Rally battle heads to Rift Valley
Defending Kenya National Rally Championships (KNRC) champion Carl ‘Flash’ Tundo is expecting a tough battle from log leader Baldev Chager in this weekend’s KCB Eldoret Rally.
“I’m still in the hunt for the championship and looking forward to yet another great fight with Baldev,” Tundo who finished second in Meru earlier in the month said.
The KNRC title race is now a two-horse race following Manvir Baryan’s accident in Meru. Baryan was hospitalised for four days at Aga Khan hosptital following a high-speed roll in his Skoda Fabia R5.
“We still lead the championship after Meru so that’s obviously the main focus. We have two more events to go and we need to see what best to do,” said Chager, adding: “Manvir was also in contention but unfortunately had an accident in Meru so it’s up to me and Tundo.”
Chager and Tundo will also fight for the top spot with Meru winner Onkar Rai who gave the VW Polo R5 it’s maiden finish and win after two failed attempts in Mombasa and Nanyuki. Rai is, however, out of contention after a number of retirements.
“I expect Chager to be as competitive as ever given the status of the championship. We ended up in second position in Meru and we were very happy about that, so two more rallies and let’s see how it goes,” said Tundo, who has one win this season in Nanyuki.
Chager has two wins under his belt in Kajiado and, Safari and is aiming for his third in Eldoret.
Baryan won the Mombasa Rally while Rai has two in Nakuru and Meru.
The Eldoret Rally will be flagged off at the KCB Kenyatta Street branch on Saturday after which the crews will tackle a 24.25km transport road section through to the 18.40km Kaptagat opening stage and into first service at Iten.
Three stages Kaptagat, Bugar (16.50km) and Salabin (37.70km) will be repeated twice to make up a competitive mileage of 145.20km which amounts to 46 percent mileage total.
The transport road section totals to 168.72km. The Service Park will be visited thrice.
