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Newly crowned Group N Champion Jasmeet Singh Chana is looking forward to the 2020 Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC) with great expectations.
Iceman, as he is known in racing circles, is one of the few local drivers to have won the most KNRC category titles. He has taken some impressive titles in the 2WD twice in 2007 and 2009, Division 1 in 2015, Division 3 in 2013, Group S in 2011 and Group N in an Evo X following the cancellation of the 2019 KCB Guru Nanak Rally.
He is remembered for his brilliance in an ex works Toyota Celica GT4 which won the Group S Class for cars of expired homologation.
What's now remaining on his growing list of KNRC category titles is the Classic Car Cup and KNRC Division Two, the KNRC win and the KNRC overall title.
Chana savoured a KNRC podium in 2014 when he returned third overall during the Kenya Motor Sports Club-organised round in Machakos.
Iceman who teams up his brother Ravi Chana attributes his slow but assured march to lack of sponsorship.
"I may not achieve the intended KNRC clean sweep but will have surely left a lasting impression on the Kenyan rallying scene," he said.
“I started my racing career in Two Wheel in 2007 and 12 years down the line, I pride myself to be a member of the elite KNRC Premier Class league of top ranking KNRC speedsters. I got promoted to the Premier Class this year and I can confirm it's not a comfort zone with a small budget,” he added.
To achieve his classic dream, Jasmeet is currently working on an ambitious Classic Car project. He is building a similar Datsun HA10 machine his father had used.
"I plan to do the Mini Classic so gradually we will rewrite history books, I can't wait for 2020, " said Chana.
"It's always a steep learning curve rallying with the creme de la creme. The speeds of KNRC frontrunners are out of this world, and I would appreciate Tapio's input, he made us want to always drive on the limit," he said.
The desire to do achieve new limits makes CRS team of Jasmeet and Ravi Chana return to race weekends time.snd times again.
“This year has been hard though. We didn’t finish two rallies. we suffered a gearbox failure and turbo failure in Nakuru and Nanyuki. Safari was a problem to finish because in the last stage we lost power steering and 4WD, so we struggled but managed to pull through after the dusty Kedong,” he said.
He added: “In Meru, we drove on a very wet surface from the start to the end, Eldoret was also extremely wet.”
Jasmeet is being sponsored by Identisys, a leading card solution firm.
KNRC GROUP N FINAL STANDINGS
JASMEET CHANA'S CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
*2019 KNRC overall ranking: 6th
*KNRC Category: Premier Class
*2019 KNRC Group N Champion
*KNRC Division One Champion: 2015 with Ravi Chana
*KNRC Division Three Champion: 2013 navigated by George Njoroge (same year his elder brothers Jaswinder and Ravi won Group S)
*KNRC S class Champion: 2011 in a Toyota Celica GT4 with Ravi Chana
*Two Wheel Drive champion: 2007 and 2009 in a VW Golf with Raju Kalsi and Sudhir Thatthi respectively
"KCB KMSC Rally 2014: 3rd overall
