Top rally drivers roll up sleeves ready to battle for

By FEVERPITCH Reporter

Kisumu and Chemelil will on Saturday come alive with reverberating sounds of turbo-charged cars as the KCB Mobile Banking Rally makes a stop over.

Clerk of the course, Amrit Singh Matharu and his team have been working round the clock to ensure all is well in the run up to the event.

The Kisumu event, organised by Equator Motor Club (EMC), is the third round of the eight-leg Kenya National Rally Championship, which has already traversed Nyeri and Lake Bogoria.

"We have finalised the route and its looks really good considering that the rains are holding up at the moment. We have lined up six stages all centred around Chemelil area. Out of the six, five stages will be repeated twice to make up an event of 11 stage runs," said Matharu.

The Clerk of the course disclosed that the spectator stage is a designated open field track totalling 1.1km and located at the start of the 31.1km competitive stage two.

The Service Park returns to the same venue as last year; which is the Simba Yard in Chemelil. The rally will be flagged off outside KCB Kisumu branch from 7am on Saturday. Thereafter, cars will head to Chemelil for action proper.

Matharu said they are consulting on whether to finish the rally in Chemelil rather than having the cars head back- all the way to Kisumu for the ceremonial finish. "Tentatively, the finish is in Chemelil so the first car is expected to finish at 2.56pm," said Matharu.

Entries for the event closed last Friday. Among those expected to feature in the lakeside tour are defending champion Ian Duncan in his National Oil sponsored Mitsubishi Evo9, teammates Alastair Cavenagh and Carl Tundo both enjoying a similar ride but flying the flag of Dalbit Petroleum/Energy Monster. Duncan will be hoping to make amends after retiring in the last outing in Lake Bogoria.

Also on the charge is 2008 Champion Baldev Chager in the Oilibya Racing/Kabras Subaru N16 and his teammate Azar Anwar, who is incidentally the three times National and Group N KNRC Champion.

The navigators’ battle is indeed a scintillating tussle for points. Tundo’s navigator Tim Jessop renews his rivalry with Cavenagh’s co-driver Gavin Laurence. Jessop leads the navigator’s table with a maximum 160points after two wins in Nyeri and Lake Bogoria. Gavin is lying second on 110points.

Don Smith, the CEO of Fly 540, leads the KNRC Division Two front on 120 points and hopes to keep his closest adversary Manvir S. Baryan (115points) at bay.

Ben Muchemi aka Baba Ciru leads KNRC Division Three class in his Safaricom/Kenya Rally School Mitsubishi EVO VI previously driven by Dinesh "Kaka" Sachania.

Mombasa-based Nadeem Kana leads the 2WD Championship while Jonathan Somen, the CEO of Access Kenya, leads the Classic Car Cup and Mahesh Halai the ‘S’ Class Championship.