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Manvir Baryan, fresh from securing his third consecutive African Rally Championship title, will be in Mombasa next week for the fourth round of the 2019 KCB Kenya National Rally Championship.
While the Skoda Fabia driver has proved himself to be unbeatable in the ARC series, he has yet to stamp his authority in the local series having won only the 2017 Mombasa Rally and the Kajiado Rally in the same year.
Baryan will be among the leading crews preparing for the Mombasa Motor Club event that will have a night stage among its plans. The event will be run next Friday.
The rally will start from the KCB branch in Kilifi. The shortest stage will be 5km while the longest will be 42km. In total, the event will have nine competitive stages totalling 160km.
Day two action will run on Saturday with cars going to Bamba before returning to the finish at Mombasa Cement.
Mombasa-based crew of Sohanjeet Puee and Adan Din lead the Division One drivers and navigators championship after the Safari Rally.
The crew is preparing to tackle the home round of the 2019 KCB Kenya National Rally Championship despite facing difficulties without a proper sponsor other than Nanak Engineering.
While talking to Nation Sport, Din said: “We have been looking forward to do the Mombasa Rally as it is one rally in the calendar that’s close to our home and it will be really exciting to do a night stage in a KNRC rally.”
Karan Patel and James Mwangi are sure of adding valuable points in the Group S category with the Mombasa Rally in mind.
The crew will be at the wheel of a Subaru GC8, which has driven them to lead the current Group S Standings. Their best result this season was winning the Arusha Rally in Tanzania.
The Group S Class is for production and touring vehicles (former FIA Group A8) run in total conformity with their FIA homologation papers but with turbo restrictors as currently valid in Group N (33mm restrictors).
Daren Miranda and Wayne Fernandes will also tackle the Mombasa Rally to try and maintain their lead in the Formula Two Championship driving a Subaru Impreza.
F2 vehicles are two-wheel drive cars, either rear or front wheel drive under 3000cc cubic capacity and with normally aspirated engines.
Several drivers will not travel to Mombasa due to different reasons.
Denish Halai, the team boss of the Shamba Boys that includes his son, Mahesh and brother Ketan said: “We will not be going to Mombasa due to lots of work commitments and the time the trip would require tackling the rally.”
Similar sentiments were shared by Nikhil Sachania, the SPV Champion. He said he will not be able to travel to Mombasa for personal reasons.
