Motorsports awards ceremony set for next weekend

The 2022 National Awards Ceremony will be held on January 28. 

The function to be organised by Kenya Motor Sports Federation, will see awards being handed to  winners in different categories of the national sporting bodies such as Rallying, Motocross, Autocross, Tracking races and other categories.

Additional information will be provided prior to the event.

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Tuta Mionki will be the Clerk of the Course for the opening round of the 2023 KBL-sponsored Kenya National Rally Championship to be organised by the Rallye Sports Club of Nairobi on February 4 to 5.

“We are going back to Lisa Farm on Sunday with recce on February 4. The route will ideally be the same as last year but we are going in there next week so we will confirm it then and see if any, what minor changes need to be made,” Tuta told Nation Sport.

Helen Shiri, who was the Clerk of the Course last year, will this year be the Event Director.

“It's literally the same thing we did last year but we are just looking to see if we can start from Machakos town to rally to the people so it would be a transport section from Machakos People's Park,” said Shiri. 

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Did you you know that…

Gerard Miller of Tanzania was placed fifth overall  in the 1988 Paris to Dakar Marathon Raid Rally in a Range Rover. He was then navigated by Marcelo Sigantaler. Miller says the rally was much tougher those days, running over 22 days of hard driving.

He first tackled the event in 1987 when he finished 28th driving a standard Range Rover with Claudio Racinero.

“I lived in Kenya during my off season. I was born and raised in Arusha. I did my Secondary School at Prince of Wales in Nairobi. Fortunately I tackled  my first Safari Rally in 1984 and finished it,” Miller told Nation Sport from Arusha.

Miller contested about six Safari Rallies from 1984-1989. He finished in the top-15 positions in most of the events.

Miller added: “I clinched the Tanzania Rally Championship title several times. I finally retired from active rallying in Dec 2017 after winning the Tanzania Rally Championship again.”

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Hamza Anwar and Adnan Din will represent Kenya in the chosen upcoming 2023 FIA WRC events. 

Africa is represented by Hamza Anwar set to compete inside Europe for the first time in his career. 

Anwar is one of Kenya’s latest promising young talents and made his WRC debut at the 2021 Safari Rally at the wheels of a Fiesta Rally3 scoring second place in class. 

2023 FIA Junior WRC crews:

Driver/Co-Driver: William Creighton (IRL)Liam Regan (IRL), Laurent Pellier (FRA)Marine Pelamourgues (FRA), Grégoire Munster (LUX)Louis Louka (BEL), Eamonn Kelly (IRL), Conor Mohan (IRL),Tom Rensonnet (BEL), Loïc Dumont (BEL), Diego Dominguez (PRY), Rogelio Peñate (ESP), Raúl Hernández (ESP), Rodrigo Sanjuan (ESP), Roberto Blach (ESP)Mauro Barreiro (ESP), Hamza Anwar (KEN), Adnan Din (KEN).

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Following the decision by the World Rally Championship (WRC) to withdraw car number 43 from its listing this season, the East African Safari Classic Rally followed suit in paying tribute to Ken Block by omitting number 43 in all its future events.

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Nasser Al Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel won the Dakar Rally 2023.

The Qatari driver maintained his lead over Sébastien Loeb and Fabian Lurquin to take his 5th Dakar victory. He now holds more titles than Ari Vatanen and is second only to Stéphane Peterhansel and his 8 titles. 

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Former WRC2 champion Andreas Mikkelsen has waved away any suggestions that he could sign for M-Sport Ford in 2023.