The KCB Thika Rally organized by Rallye Sports Club(RSC) took place on Sunday 21 November 2021 (the eighth leg) saw current KNRC lead, Top Fry Racing’s Carl “Flash” Tundo and co-driver Timothy Jessop in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X finish first at a time of 1:47:09.1 with a total competitive distance of 140.88km.
The rally that took place in Thika proved really demanding, technical and hard to many as only seven drivers completed the whole race out of sixteen that were on the final entry list and starters. Mount Kenya University Thika campus hosted the rally, Service Park, headquarters, and the 3.2km super special stage at the Graduation Pavilion. Carl Tundo and Timothy Jessop suffered a few engine issues especially the puncture in the SS1 Buffalo stage but they managed to come out victorious at the end. This is Tundo’s fourth win for this season in the Kenya National Rally Championship, and with him in first place on the standings, this is a good stride for him to win this championship with the last and final round closing in the KCB Guru Nanak rally on December 12 in Stony Athi.
Kabras Sugar Racing’s Baldev Charger and co-driver Ravi Soni came in a close second in their Volkswagen Polo GTi R5 with a time of 1:47:38.5. They missed the first place position by only 29.4 seconds! They suffered mechanical issues with their rear left driveshaft breaking in SS1 forcing them to drive in 3WD. The Buffalo stage (SS1) was really tough on almost all drivers, the 30.52km stage was tricky and demanding on the machines. Charger, did win the power stage (the SSS Ndula2 stage), picking up some good points to add to his second position.
In third place was KCB/Jaguar Petroleum/CRS Racing team’s Jasmeet Chana and co-driver brother Ravinder Chana in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X with a total time of 1:52:15.5. They have had a steady progress throughout the season and this was yet another podium finish for them. WRC/FIA Rally Stars Program’s McRae Kimathi and co-driver Kioni Mwangi took the fourth position in their Ford Fiesta Rally3 at a time of 1:56:58:5 one of their best performances all season long. McRae won the division one class. The all-female crew in the season, Maxine Rally team/Safaricom’s Maxime Wahome and co-driver Linet Ayuko in their Subaru Impreza rounded out the top five with a time of 2:03:32.1.
Jungle Racing team’s Ng’ang’a John and co-driver Edward Ndukui in their Subaru Impreza came in sixth place at a time of 2:13:14.6 and in seventh place, completing the finishers’ list was Team GOA’s Miranda Daren and co-driver Shah Amman also in a Subaru Impreza at a time of 2:19:13.5.
Among many of the retirements of the rally were: Menengai Cream Racing’s Eric Bengi and co-driver Mutuma Peter who retired in SS1 Buffalo stage their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X after hitting a rock barely 2km at the start and broke their front suspension arm, first off the ramp Amwari Issa and co-driver Njiru Job in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X retired in SS2, Anwar Hamza and co-driver Din Adnan retired in SS4 due to mechanical issues with their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X and Kavisi Evans and co-driver Aswani Absalom in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X retired in SS1. Three competitors were disqualified from the race and fined after being found in breach of article 11.11B of the KMSF National Competition rules. Piero Canobbio was fined Kenya Shillings 20,000 for deviating from the route and Aakif Virani also Shillings 20,000 from deviating from the route twice. Stephen Mwangi was fined Kenyan Shillings 30,000 for failing to honour the summons of the stewards.
Fans were allowed to watch some stages of this rally like the pavilion stages and most are looking forward to the last round in December.
