Vrooom! Cars in Nakuru: Motorsport fans to be treated to daredevilry in Mogotio

Top fry Nakuru rally 2018 Carl Tundo in action with his Mitsubishi Evolution 10 at Gicheha farm in Nakuru during the Top Fry Nakuru rally 2018 on February 17,2018.Photo:Kipsang Joseph/Standard

Defending champion Carl ‘Flash’ Tundo leads local drivers in the KCB Nakuru Rally that revs off the 2019 Kenya National Rally Championship season this morning at KCB Mogotio branch.

Tundo, who will be the fifth driver off the ramp, will be co-driven by longtime ally Tim Jessop in Mitsubishi Evolution X.

Nairobi-based Erick Bengi co-driven by Tuta Mionki in a Mitsubishi Evolution X, who will be making their debut in the KNRC Premier class following a good run in Division One, will follow Tundo.

The cars to be flagged off outside KCB Mogotio Branch at 7am will cover 324km; out of which 163km will be competitive with a service park at Gicheha Farm. The race ends at the Rift Valley Motorsports Club in Solai.

Drivers will tackle four stages which will be repeated twice with the longest stage being 30.74km Ankole stage and the shortest is the flat-out Sprint stage which totals 6.16km.

Official reconnaissance of the route was done yesterday as well as scrutinising of cars at the Rift Valley Motorsports Club in Solai Club house.

Making a comeback is Karan Patel after rolling his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 10 car on the 2018 ARC Rally of Tanzania.

Karan, a former KNRC Group S and Division Three champion, has since imported new machine to replace the damaged one will drive a Subaru GC8.

“We are overly excited to be back after staying away of the championship in the latter stages last year,” said Karan, who is partnering up with James Mwangi and has since been relegated the Division One Championships.

A good chunk of premier class drivers will be out to offer stiff competition to Tundo who was forced to finish within the medal bracket in the final four races of last year’s championships to be crown the KNRC champion.

Onkar Rai driving Skoda Fabia R5 and his brother Tejveer Singh in a Mitsubishi Evolution - teaming up with Baldev Chager also in a Mitsubishi Evolution X - are expected to be the flag bearers of Kabras Sugar Racing team.

Onkar will be navigated by Gavin Laurence. The Skoda Fabia R5 which are two in Kenya at the moment, have proved to be successful in the WRC-2 class.