Onkar Rai saves best for last, clinches maiden title at home
Nakuru Governor Lee Kinyanjui flags off Baldev Chager and navigator Ravi Soni during the Top Fry Nakuru Rally at ASK Ground on Dedember 9, 2017. Home driver Onkar Rai won the rally, his first Kenya National Rally Championship win PHOTO | AYUB MUIYORO |
What you need to know:
- Onkar Rai clinched his first ever Kenya National Rally Championship round victory by winning his home leg Top Fry Nakuru Rally on Saturday.
- Rai, who has recently been busy with classic competitions in Bulgaria and Kenya, finally left a winning mark on the Kenya National Rally Championship calendar by taking victory in his Skoda Fabia with Gareth Dawe as his navigator.
Onkar Rai clinched his first ever Kenya National Rally Championship round victory by winning his home leg Top Fry Nakuru Rally on Saturday.
Rai, who has recently been busy with classic competitions in Bulgaria and Kenya, finally left a winning mark on the Kenya National Rally Championship calendar by taking victory in his Skoda Fabia with Gareth Dawe as his navigator.
“At last we have done it. I feel really proud and good to win my first ever KNRC rally. The competition was good. My car behaved very well. What can I say? I am happy,’’ said Rai pn Saturday.
His Skoda was quicker than the second-placed Mitsubishi Lancer Evo10 of Ian Duncan and Amar Slatch by nearly two minutes at the end of the eight competitive stages of the competition.
ONE MORE EVENT TO BE RUN
The second place helped Duncan and Slatch get nearer to wrapping up the 2017 Kenya National Rally Championship overall title by finishing one place ahead of Carl Tundo and Tim Jessop driving a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo10.
There is a talk of one more event to be run from the two which were cancelled earlier.
Tapio Laukkanen, the defending national champion, failed to score enough points to retain the crown.
The Finn also missed out of the Nakuru Rally for personal reasons.
The Nakuru Rally team, led by the Alexander Kovatchev as the Clerk of the Course for the final round of the KNRC series, proved beyond doubt that the new timing technology is something that will benefit immensely not only to the organizing club, but to the rest of the motor sports fraternity and KNRC rallies.
PRESS OF A BUTTON
Besides producing stage to stage results, the technology introduced by the Bulgarian Team, was very clear and with just a press of a button, one could find all the required information on the rally without calling rally officials.
It was first used in the Nakuru’s Classic Rally earlier in the season.
Nikhil Sachania, the only handicapped driver in the championship, also scored a top 10 position in his specially-prepared Mitsubishi Lancer.
Sachania can only use his upper body to drive his rally car after an accident that almost killed him several years ago.
