Changes for season opener as KMSF mourn President Moi
Lynette Matheka and Charles Thuku
As the first leg of the Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC), Guru Nanak, kick starts the season this weekend, Kenya Motorsport Federation (KMSF) has introduced a new point scoring system as well as a power stage to spice up the campaign.
The power stage was introduced in January last year during the season opening Nakuru rally for testing purposes before being adopted in the KMSF regulations for the 2020 season.
Fastest crew on the stage will earn three points, second fastest gets two and third fastest one.
The points on the power stage will be additional to what drivers score in the championship. Retirees of the rally can also come back to do the power stage.
Winning points have also been moved to 30, up from the previously awarded 25. The second placed crew will bag 24 points up from 21 while the other podium finisher will have 21 points to their tally.
“For Guru Nanak, the second loop of the SGR section has been nominated as the power stage.
The event, scheduled for Sunday, will be flagged off from KCB Kitengela Branch then head straight to SGR, Stoni Athi and Kifaru stages that will be run twice.
Scrutineering will take place at the Sikh Union on Saturday as will recce on the route,” said Clerk of Course Raju Charger yesterday when event sponsors KCB Bank injected Sh25 million for seven legs of the 10 KNRC rounds of the Autocross series.
The bank is set to roll out a special sponsorship deal for the Safari Rally which will be making a return to the World Rally Championship (WRC).
In addition to these changes, it will be mandatory for competing cars to have an environmental blanket intended to mitigate spillage. KMSF has also introduced a new category, T4 Cross Country class, featuring machines like Tomcats and Range Rovers.
The top eight seeds in previous seasons will rotate in the starting order regardless of their current seeding.
Meanwhile, KMSF and World Rally Championship Safari Rally Project have condoled with the family of retired President Daniel Moi who passed away on Tuesday.
In a statement, the two entities said they were deeply saddened by the untimely death of Moi who at one time was the longest-serving Patron of the Safari Rally.
“President Moi played a central role in growing the sport and his living legacy is the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani where the WRC Safari Rally Project secretariat is based, and indirectly helped Kenya return back to the high profile World Rally Championship last year,’’ they said.
They also had words of praise for Moi for being steadfast in allocating land to most sports federations in the country including KMSF.
