Patel seals back-to-back rally victory
Karan Patel emerged tops in Nakuru Rally to secure his second straight win of the season.
Navigated by Tauseef Khan in a Ford Fiesta rally 2, Karan beat Jasmeet Chana driving a Mitsubishi Evo 10 by a 5.49.5minutes as Hussein Malik celebrated his third position of the season.
Patel’s win saw him cling on to the summit of the Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC) log after coming first in the season-opening KMSC Rally.
He now tops the log on a flawless points score of 66 while Jasmeet is on 52 after two events followed by Karan’s sibling Kush Patel who is placed third on 34.
Jasmeet was nevertheless thrilled with his performance.
“It was good. We had a good run again trying to fight Karan’s R5 so we broke the suspension arm on CS1, drove on it till the end of CS2. On CS3 I did my quickest time but the gap between Karan and myself was a lot,” said Jasmeet.
Malik, who was navigated by Deep Patel, savoured a career best result and here’s what he had to say: “I am elated to finish in a podium position. It was quite tough and rough but we managed to pull through. A great job by Deep for making sure this was a navigators rally and he did a tremendous job.
Lost clutch
I’m over the moon and looking forward to the Equator Rally. A big thanks to my sponsors M&D Executive Auto without whom this would not have been possible. Our standard Evo X has been prepared well by Karan Racing under the guidance of the chief mechanic Raju and under supervision of Kiran Patel. We owe them big time.”
Karan was the victor in KNRC Division One followed by Chana with Division Two honours going to Malik while Zameer Verjee collected maximum points in Division Three followed by Varese. Varese celebrated back-to-back wins in the Two Wheel Drive Class.
“I am over the moon . I mean, seventh overall in a very hot, dusty and rocky Nakuru event, we brought our 1600 Toyota Auris 2WD to the finish. The last 15km of the closing stage we lost the clutch, and had to crash on second and third gears. Not my favourite type of route but we did it. Great job by the team Alykhan Malik, James Maregwa and Stephen Munai at service getting both our cars to finish. Teammate Hussein Malik congratulations on your first KNRC podium.”
Ghalib Haji from Eldoret came fourth. The rally, sponsored by White Cap started and finished at the Mogotio Cultural Centre which is located in the Equator zone.
The Equator Rally, to take place in the first weekend of April, will be the next event. It will double up as a KNRC and FIA African Rally Championship (ARC) round. For the second year running the Equator Rally will serve as a dry run of the 2022 WRC Safari Rally.
