The Mombasa Motor Club (MMC) sixth round of the Kenya National Rally Championship took place Saturday, September 18 at the KISCOL Sugar farm in the south coast of Ramisi in Kwale County.
With a competitive distance of 151km, Baldev Charger came out on top of his fellow competitors in the very hot and dusty roads; navigated by Ravi Chana, in their Volkswagen Polo R5, the Kabras Sugar racing sponsored team won with a total time of 01:34:01.5. Speaking to reporters after the event, Charger dedicated his win to team mate Tejveer Rai who is in recovery after suffering the accident he suffered at the WRC Safari rally back in June. This sixth round on the KNRC followed the recently completed Machakos rally, where Charger retired due to a front LH damper failure about 40km into the first stage. This is his second win for the season, his first being the Nakuru rally.
Top Fry’s Carl “Flash” Tundo alongside his co-driver Timothy Jessop came in second place in their Mitsubishi Evolution 10 at 01:36:16.5. Tundo, who is also preparing for the ARC Zambia rally in the coming days representing Kenya, was behind by 2:15secs. He is the current KNRC leader and is holding on strong.
Jasmeet Chana and his co-driver brother Ravi Chana came in third place, they had a few bumps in the journey but managed to come out with a podium finish at 01:44:41.5. The CRS Racing team were thankful they managed to complete the rally. Rounding out the top five were Arrow rally team’s Aakif Virani navigated by Azhar Bhatti in their Skoda Fabia at a time of 01:47:47.7 in overall fourth place. Virani was the division one winner. And in fifth place was Bushy Racing’s Ammar Haq co-driven by Zahir Shah in their Mitsubishi Evolution 10 at 01:49:51.
The only female in the top ten was Maxine Wahome alongside her co-driver Linet Ayuko, they came in overall seventh place but were the division two winners, at a time of 02:09:01 in their Subaru Imprezza under the Maxine Rally team. This was one of their best performances and they made other female drivers proud.
The Ramisi rally claimed a lot of causalities and among those that retired were Eric Bengi who retired in the first stages due to overheating of the car; WRC Rally programs youngster Jeremy Wahome whose car rolled after the fourth stage, his team mate Hamza Anwar also retired due to mechanical failings, Piero Canobbio, and Nikhil Sachania. The seventh round on the KNRC calendar is the Nanyuki rally which specific date is yet to be announced.
