Perfect five for Karan Patel in Eldoret Rally
The Ford Fiesta of race winner Karan Patel, navigated by Tauseef Khan, cruises through the Kedong stage during the final day action of the ARC Equator Rally on April 3, 2022.
What you need to know:
- The crew, driving a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo10 for the first time this season, trailed the similar car of Jasmeet Chana for most of the competition before the Patel snatched the overall lead at the end of the last two stages of the competition.
Despite suffering a puncture in the opening stage of the Eldoret Rally, Karan Patel and Tauseef Khan scored their fifth consecutive victory of the 2022 Kenya National Rally Championship series.
“We are happy to win the rally. We thought this was another Uganda Rally incident after getting a puncture but we survived to record our fifth victory of the season,” an ecstatic Patel told Nation Sport.
The crew, driving a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo10 for the first time this season, trailed the similar car of Jasmeet Chana for most of the competition before the Patel snatched the overall lead at the end of the last two stages of the competition.
“We tried our best but lost it in the end. We stayed ahead for as long as we could but the car lacked proper balance as it was losing boost at times. However, we enjoyed it as much as we could,” Chana said.
It was a disappointing start for the event which was one of the best organised rallies in the history of the Kenya National Rally Championship in the last few years.
Only 10 cars entered the fifth round of the current KNRC round with seven finishing the event.
Former National Formula Two champions, Leo Varese and Kigo Kariethi, finished sixth driving a Toyota Auris.
Linet Ayuko, the sole female navigator in the rally, guided Gideon Kimani to seventh overall driving a Subaru Impreza.
Sam Karangatha did well to finish in the fifth overall place driving the Minti Motorsports-sponsored Datsun 180B.
Provisional results:
1. Karan Patel/Tauseef Khan (Mitsubishi Evolution 10) 62mins:13.5secs
2. Jasmeet Chana/Ravi Chana (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo10) 67:07
3. Ghalib Hajee/Riyaz Ismail (Mitsubishi Evolution 10) 76:02
4. Kush Patel/Mudasar Chaudry (Subaru Impreza) 76:38.3
5. Sam Karangatha/Steven Nyorri (Datsun 180B)95:30.4
6. Leo Varese/Kigondu Kareithi (Toyota Auris)102:54.8
7. Gideon Kimani/Linet Ayuko (Subaru Impreza) 114:15.5
