NAIROBI, Kenya, October 23- Ian Duncan is at it again. After winning the Motor Sports Personality of the Year 2010, Duncan racked up his 6th career Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC) crown despite failing to secure his 12th Guru Nanak diadem.
Duncan, who has won the prestigious Guru Nanak Rally a record 11 times, appeared to back off in the dry and dusty event which marked the 7th and penultimate round of the eight-leg KCB KNRC series.
With no realistic chance of winning the KNRC title, Tundo drove his Mitsubishi EVO9 flat out to win the Guru Nanak Rally in 1:30:05 beating Duncan by a 1.37minutes margin.
Andan Suhail registered his second win of the season in the 2WD Class to add up to his April’s KCB SME Rally win in Eldoret.
Niaz Bashir savored his second runner up position after Voi following retirement in his Kisumu event in September. He clocked 44:20minutes. Joel Muchiri and Riyaz Kurji sealed the 2WD podium dash in 44:51minutes.
Duncan’s navigator Amaar Slatch was all smiles upon clinching his first ever KNRC career (navigator’s) title.
“It’s been a long year but we’ve worked very hard to achieve this. We were lucky that some of the big boys like Alastair and Tundo had problems. But I must admit that we were really consistent,” said Amaar.
Tundo was enthusiastic with the win. “We were really pushing in this rally to try and get a lead then in the last two stages backed off a bit. It wasn’t really rough; we encountered some rocks that could easily catch you out. Since the championship was over, I think Ian backed off as he’s usually a lot quicker.”
This was Tundo’s third Guru Nanak win since 2009 when he won his second career Championship.
The 2008 Champion Baldev Singh Chager settled for third overall position fervent that he was hastily coming to grips with his new Subaru N16 car. Chager was initially lying second and was charging really hard until a broken shock in the second last stage stymied his intended run.
“The more we drive it the better it feels. We were running really well and managed to post the fastest time in the fourth section,” said Chager on claiming his maiden podium.
The 2010 Champion Alastair Cavenagh navigated by Gavin Laurence found his Classic Ford Escort Mark 2 drive a completely different ball game as compared to his Championship winning Mitsubishi Evo9 he rested for the Guru Nanak.
Cavenagh was testing his Escort machine for the Kenya Airways E.A. Safari Classic Rally which starts in Mombasa on November 19.
“It’s just a test for the Classic which wasn’t too bad. It feels so different to the EVO and so hard to drive,” said Cabenagh.
The last round (KCB Mtaani Rally) of the Championship takes place in Mombasa inDecember.
