The mud master

BY FEVERPITCH TEAM

Five times former Kenya champion and series leader Ian Duncan has made a giant stride towards his Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC) title chase with an imposing victory at the KCB S&L Mortgages Rally in Eldama Ravine.

Duncan and his navigator Amaar Slatch drove their Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 9 car back to last service at Kabunyoni amidst thunderous cheers from spectators and teams. The mood was the same at the ceremonial finish at Eldama Ravine Stadium.

His mastery in the mud was peerless as the 1994 WRC Safari Rally winner racked up his second victory, incidentally the second muddy win of the season after Bankika Rally in Athi River last April.

The penultimate stage at Poror was full of drama with Safari Rally winner Carl "Flash" Tundo and Ugandan Jas Mangat rolling their state-of-the-art machines.

But Tundo was able to push his EVO9 car back up and drove it all through to the finish thus salvaging some championship points.

"We came through a hairpin bend then cut in, but there was a hidden rock which tipped us over. I also got a puncture in the same stage," said Tundo.

But the wet and slippery event claimed the entire 2WD field triggering reactions from crews. Consequently, stewards nullified 2WD results after all cars got time barred in the muddy 35.40km Kaprorwa-Sawich (CS 1) stage.

The 2WDs were supposed to proceed to the long 36Km Poror section then finish at the 1.7km stage at Ravine stadium, which was not the case.

All 11 2-Wheel drive cars which went through CS1 got stuck and were towed out. By the time the Formula 2s got to service, there was a heated debate whether or not the class should continue, but stewards cancelled the event instead.

The conditions in Ravine claimed over 10 cars including Joan Nesbitt, Alex Horsey, Imran Kana, David Kioni, Issa Amwari, Edward Maina, Farhaaz Khan, Stella Macharia and Nishit Shah.

Champion Alastair Cavenagh watched helplessly as his title defense ended with mechanical gremlins.

"Basically we went off; we were pushing quite hard and the road conditions changed on top of a brow. I think there was a corner afterwards, we tried our best to get on it but we hit one bank, span, hit the other bank and bent the (suspension) arm and that was it. But that’s sports you have to take it sometimes, it has been bad luck," Said Cavenagh.

Alex Horsey exited on CS2 Tugumoi stage. "Unfortunately, the wheel fell off and we broke the studs which we were unable to fix," said Alex.

This Rift Valley Motor and Sports Club (RVM&SC)-organized event according to most of the drivers was extremely wet and tricky.

One interesting aspect of the rally is that even the locals in Eldama Ravine didn’t expect it to be this wet this year.

According to debutante Halai siblings -Mahesh and Ketan - getting to the service stage was very comforting having gone through very tedious stages.