NYAHURURU, Kenya, Mar 9 – On the day he celebrated his 45th birthday Baldev ‘Singh’ Chager took over the Kenya National Rally Championship lead from Carl ‘Flash’ Tundo after clinching the Nyahururu Rally title on Sunday.
The Flying Singh, as he is commonly referred as navigated the technical terrains of Laikipia County in scintillating fashion, leading the rally from start to finish.
It was double celebration for Chager who had to dash back to Nairobi ostensibly to attend to his daughter’s birthday.
“We had a good recce and indeed our pace-notes worked really well. We had a puncture in the last rally and Flash had two on this event. I have never won a rally on my birthday which was also my daughter’s birthday. I’m chuffed.” Chager said.
Tundo was left to rue the two punctures which denied him the chance for back to back success after winning the season opening Guru Nanak event last month.
“It was a tough rally for us, not those good days. We picked a puncture 7kms in the opening stage which put us back on the leader-board and had another puncture in the third stage but that’s rallying,” said Tundo.
After two rounds of brilliant displays, Chager now moves to the summit of the KNRC log on 56 against Tundo’s 52 points. Tejveer Rai, on his second outing in the VW Polo R5, racked up a career best second overall position beating Tundo to third.
Chager won the first three stages but Tundo bounced back to take the next two and most importantly the power stage which earned him three bonus points.
Fourth was Karan Patel who like Tundo picked two punctures and lost time. Eric Bengi and his partner Peter Mutuma finally made it to the finish after a prolonged period of gremlins and DNFs.
Driving a new Evo10, Bengi retuned fifth.
The roads in Rumuruti were well marked, graded and had a mix of every thing from flat-out sections to twisty, to jumps and rocks. The first 7kms of the power stage which was the day’s last run were exactly the same as SS1 Ol Maisor stage but at the 7km mark diverted to the left.
Two stages, Ol Maisor and Sosian, were repeated twice after which rally traffic embarked on the power stage attack.
The event featured a competitive distance of 147.96km and 158.32km transport road section.
Out of the 13 cars which started the Rift Valley Motor Band Sports Club RVMSC organised round, only 10 survived the demanding terrain in Rumuruti.
Results
1. Baldev Chager /Ravi Soni (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X) 1:2810.0hours
2. Tejveer Rai/Gavin Lawrence (VW Polo R5) 1:30.25.8
3. Carl Tundo/ Tim Jessop (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X) 1:31.30.2
4. Karan Patel /James Mwangi (Ford Fiesta R5) 1.35.48.8
5. Eric Bengi/ Peter Mutuma (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X) 1:38.25.7
6. Jasmeet Chana/Ravi Chana (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X) 1:40.14.1
7. Evans Kavisi/ Absolom Aswani (Subaru Impreza N10) 1:41.52.2
8. Nikhil Sachania/Deep Patel (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X) 1:57.13.8
9. Steve Mwangi/Dennis Mwenda (Subaru Impreza) 2:02.42.3
10. Daren Miranda/Wayne Fernandes (Subaru Impreza) 2:24.13.5