Kenya: Karan Patel Wins Maiden Africa Rally Championship Title

12 November 2023
Capital FM (Nairobi)

Nairobi — Kenyan rally driver Karan Patel was on Sunday crowned the 2023 Africa Rally Championship winner after finishing second at Rally of Tanzania.

The win sees the 2022 Kenya National Rally Champion and reigning Kenyan motorsport athlete of the year win his maiden continental title.

They become the first Kenyan pair to achieve the feat in a Ford, and the marque’s second title after Zambia’s Leroy Gomes last year.

Karan finished second behind Uganda’s Jas Mangat in a well driven race strategy during the season-closing ASAS Rally of Tanzania.

Their calm and assured march to the finish podium at Sao Hill Mafinga in Iringa belied the excitement that was bubbling underneath and it exploded into a solid stream of joy at prize giving.

Karan, who is also a Red Bull athlete, becomes the seventh Kenya driver after the trailblazing Shekhar Mehta in 1981, David Horsey in 1984, Jaspreet Singh Chatthe in 2015, Don Smith in 2016, Manvir Baryan thrice 2017 and 2019 and Carl Tundo in 2021.

Tauseef, on the other hand, becomes the fifth Kenyan navigator champion after Mike Doughty, Surinder Thatthi, Bob Kaugi and Tim Jessop.

On their way up, Karan and Tauseef registered four wins in Rwanda, Kenya (Equator), Burundi and Zambia.

The Kenyan duo skipped Bandama Rallye and Pearl of Africa Uganda Rally and had to play catch up to lay their hands on the coveted title they lost to Zambian Gomes last season.

Karan and Tauseef arrived in Iringa, Tanzania in high spirits, winning the qualifying stage but appeared to back off in a well calculated strategy to safeguard the championship.

The Kenyan crew went into the championship finale in Tanzania this weekend with a nine points advantage over Uganda’s Mangat.

But Mangat savored his first victory of the season as well as kick-starting his Hyundai’s victories log. But he has to contend with playing second fiddle to the newly crowned champion Karan.

Youngster Hamza Anwar racked up the ARC2 category title in third overall position when his race adversary and local Charles Nyerere suffered mechanical gremlins.

–African Rally Championship 2023 —

Read the original article on Capital FM.

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