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Kenya's Karan Patel wins ARC Equator Rally

 

Karan Patel secured his third victory on the trot after winning the African Rally Championship Equator Rally on Sunday.

It was a top three finish for Ford Fiesta rally cars. Navigated by Tauseef Khan in a Ford Fiesta, though the crew suffered a broken drive shaft on Day One, Patel stayed ahead of his rivals to win Kenya’s round of the 2022 African Rally Championship for the first time in his rallying career.

‘’I am really excited and over the moon winning the Equator Rally. I am now concentrating on tackling the rest of the ARC series. Winning the Equator Rally was a good experience for me and my team,’’ Patel told Nation Sport.

When asked about his feeling on the Loldia Stage, 31-year-old Patel said he was glad to have tackled the "exciting" stage which was 19 kms long, 8,000 feet above sea level and with more than 22 hairpins. 

Zambian Leroy Gomes and his wife Urshilla maintained the lead on the overall standings of the 2022 African Rally Championship after finishing second in the Kenyan event driving Ford Fiesta.

The crew won the first round of the series in Ivory Coast last month. They lead the series with 43 points. The next round will  be held in Uganda on May 7-8.

‘’We are happy to have finished second in the event which also helps us maintain our lead in the ARC standings,’’ said Leroy.  

FIA ARC points are allocated to the top 10 finishers on a 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1 basis in both the drivers' and manufacturers' championships.

Jeremy Wahome, the former F3 renowned driver, finally scored career best result by finishing fourth overall in one of the major rounds of Kenyan rallying.

Wahome, who was navigated by Victory Okundi in a Ford Fiesta finished over four minutes behind the winning car of Patel.

The crew, which had finished in second position, were later penalised one minute for checking out a Time Control early. 

‘’I checked out early out of the Service Point in the morning. It was my silly mistake which has cost us a podium finish,’’ said Okundi.

Maxine Wahome followed her Ladies Rally victory with another good show by finishing in sixth place driving a Subaru Impreza. She was the only female driver.

It was a disappointing end for Raaji Bharij, who was time barred at the Service Park before cars headed for the final day of the competition.

Bharij, whose Ford Escort was lying in fourth place at the end of Day One action, was time barred after mechanics failed to replace the gearbox in time for the start of the final day.

Nine cars were allowed to rejoin the rally after they had retired on the previous day of the competition. Such drivers faced extra penalties before being allowed to race again.

They included McRae Kimathi, Hamza Anwar, Giancarlo Devite, Paras Pandya, Nikhil Sachania and Steve Mwangi among others.

Anwar set fastest stage time in the penultimate section of the competition to prove he has the ability to stay with the top drivers in his Mitsubishi Lancer.

Meanwhile, Surinder Thatthi, the former member of the FIA Rallies Commission said it was discouraging to see lower number of entries in the current competition.

Referring to the recent rounds of the Kenya National Rally Championship where entries hardly reached 15 cars, Thatthi said the whole fraternity needs to recover from the effects of Covid-19 to get back into the rallying scenes with ease.

“Covid seems to be the biggest cause of distraction in most of the motorsports activities. Personally it would be very hard to reduce entry fees but it would be more encouraging for drivers to recover financially from the Covid distraction to start rallying again,” said Thatthi. 

He added: “Reducing Rally Entry and Competition License fees would hurt the organisers more and the competition would suffer tremendously."

Provisional results:

1. Karan Patel/Tauseef Khan (Ford Fiesta) 02:26:55.4

2. Leroy Gomes/Urshlla Gomes (Ford Fiesta) 02:30:08.6

3. Jasmeet Chana/Ravi Chana (Mitsubishi Evolution 10) 02:30:51.0

4. Jeremy Wahome/Victor Okundi (Ford Fiesta) 02:39:56.0

5. Giancarlo Davite/Sylvia Vindevogel (Mitsubishi Evolution 10) 02:42:19.2

6. Maxine Wahome/Waigwa Murage (Subaru Impreza) 02:53:48.4

7. Hamza Anwar/Adnan Din (Mitsubishi Evolution 10) 03:06:15.3

8. McRae Kimathi/Mwangi Kioni (Ford Fiesta) 03:11:41.6

9. Steve Mwangi/Dennis Mwenda (Subaru Impreza) 03:14:53.0

10. Rio Smith/Riyaz Ismail (Ford Fiesta) 03:18:12.0

11. Paras Pandya/Falgun Bhojak (Mitsubishi Evolution) 03:18:18.9    BY DAILY NATION   

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