Bad weather, poor sponsorship put damper to local rally season

Inclement weather and lack of corporate sponsorship wreaked havoc in the ranks of organizers of the 2018 Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC).

Several KNRC events had to be rescheduled because of heavy rains that swept across the nation, although organizing clubs made efforts to ensure all eight rounds of the series were, finally, run.

Lack of solid sponsorship for the KNRC also saw the decline in the entries for most of the calendar competitions.

The national motorsports governing body, Kenya Motor Sports Federation (KMSF), is yet to seek a replacement since Kenya Commercial Bank stepped down last year as title sponsors after an association that lasted for nearly 15 years.

Entry fees shot up to almost Sh50,000 from the initial figure of Sh12,000, which included third-party insurance for the each of the crews competing in the KNRC series.

This year's Guru Nanak Rally, which offered the cheapest entry fee of Sh15,000, attracted the largest number of entries, namely 26 cars.

The rest of the events attracted less than 20.

It was a major drop considering what each rally used to attract in the past, between 50 and 70 cars.

However, despite the difficulties, certain drivers kept the momentum going and fans came in large number as rallying spread across the nation from as far as Kisumu to Mombasa providing good entertainment.

Carl Tundo and Tim Jessop were the stars of the 2018 KNRC season after winning a historic fifth Safari Rally crown and fourth overall KNRC title.

Tundo, 45, started rallying in 1999 an in addition to the big achievements of 2018, he and Jessop also won the Guru Nanak Rally for a record fifth time.

Relative newcomers Eric Bengi and Tuta Mionki also performed incredibly well to finish in the top positions among the more established drivers.

Bengi won the Division One class followed by Jasmeet Chana and Mahesh Halai. Mionki won the Division One navigators title followed by Ravi Chana and Ketan Halai.

Mombasa-based driver Sohanjeet Puee and his navigator Adnan Din clinched the Division Two drivers’ and navigators’ titles.

They were followed by Amaar Haq/Victor Okundi and Paras Pandya/Falgun Bhojak respectively.

Bengi and Mionki also won the Group N Class.

Nikhil Sachania, the sole handicapped driver in the KNRC, won the SPV Class in the KNRC series, a category for modified rally cars used especially by handicapped drivers.

Despite his inability to use part of his lower body after an accident about seven years ago, Sachania has gone on to compete against able-bodied drivers without any fuss.

He was involved in an accident during a training session on a quad bike seven years ago.

“At the time, I was just 23 years old and relatively new to the competitive sport. The nasty incident happened on a circuit within the Portland Cement grounds in Athi River. I was rushed to the Nairobi Hospital in a saloon car as there was no ambulance ready,'' he recalls.

After a few days in the Nairobi hospital, the family decided to fly him to India for further operation and rehabilitation. He spent six months in the hospital before flying back home.

After one year of recuperating, he decided to venture into rallying by looking for a suitable, modified machine.

Manvir Baryan won the 2018 African Rally Championship for the second year running, while Baldev Chager closed the season with victory in the Mini Classic Rally organized by the East African Safari Classic Rally.

Off the roads, preparations for the 2019 Safari Rally, which will be a candidate event for a future World Rally Championship (WRC) status, are going on as officials prepare the event to be held in July next year as round five of the eight-round KNRC season.

A team of officials from Kenya were to countries hosting this year's WRC to try and lure teams and drivers to visit the 2019 Safari Rally.

There will be seven African Rally Championship rounds next season starting Ivory Coast, South Africa, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda.

The 2019 KNRC series will have eight rounds: Rift Valley Motor Sports Club (Nakuru) x2, Kenya Motor Sports Club (Nairobi), Western Kenya Motor Club (Eldoret), Safari Rally, Nanyuki Rally Group (Nanyuki), Rallye Sports Club (Nairobi) and Simba Union Club (Nairobi).

Meanwhile, a few changes were made in the rules governing the sport.
The International Automobile federation (FIA) Rallies Commission, in conjunction with the Motor Sports Council of the KMSF, introduced a new class in the 2018 KNRC series.

Attention was drawn to all competitors wishing to migrate to the B13 Class that these cars are not be permitted in any FIA sanctioned events

Baldev Chager's Mitsubishi Evolution10 was among those affected in the B13 Class cars. The rest were that of Ian Duncan, Tundo, Tejveer Rai and Aakif Virani.

The new Class B13 is in specific reference to the introduction of the sequential gearbox to be permitted in cars entered under Group B13

Among the major changes involved the transmission of the rally cars. The gear lever must be fixed on the floor or on the steering column and can be adjustable. If fixed on the steering column the link between the gear lever and the gearbox must not be rigid.

Modifications to the bodywork for the passage of the new gearshift control are authorized only if they are not in contradiction with other points of these regulations. Gear changes must be made mechanically.