Karan Patel seals Nakuru Rally to remain top of KNRC summit

Karan Patel emerged the winner on Nakuru Rally to secure his second straight win of the season.

Navigated by Tauseef Khan in a Ford Fiesta rally 2, Karan beat Mitsubishi Evo10’s Jasmeet Chana to second by  5.49.5minutes  as Hussein Malik celebrated his third place finish a third of the season.

Karan’s second successive win saw him cling on to the summit of the Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC) log after his first on the season-opening KMSC Rally.

He now tops the log on a flawless points score of 66 while Jasmeet is on 52 after two events followed by Karan’s sibling Kush Patel who is placed third on 34.

Jasmeet: was all smiles and here’s what he had to say:

“It was good. We had a good run again trying to fight Karan’s R5 so we broke the suspension arm on CS1,drove on it till the end of CS2. On CS3 I did my quickest time but the the gap from Karan and myself was a lot.”

Malik who was navigated by Deep Patel savoured  a career best result and here’s what he had to say: “I am elated to finish in a podium position.  It was quite tough and rough but we managed to pull through. A great job by Deep Patel for making sure this was a navigators rally and he did a tremendous job. I’m over the moon and looking forward to the Equator Rally. A big thanks to my sponsors M&D Executive Auto without whom this would not have been possible. Our standard Evo X has been prepared well by Karan Racing under the guidance of the chief mechanic Raju and under supervision of Mr.Kiran Patel. We owe them big time.”

Karan was the victor in KNRC Division One followed by Chana.

Division Two Honors went to Malik while Zameer Verjee collected maximum points in Division 3 followed by Varese.

Varese celebrated back to back wins in the Two Wheel Drive Class.

He said: “I am over the moon . I mean, 7th overall in a very hot, dusty and rocky Nakuru event, we brought our 1600 Toyota Auris 2WD to the finish. The last 15km of closing stage we lost the clutch, and had to crash on second and third gears. Not my favorite type of routes but we did it!!great job by the team Alykhan Malik, James Maregwa and Stephen Munai,at service getting both our cars to finish. Teammate Hussein Malik  congratulations  on your first KNRC podium.”

Ghalib Haji from Eldoret came fourth.

The rally, sponsored by KBL’s Whitecap Brand, started and finished at the Mogotio Cultural Centre which is located in the Equator zone.

Equator Rally, on the first weekend of April will be the next event. It will double up as a KNRC and FIA African Rally Championship (ARC) round. For the second year running the Equator Rally will serves as a dry run of the 2022 WRC Safari Rally.

RESULTS-NAKURU RALLY 2022

1. Karan Patel/Tauseef Khan (Ford Fiesta) 02:01:27.0
2. Jasmeet Chana/Ravi Chana (Mitsubishi Evo10) 02:07:16.5
3. Hussein Malik/Deep Patel (Mitsubishi Evo10) 02:13:23.8
4. Ghalib Haji 02:18.56.7
5. Kush Patel (Subaru) 02:26.06.0
6. Zameer Shah (Subaru) 02:34.30.2
7. Leonardo Varese/Kigo Kareithi (Toyota Auris 2WD) 2:43.00.3

KNRC POINTS AFTER ROUND TWO-NAKURU

1. Karan Patel 66
2. Jasmeet Chana 52
3. Kush Patel 34
4. Leonardo Varese 28
5. Steve Mwangi 22

6=Hussein Malik 22

7. Ghalib Haji 19
8. Daren Miranda 19
9. Zameer Verjee 15