Baldev Chager leads KCB Kisumu Rally charge
Baldev Chager and his navigator Ravi Soni in a Mitsubishi Evo10 during a past rally. Chager leads a pack of 29 cars as KCB Kisumu Rally begins on May 7, 2016. PHOTO | FILE |
What you need to know:
- Muddy conditions have led to the cancellation of one of the stages
- While present rally cars and their drivers dread racing on really wet and slippery conditions, the former twice winner of the East African Safari Classic Rally, Rob Collinge has a different approach.
Former national champion, Baldev Chager, is set to “sweep” the road on Saturday morning as he leads a pack of 29 cars for the start of the KCB Kisumu Rally.
Chager, who is yet to win the Kisumu Rally in his 18-year rallying career, may find the stages wet and slippery if the rains, which forced the cancellation of one of the stages on Friday, continue to hit the area around Kibos and its environs.
“It has been difficult period for the organisers for the last couple of days where they were forced to deploy tractors and bulldozer to smoothen one of the stages while another one was cancelled,” said George Mwangi, the Kenya Motor Sports Federation steward.
While present rally cars and their drivers dread racing on really wet and slippery conditions, the former twice winner of the East African Safari Classic Rally, Rob Collinge has a different approach.
“Rallying is all about wet and slippery conditions. Rains never bothered us in our early days knowing spectators also loved it.
However, even if the electronics of today are more sensitive and drivers getting more wary, we should see more actions under such conditions to make it exciting," said Collinge.
Collinge, who won the Kisumu Rally in 1978 and ’79 in an Alfa Romeo Alffetta respectively, further joked: “It saddens me that these new drivers can’t tackle a bit of mud. For Christ’s sake, this is rallying ,not hairdressing.”
