Kenya retains African Rally Championship title

Don Smith navigated by Bob Kaugi, of Sax Air team in action during a past KCB Mobi Bank Rally in Voi. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Mehta and Mike Doughty won the championship in 1981 in a Nissan car while Mombasa-based Horsey and David Williamson achieved the feat in 1984 in a Peugeot 504 pick-up.
  • Chatthe won the title in 2015 in a Mitsubishi Lancer EVO10 with Greg Thorley of United Kingdom as his co-driver.
  • Kenya, which withdrew from the FIA-sanctioned series two years ago, is expected to make a comeback in 2017.

Rally driver Don Smith helped Kenya win the 2016 African Rally Championship title for the second year running after finishing ninth in Ugandan leg of the series at the weekend.

“It has been a long championship but I am satisfied to have won the major title in the end for the first time in my career. Our strategy was to make sure we finished all the events without incurring major risks,” Smith told Daily Nation Sport from Kampala on Monday.
Smith, navigated by Bob Kaugi, becomes the fourth local driver to win the prestigious ARC title following similar achievements by Shekhar Mehta, Dave Horsey and Jasi Chatthe.

Mehta and Mike Doughty won the championship in 1981 in a Nissan car while Mombasa-based Horsey and David Williamson achieved the feat in 1984 in a Peugeot 504 pick-up.

Chatthe won the title in 2015 in a Mitsubishi Lancer EVO10 with Greg Thorley of United Kingdom as his co-driver. At 12, Zambia has the most victories in the series since it was introduced in 1981.

FIRST MAJOR VICTORY

The Ugandan Rally, won by home driver Alwi Hassan in Ford Fiesta, was the penultimate round of this year’s series. The curtain will come down on the series in Madagascar in November. It was the first major victory for Kaugi.

However, both have been competing in the Kenya National Rally Championship series for over two decades.

Kenya, which withdrew from the FIA-sanctioned series two years ago, is expected to make a comeback in 2017.

Tentatively, Kenya has been allocated a date in March next year to host the ARC event. For that to happen, preparations have to start immediately.

Since the Safari has been out of the limelight for the last two years, FIA regulations require the host nation to run a candidate event to be observed by senior officials before it can be included in the World Rally Championship again.

Kenya last hosted a WRC event in 2002. The earliest It can return to the World Series would be in 2018 after staging a candidate in 2017 as per the FIA rules.