Rally season spills into 2018 with KMSC round
What you need to know:
- The battle for the 2017 Kenya National Rally Championship title now moves into 2018 after the Kenya Motor Sports Club was allowed to run its postponed round next month.
- It is unprecedented for a championship to move into the subsequent year.
- With the KMSC event, seven out of the eight rounds will have run this season.
The battle for the 2017 Kenya National Rally Championship title now moves into 2018 after the Kenya Motor Sports Club was allowed to run its postponed round next month.
It is unprecedented for a championship to move into the subsequent year.
With the KMSC event, seven out of the eight rounds will have run this season. The Nanyuki round was also postponed due to insecurity along the route prior to the start of the round.
The KMSC rally will now run on January 13 and 14 and will be followed by the 2017 annual awards ceremony which has also been shifted from December 16 to a new date after the belated rally.
Ian Duncan, who has won the national championship for five times, will now have to wait for the outcome of the KMSC round to know whether he will clinch the 2017 title.
With a maximum of 25 points to score from the last rally, there are only three drivers still fighting for the title with 14 points splitting the main championship contenders.
Three former champions, Duncan, Carl Tundo and Baldev Chager, need to finish in top positions in the last event to stand good title chances.
A winner in the national round of the series, receives 25 points while the second-placed driver gets 21, third 18 and fourth 15.
Duncan leads with 108 points followed by Tundo with 103 and Chager with 94. Whoever finishes ahead of the other, looks set to clinch the 2017 KNRC Crown.
Onkar Rai looked set to have closed the 2017 Kenya National Rally Championship with his maiden victory in the Top Fry Nakuru Rally on Saturday until the rescheduling of the KMSC competition.
