the stages this Sunday,” said Gacheru.
“I have come back to this sport for my own personal satisfaction. It’s my choice to come out there and link up with old friends in this sport that we idolise. It was in Delamere that our car caught fire and now we are back again after six years in the cold and in the Great Rift Valley,” said Gacheru.
“Two years down road, I will be looking at podium finishes if only sponsors are forthcoming. It’s exciting that we shall be learning the car again. The bottomline is consistency and performance and hope to finish,” he told FeverPitch.
The rally will be flagged off outside the KCB Menengai Industrial Area branch at 7am on Saturday, June 8. Scrutineering and documentation will be at the Lesiolo Grain Handlers silos in Lanet on Friday.
Series leader Baldev Chager of Kabras Sugar Racing Team will once again be among the favourites in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X. The ‘flying Singh’ has been consistent in the series, which makes him one of the hottest contenders for the top position.
Besides Chager, others to watch in the Division One category are reigning champion Carl Tundo, Ian Duncan and Azar Anwar.
