Two-time African Rally Champion Karan Patel is hoping to stretch his African Rally Championship (ARC) advantage as the action roars into day three on Saturday at the World Rally Championship (WRC) Safari Rally in Naivasha.
Patel is competing in both the WRC2 class and the ARC category at this year’s Safari.
The Kenyan currently leads the ARC standings with a cumulative time of 1:57:48.4, holding a comfortable margin over compatriot Aakif Virani, who sits second on 2:09:52.7.
Rwanda’s Christian Kanangire completes the provisional ARC podium with a time of 2:26:29.0.
In the fiercely contested WRC2 category, Patel sits sixth overall, with Virani following closely in eighth.
At the top of the WRC2 standings is Estonia’s Robert Virves with a cumulative time of 7:27.7, with Britain’s Gus Greensmith (1:10:47.8) and Paraguay’s Fabrizio Zakdivar (1:11:1.6) rounding off the podium.
In the overall rally classification, Patel lies 14th (1:57:48.4), the highest placed Kenyan.
Sweden’s Oliver Solberg leads the overall standings with a time of 1:33:50.2, followed by teammates Sébastien Ogier (1:33:51.2) and Elfyn Evans (1:34:10.7).
Patel admitted the opening two days of the Safari proved punishing, with the rally already testing man and machine.
“It’s been tough. The first day was the toughest; we only did two stages,” said Patel.
“Today was drier, so we managed to do seven stages. The aim was simply to get the car through nice and clean,” he added.
Despite the punishing terrain and unpredictable conditions, Patel believes his machine is holding up well heading into what promises to be a gruelling Saturday.
“The car is in good shape. I hope tomorrow we can keep a good pace and maintain our lead in the African Rally Championship,” he said.
“There’s still a long way to go, but we are hoping for the best. We will try to get through nice and clean and hopefully do what we can do.”
Virani echoed Patel’s sentiments about the brutality of the opening leg, revealing the mechanical struggles they had to overcome.
“Day one was hell, we clogged up all our radiators,” said Virani.
“Today was okay, but mud was still clogged in some parts of the radiator.”
Saturday’s itinerary is expected to be one of the most punishing tests of the rally, with crews tackling the longest stage of the event, Soysambu 1 (24.94km), before heading to Elementaita 1 (18.01km) and Sleeping Warriors 1 (18.41km), with the trio of stages repeated in the afternoon loop.
Heading into the critical third day, Virani knows the margin for error will be razor-thin.
“Saturday is the Achilles’ heel for everyone,” he said.
“I think the challenge will be Soysambu and Elementaita because Sleeping Warriors is pretty easy.”
In the ARC fight, Virani will be chasing quicker stage times in a bid to pile pressure on Patel at the summit.
“I am second at the moment, so it’s looking okay. We will try to get some good times and see how it goes.”
