Quentin Mitchell’s Skoda S2000 navigates through the Voi Rally. PHOTO/Courtesy
NAIROBI, April 4- Tigoni based driver Quentin Mitchell is been seeded first for Saturday’s KCB Machakos Rally which traverses five stages.
Teaming up with Tom Taylor in a Skoda Fabia S2000, the Vivo Energy sponsored driver will be followed by multiple champions Ian Duncan and Carl “Flash” Tundo.
Flash, who’s Proton Neo Satria car is up for sale, will be driving an Evolution X having given up his quest to dominate in the S2000 classified machine.
Defending champion Baldev Chager takes off in fifth position behind his Kabras Racing teammate Onkar Rai.
Forty-nine drivers have signed up for the event which will be flagged-off outside KCB Machakos branch at 7am on Saturday.
After the ceremonial start, rally cars will proceed to the 10km People’s Park stage which will also serve as the official designated viewing point for spectators.
According to deputy clerk of the course George Njoroge, a 4km liaison distance will then lead crew to the Machakos South Road for a 21.6km competitive run.
They will then come back to Katumani for a short 9km stage and onto Kapiti Plains which is the event’s longest stage (35km).
Rally track will then return to Mombasa Road to tackle the 10km Kathome -Kirwa stage and into first service at the People’s Park. After service, they will repeat the same five-stage loop for a total competitive run of 171 km and a transport road section totalling 112km.
McRae Kimathi will be the newest youngster to join the Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC) this weekend in a Subaru GC8.
McRae, named after the legendary WRC speed merchant- the late Colin McRae, is son of former 2WD Champion Phineas Kimathi who has taken a racing sabbatical to concentrate on rally organisation and administration.
Kimathi junior will be navigated by George Mwangi who incidentally is the only black indigenous driver to win the Safari Rally with Azar Anwar.
Mwangi is returning from retirement ostensibly to whip up the enthusiasm of the young driver.
“I have received several calls from established drivers to navigate them but declined all offers. I have seen McRae grow his passion for the sport and couldn’t decline his request as he is like a son to me. I am overly excited to groom young budding talent,” said Mwangi who was a teammate to Phineas in the Hyundai Team. Mwangi also navigated Kimathi senior in Meru 2010 and Safari 2011.
Other drivers entering the weekend’s event are former British and Finland Champion Tapio Laukkanen and two times Ugandan Champion Jas Mangat who finished third overall in last month’s Machakos Rally. Mangat is tackling the full season of the 2015 Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC) and this is what he had to say about his participation in the KNRC. .
In a related development, AEA Limited, formerly (Avery East Africa) has unveiled a sponsorship with James Kirimiand Evans Mwenda driving car No. 44 a Subaru GC8 in this year’s 2015 KCB Rally. This move has been made necessary in an era where compliance of axle roads in our roads is still a challenge and the drive is to push for transporters to own the process to save the roads for our Children. The team is currently in the lead on S Class after Eldoret Rally ahead of Waigwa Murage and Chandrakhant Chhabhadia Devji “Chandu” from Kisumu.
Kirimi who is the 2011 2WD champion has entered the rally in a Subaru GC8 and is looking at a podium finish in 2015 S class category. The AEA Rally team runs under the innovative slogan “Championing axle loads compliance”
SEEDED ENTRY LIST -MACHAKOS RALLY
- Quentin Mitchell/Tom Taylor (Skoda Fabia S2000) 2. Ian Duncan/Amo Slatch (Mitsubishi Evolution 10) 3. Carl Tundo/Tim Jessop (Mitsubishi Evolution 10) 4. Onkar Rai/Gareth Dawe (Mitsubishi Evolution 10) 5. Baldev Chager/Ravi Soni (Mitsubishi Evolution 10) 6. Jaspreet Chatthe/Gugu Panesar (Mitsubishi Evolution 10) 7. Manvir Baryan/Drew Sturrock (Ford Fiesta R5) 8. Rajbir Rai/Timothy Challen (Ford Fiesta R5) 9. Tapio Laukkanen/Pasi Torma (Subaru Impreza GVB13) 10. Raaji Bharij/Jasneil Ghataure (Mitsubishi Evolution 10) 11. Jas Mangat/Imran Khan (Mitsubishi Evolution 10) 12. Imran Mogul/Adnan Din (Subaru Impreza N10) 13. Karan Patel/Tauseef Khan (Mitsubishi Evolution 10) 14.Pavit Kenth/Raju Sehmi (Mitsubishi Evolution 9) 15. Piero Canobbio/Sylvia Firgo (Mitsubishi Evolution 10) 16. Amaanraj Rai/Kavit Dave (Mitsubishi Evolution 10) 17. Steve Gacheru/TBA (Subaru Impreza N10) 18. Jasmeet Chana/Ravi Chana (Mitsubishi Evolution 9) 19. Farhaaz Khan/R. Ismail (Mitsubishi Evolution 9) 20. Dennis Mwenda/Job Njiru (Mitsubishi Evolution 9) 21. Frank Tundo/Tariq Malik (Mitsubishi Evolution 9) 22. Jansher Sandhu/Faisal Khan (Mitsubishi Evolution 9) 23. Asad Khan/Mwangi Kioni (Subaru Impreza N10) 24. Alfir Khan/Tinu Khan (Subaru Impreza N10) 25. Mahesh Halai/Ketan Dinesh Halai (Subaru Impreza N12) 26. Tejveer Rai/Zahir Shah (Porsche 911) 27. Murage Waigwa/Tuta Mionki (Subaru Impreza GC8) 26 28. James Kirimi/Evans Mwenda (Subaru Impreza GC8) 29. Eric Bengi/Tony Gikuhi (Toyota RunX) 30. Paras Pandya (Subaru Impreza N10) 31. Hussein Malik/Absalom Aslam (Mitsubishi Evolution 6) 32. Nadeem Kana (Subaru Impreza GC 8) 33. Rob Hellier/Douglas R. (Datsun 160) 34. Sammy Nyorri/Edward Njoroge (Toyota RunX) 35. Natasha Tundo/Chantal Young (Subaru Impreza N10) 36. Chandrakant Devji/Julius Mwachuya(Subaru Impreza GC8) 37. Kirit Rajput/Shameer (Toyota Lexus) 38. Shiraz Yusuf/Azhar Bhatti (Mitsubishi Evo 10) 39. Aslam Khan/Arshad Khan (Porshe Carrera 911) 40. Adil Mirza/Kashif Shaikh (Mitsubishi Evo 8) 41. Alex Lairang’i/Tony Gichohi (Toyota Sprinter) 42. Leonardo Varese/Kigo Kareihi (Toyota Corolla RS) 43.Gurmit Thethy/Harshil Limbani (VW Golf Mk 3 GTI) 44. Nikhil Sachania/Salim Khan (Fiat Abarth Grande S2000) 45. Edward Maina/John Ngugi (Subaru Impreza GC 8) 46. Evans Kamau/Kennedy Kaveke (Subaru Impreza GC8) 47. Savraj Bhui/Albert Kigen (VW Golf GTI) 48. McRae Kimathi/George Mwangi (Subaru Impreza GC8)
