Karan Patel has bagged his second career Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC) win following his stellar performance in Il-Bisil, Kajiado County. Driving a Ford Fiesta Rally 2, formerly R5, Karan won all the four stages at stake on the KMSC Kajiado Rally to open an early 33 points lead on the log.
The Nairobi driver also scooped 3 bonus points for winning the power stage which incidentally was the repeat run of the 20.29km Marble 2 stage. He beat Jasmeet Chana to second by a massive 12 minutes, while Steve Mwangi aka Chifo celebrated his career first podium in third place. Daren Miranda also chalked up his career best fourth in a Subaru Impreza. .
Speaking on his victory, an elated Karan said, “We knew what we were going into after we had used the same route during the season closing event last year. So we expected to face a lot of public vehicles and wildlife. With that, we attacked quite a bit as we didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks like we do when competing with Carl Tundo and Boldy Chager. The plan for now is to keep winning and hope we can do all the events in the season.”
On his part, Jasmeet Chana had this to say, “The first loop was all good, no problems at all. Trying to catch the R5 of Karan was a tall order. There is a major difference between the R5 and our Evolution 10. We blew our turbo in the repeat run second stage but still managed.”
Mwangi, on his part said, “This is my first ever podium. Since we started rallying we have been overly excited about it. We hope to go for more podium good-willing,” Mwangi said of his fairy tale finish.
Out of 11 starters who entered the Kenya Motor Sport Club (KMSC) only six managed the demanding 216km course. Rajveer Thethy and McRae Kimathi rolled out of the event in the first and second loops respectively. Other casualties included physically challenged Nikhil Sachania who suffered gearbox gremlins.