NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 26 – Rally driver Karan Patel says he hopes history will repeat itself in Voi as he eyes his maiden Kenya National Rally Championships (KNRC) title at the SUC Guru Nanak Rally on Sunday.
Karan, who lies second on the drivers’ standings with 200 points, won his first KNRC rally in Voi over a year ago and is crossing his fingers that lady luck will smile on him once again at the ultimate round of the regular season.
“This is where we won our first KNRC event. The strategy remains the same, which is to win the event and secure the title. We haven’t really looked at the stages but what we know is that it won’t be easy considering it is definitely not the same Voi that we did last year,” Karan said.
The Red Bull athlete, who trails leader Jasmeet ‘Iceman’ Chana by nine points, has thus far won six out of eight rounds and needs to win in Voi to resuscitate his hopes for the crown.
He acknowledged it won’t be an easy task considering his closest rival simply needs to finish second at the Power stage to guarantee victory.
“I’m more suited to tight corners and tight races as opposed to fast open roads. For me, if it’s tight and twisty that’s more like it. We damaged our gearbox in the second last rally in Bamba, so that meant that we scored zero points, and because of that we fell behind him (Jasmeet) in the overall championship standings,” he said.
The Ford Fiesta Rally 2 driver also gave his perspective on the current season, noting that he hopes other more marquee drivers will enlist for next year’s edition.
“I would say the entries could be better. We lost our top drivers like Baldev Chager and Carl Tundo who are on sabbatical and I don’t know if they will come back for a proper race,” he said.
The ultimate round totals 159.17km; of which 70.91km will be liaison distance. Four stages will be repeated to make a competitive run of eight stages.
The repeat run of the Charcoal Stage (21.30km) will serve as the Power Stage where the fastest three drivers will earn additional 3-2-1 points on the championship log.
KNRC OVERALL CHAMPIONSHIP
Drivers’ standings
- Jasmeet Chana 209
- Karan Patel 200
- Kush Patel 86
- Leo Varese 82
- Maxine Wahome 74
- Steve Mwangi 60
- Carl Tundo 59
- Hamza Anwar 47
- Jeremiah Wahome 41
- Nikhil Sachania 40
