Internet Boss on Love for Rallying

Society

Internet Boss on Love for Rallying

Friday, March 1, 2019 11:22

By DOREEN WAINAINAH

Have you ever tried reading a book or a newspaper while cruising down a dirt road or uneven road at high speed?

For Richard Hechle, the Internet Solutions Group managing director, he has no qualms reading out notes to his driver while he cruises at top speeds of up to 184 kilometres per hour on rough roads.

“You just hold your notes up as you bounce with the car. It’s quite easy. But finding your place once you miss a note is quite hard because things are going very quickly,” he says.

When he explains it, it sounds simple, but one wrong call or note and the car goes tumbling off the rallying course, causing damage to the crew and the car, an experience Richard knows all so well.

“I have called one wrong note which caused a major accident. I think I called a max left and it was a slow left and we came into a corner to hard and the car flew off the track,” he says.

For the past six years, he has been a navigator for his rally partner Jonathan Somen, a tech entrepreneur who founded Eldama Technologies, a cloud services firm. Following in his father’s footsteps, Richard opted to be a navigator.

“My dad was a rally navigator in the late 60s to early 70s. Jonathan’s dad was also in rally around the same time. Some 40 years later, we decided to give rallying a try,” he says.

According to Richard, the high adrenaline sport is the ultimate stress reliever.

“At 170kp/h on a dirt road, you don’t think about anything else,” he says.

Before each rally, the team does what Richard refers to as a recce. The reconnaissance is a preliminary look of the racetrack, where a driver does a drive-through of the course for the rally and the navigator makes all necessary notes for the completion.

In a Safari classic rally which takes place every two years across East Africa, the teams use the notes provided by the organisers because they are not allowed to know the route beforehand.

As a navigator, he reconstructs the route, measures out the approximate distances, the type of turn (whether it is a sharp turn, slight curve), where there are potholes on the road, any uneven points, or any other key points for the driver to clear the race in the quickest time possible without flipping the car.

Supported by a team manager, who is also their mechanic, they have been able to maintain their Ford Escort Mark2 in tip top shape for rally despite writing off a few engines, gear boxes, tyres and nearly everything except the body.

Though rally does not have fitness rules, Richard exercises on a regular basis. He does a 10 kilometre run in his neighbourhood in Nairobi’s Kitisuru. He also participates in marathons to distress.

“I love Lewa marathon. I am not a quick runner and my legs are too short for the full marathon so I do the half,” he says.

In addition to rallying, Richard takes part in the Rhino Charge where he is the runner for the team. Runners scout the route on foot to check where the vehicle will pass through without getting stuck.

“I also water ski, which I need to do more often. I have done skydiving but bungee jumping is too scary,” he says.

He did the skydiving course in Kenya but on his last jump, he could not get into proper position. So as he was tumbling in the air, he pulled his cord too early.

“I decided then that it’s not the sport for me. But I did a tandem jump in Las Vegas. It was an amazing experience.”

dwainainah@ke.nationmedia.com