The third round of the Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC) is set for 20 May; the Nakuru rally. It will be organized by the Rift Valley Motor Club and will have three competitive stages run twice; the stages will be Soy (27.52 km), Warrior (25.92 km), and Mbweha (24.44 km). The total competitive distance of the event will be 155.76km.
The second round, which was the Equator/Voi rally, was won by Karan Patel with co-driver Tauseef Khan in their Ford Fiesta R5 but did not put in an entry for the Nakuru event. The Machakos rally was the first event on the Kenyan calendar and it was won by Jeremiah Wahome with co-driver Victor Okundi in their Ford Fiesta R3, the crew is also absent from the upcoming event. The Machakos rally win was the first victory of Wahome/Okundi in the KNRC.
Reconnaissance for the rally routes and scrutineering were done today, only eight competitors were left after scrutineering was done, and there were ten entries on the list. The two crews that did not make the start list were: Paras Pandya with co-driver Falgun Bhojak and Edward Maina with co-driver Anthony Gichohi.
Hamza Anwar, currently competing in the Junior World Rally Championship (JWRC), is number one on the start list set to open the event at 8 am; he is back with co-driver Adnan Din in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10. The FIA/WRC Rally Stars program driver is doing well for his first time in the WRC and has so far taken part in WRC Rally Sweden back in February (it was his first), WRC Croatia Rally in April, and the recently completed WRC Vodafone Rally de Portugal earlier this month. He will participate in five events just as McRae Kimathi did last year. His next stop is the WRC Rally Italia Sardegna from 01-04 June and the final one will be the EKO Acropolis Rally Greece in September.
Hamza’s father, Asad Anwar, will also be competing in the event co-driven by Shameer Yusuf.
Full Start List
- Hamza Anwar/Adnan Din-Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10
- Jasmeet Chana/Ravi Chana-Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10
- Asad Anwar/Shameer Yusuf-Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10
- Kush Patel/Mudasar Chaudry-Subaru Impreza
- Nikhil Sachania/Deep Patel-Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10
- Amman Shah/Rahil Shah-Subaru Impreza
- Shakeel Khan/Assad Mughal-Ford Escort
- Ghalib Hajee/Riyaz Ismail-Porsche 911