Piero lays down KCB Thika Rally target for his team

NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 9 – Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC) Division 1 driver Peiro Canobbio expects to start this month’s KCB RSC Thika Rally in good shape – but wants to drive sensibly fast to be even better.

The Naivas-sponsored driver will be entering a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 10 in the Rallye Sports Club (RSC) organized round which will traverse the vast Kiambu County.

The event will count towards the eight and penultimate leg of the Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC) with the ceremonial start being centered at the MKU University in Thika.

Piero is based in Kilifi and has been able to take advantage of the long break to execute more testing in his home area.

The veteran driver is optimistic the work his technical team carried out on the EvoX since the last rally in Nanyuki will pay dividends when the series lands inside Thika event for the penultimate round.

“We have run quite a number of performance tests and we are happy with the condition of the car. It will be exciting to race the roads in Thika which will be new to us,” explained, who finished 6th overall in last month’s Nanyuki Rally.”

“While his home round held in Ramisi was a frustrating event for Piero where he retired, he is optimistic having finished three out of six events he has participated in this season including 8th in Machakos and 12th on ARC Equator Rally.”

 “I would say the team feels good going into the Thika event,” he said, adding: “We had a lot of confidence in Nanyuki and the essence is to always stay in the top 10. We still have a lot of work to do and my expectations for this year are definitely a lot higher than last year.”

Piero is an old hand in the sport having started his racing in Italy in the 1980s and teaming up with codrivers like Capelini Giorgio, T. Gianfranco and Roggero Pacio. He has driven quite a number of cars in Italy including the Lancia Delta in 1987, Lancia 037 in 1986 and the Autobranch A112 Abarth in 1980.

He performed well in quite a number of rallies in Italy including Rally Piancavallo which he won thrice in succession in 1980, 81 and 82.

In Africa, Peiro has done many Kenya Nationals as well as FIA African Rally Champion events in Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania.

In 2017 he finished 8th overall on Rwanda Mountain Gorilla Rally and retired on Oryx Energies Rally of Tanzania the same year.