Patel seeded first in Machakos Rally

Karan Patel, Motorsport Personality of the Year 2022, who is also the current Kenya National Rally Drivers Champion, will be flagged off first in the Rallye Sport Rally that will start Sunday morning.

Patel and Tauseef Khan are seeded first in their Ford Fiesta out of the17 cars expected to participate in the opening round of the 2023 Kenya Breweries Limited-sponsored Kenya National Rally Championship.

Patel is followed by the Chana brothers, Jasmeet and Ravi, in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo10. The crew finished second overall at the end of last year.

Aakhif Virani returns to action after missing several events last year. He is seeded at number three at the wheels of his Skoda Fabia.

Yassin Nasser of Ugana is the sole foreign driver who is seeded at number eight in his Ford Fiesta.

The event to be run Sunday, will be based around Lisa Park by the outskirts of Machakos after the competition is flagged off from the People’s Park in Machakos at 8am in the morning.

Three Competitive Stages will be repeated twice. The total distance will be 154.82 kms. Transport Distance will be 28.98 kms.

The Longest Competitive Stage will be the  Phill/Lisa Farm of 30.58kms. The shortest stage will be the Spectator Stage of 6kms. 

The Spectator Stage will kick off the rally from the People’s Park in Machakos on Sunday morning at 8am.

The official Reconnaissance and Scrutineering of the rally cars will take place on Saturday. 

Tuta Mionki will be the Clerk of the Course while Phineas Kimathi will be in charge as the Event Director. Helen Shiri will be the Club Steward.

With new NCRs, the Classes have been replaced by Divisions in the race for the Championships.

Each of the top seven finishers from the previous overall championship of the Kenya National Rally Championship (in this case from the end of 2022) has to start first on road in one of the seven rounds of the series for fair play. The Safari Rally has its own Seeding List.

The rotation system is to make sure that not the same driver “opens” the stages in all rallies. 

Not all drivers, however courageous or fast, would like to start off first on road as that would mean “clearing” the route for the following cars.

Doors Numbers on the doors of the cars of individuals are based as per the final standings in the overall championship of the previous season. 

Anyone who did not feature in the previous championship and intends to tackle a current event is awarded a number from 100 or 200 upwards respectively. This applies to the foreign drivers also.

The full start list: 

1. Karan Patel/Tauseef Khan (Ford Fiesta),

2. Jasmeet Chana/Ravi Chana (Mitsubishi Evolution10),

3.Akhif Virani/Azar Bhakti (Skoda Fabia),

4.Eric Bengi/Waigwa Murage (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo10),

5. Evans Kavisi/Absolom Aswani (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo10),

6. Issa Amwari/Edward Njoroge (Mitsubishi Lancer Ev10),

7. Jeremy Wahome/Victor Okundi (Ford Fiesta),

8. Yassin Nasser/Joseph Kamya (Ford Fiesta),

9. McRae Kimathi/Mwangi Kinoti (Ford Fiesta),

10. Kush Patel/Mudasar Chaudry (Subaru Impreza),

11. Rio Smith/Riyaz Ismail (Ford Fiesta),

12. Rajveer Thetthy/Wayne Fernandez (Subaru Impreza),

13. Edward Maina/Anthony Gichiohi (Subaru Impreza),

14. Rashminder Bhabra/Daren Bhudia (Datsun Violet),

15. Kush Patel/Mudasar Chaudry (Subaru Impreza),

16.Sam Karangatha/Edward Nduku (Subaru Leone),

17. Sameer Nanji/Vinay Shah (VW Golf MK2).