Abdulrahman Sheriff
7 November 2009
Nairobi — Lee Rose, navigated by Des Page Morris, won the final leg of the KCB Kenya National Rally Championship series, the Savings and Loan Rally at the Vipingo Ridge at the North Coast on Saturday.
With three wins in the 2009 season, Rose finished second overall after Carl Tundo had sealed the KNRC diadem during the Guru Nanak Rally last month. Rose, driving Mitsubishi Evo 9, won the Coast rally with a time of one hour 26 minutes, 59 seconds with champion Tundo cruising home second just 41 seconds behind.
Tundo was elated with the North Coast tour that treated crews to a technical and fast drive up and down the sisal farm lands and ultimately the elegant Vipingo Ridge golf course that hosted the ceremonial finish and service park. OiLibya's Baldev Chager, with Raju Sehmi in Subaru Impreza N12, completed the podium in third position, but 4.57 minutes behind Rose.
"The stages were fantastic but rising temperatures were getting so high and physically draining us on the stages," Chager told pressmen at the end of the rally. Asad Khan 'Kalulu', navigated by Salim Khan in a Subaru Impreza N10, won the Division Two class after finishing seventh overall.
The Yamakasi Rally team's Said Hamed became the new Division Three champion despite a tough challenge from Kirit Rajput who finished 10th overall. Hemed, navigated by Victor Okundi, completed 14th overall.
The average speeds were quite impressive but organisers cancelled the repeat runs of the first and second stages citing human traffic. But the sea level drive was incidentally favourable to the Mitsubishis with these cars running much cooler than the inter-cooler Subarus.
Reclaimed title
Tundo was exhilarated with the settings of the round he rolled his old Subaru N10 last season. "The event was well organised and a bit hairy. I had a few scares of last year and the first section was nerve-racking to me," Tundo said.
Jamseet Chana reclaimed the two wheel drive title he won last season after coming home third in the Formula Two class. Chana was all smiles. "Hopefully we'll say bye bye to the 2WD and we'll be doing a different thing next year," said Chana.
Chana had his campaign effectively sewn up when Leo Varese's broke down on transport road near Vipingo. "We had a problem with the exhaust manifold and lose quite a bit of power. But the whole idea was to bring the machine back safe and home," added Jasmeet.
Munir Khan registered his maiden career win in the Formula Two but had to play second fiddle to Chana who ended the season on a high.
Gearbox problems
Varese broke the rear stub axle and Chana learnt of his exit while in service. The tight, fast and narrow roads of the Mombasa Motor Club were quite unforgiving claiming a good number of cars. Out of the 36 cars that started in the main KNRC class only 25 survived the demanding course.
Alastair Cavenagh was the early casualty with gearbox problems. Others who kissed the event goodbye were Anwar Pandya, Michel Puchercos, Rommy Bamrah and Susheel Shah.
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