Okundi, Nyorri in rare rivalry of Toyota Vitz

By Feverpitch Reporter

When the KCB Micro Banking Rally gets underway in Nyeri on February 4-5, Toyota Vitz will be making way into local competitive stages.

This may not be the ‘battle of wits’, but Victor Okundi from Mombasa and Nairobi-based Sammy Nyorri will indeed become the first ever pair of drivers to enter this tiny make of Toyota in what has been dubbed the ‘battle of Vitz’.

There has been some good humoured rivalry as the duo banter over who will come out tops.

"I will drive cautiously and sensibly to finish ahead of Victor (Okundi)," said Nyorri.

Asked to comment on Nyorri’s Vitz, Okundi said: "The more Vitzs the merrier. At least there will be someone to compete against on equal footing," said Okundi, who will be teaming up with Mutuma Mmarimba.

"We literally stripped the car down and went over it afresh. We’ve reworked our suspensions, did a few tweaks on our drive-train to optimise on our little engine just to strike a balance between top speed and quick take off," said Okundi.

First time

Okundi, who has navigated Said Hamad in the past three seasons, has used his Vitz twice in the Mombasa Motor Club Championships and this is his first time in the national event.

Nyorri, on the other hand, was at Kenya Motor Sports Club in South C Nairobi on Saturday to unveil his new car, which he says is still in the development phase.

Rare group

Meanwhile, the Nyeri tour is set to welcome a rare group of technical officials from Europe.

Manvir Singh Baryan will bring in three mechanics from the world-famous Tommi Makkinen Racing to service his state of the art Subaru N16 machine.

Having claimed a maiden top 10 finish in Mombasa last season in his maiden year of competition, Baryan is looking forward to a volatile season. He is teaming up with Shameer Yusuf.

"I am racing in the 2012 season. All efforts are underway in preparation. But I have not had any time in the car since the last rally, as I have been out of the country," said Baryan.

The car is in Baryan’s garage and is being prepared by his local team of mechanics.

"We are preparing in such a way that we should be competitive and achieve good results," said Baryan who plans testing before the first race.

"At the moment, it is just pre-check and setup, we shall fly in two mechanics and one engineer from Tommi Makkinen," he concluded.