Classic rallying bug bites Joey Ghose

Joey Ghose of Oman returns home for the 2019 Safaricom East African Safari Classic Rally that begins in less than three weeks.

Ghose, 57, who left Kenya in 1994 to settle in Oman, was a well-known rally driver and as well as navigator at the height of his rallying career in the Kenya National Rally Championship series.

“These days I'm doing various businesses, but the main one is cement manufacturing,” Ghose told Nation Sport from Oman.

So far, 28 cars have entered the nine-day event that will start from Mombasa before crossing over to Tanzania for the next half of the contest.

Ghose will be driving a Nissan 240RS in the Classic Rally. He acquired the car from New Zealand. Grant Shand of RallyXtreme UK built the car.

“I started rallying in 1979 as a driver in a Datsun 1600sss; doing mainly training rallies in Kenya and then progressed to the Raymonds Rally of Eldoret."

"In 1982, I contested in a Nissan PA10 in the Kenya National Rally Championship as driver but I suffered three consecutive rolls and ran out of funds, so that was it," he said.

Ghose drove in many rallies from 1979 to 1982 before turning to navigation from 1986 to 1990 with Bipin Tailor and Sanjay Dey, respectively.

This will be his fourth Safari Classic Rally, though he is yet to finish any.