Rising stars Maxine and McRae keep fire burning

McRae Kimathi and Mwangi Kioni finished fourth in the KCB Thika Rally in a Ford Fiesta at the weekend.

The crew is in good form, having finished in a commendable third place in the African Rally Championship Rwanda Gorilla Mountain Rally on October 24.

 “We feel good and lucky to have finished the Thika Rally in fourth place without major problems. The first stage was really rough, but we survived in the rest of the stages to maintain our good form,’’ McRae told Nation Sport.

Sole female driver Maxine Wahome and her navigator Linet Ayuko were fifth in a Subaru Impreza in the Thika race. The crew finished second in the 2021 Mini Classic Rally early this month.

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Sikh Union Club of Nairobi will close the KCB Kenya National Rally Championship season with its Guru Nanak Rally on December 11-12.

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Frenchman Sebastien Ogier is headed for retirement after clinching his eighth World Rally Championship (WRC) title in nine years.

The 37-year-old wrapped up the title on Sunday at Monza Rally on Sunday after holding off his Toyota teammate Elfyn Evans. Ogier moved to touching distance of Sebastian Loeb’s record of nine world title.

Between them, the two Frenchmen have won 17 of the last 18 titles. Ogier lost the 2019 title fight to Estonian Ott Tanak of Hyundai.

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Major WRC teams like Hyundai, Toyota and Ford will return for the 2022 WRC Safari Rally in addition to a big number of local drivers.

Kenya will host the competition from June 23-26 after successfully staging this year’s event in Naivasha.

The competition will again be centred in Naivasha. Sebastian Ogier won this year’s contest.

It will be the second year running that Kenya will appear in the WRC series since it made a comeback to the FIA-sanctioned rally this year after an absence of 19 years.

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Did you know what …

Maximum permitted lateness (OTL) means….

If for whatever reason you do not visit a control within this time, you are deemed to have gone OTL (Outside or Over Time Limit) which will result in a major penalty as defined in your event regulations.

There are occasions where any lateness can be made up (e.g. lunch halts) and you depart from the outgoing control back on your scheduled time.

However, because penalties for going OTL are very severe, if you are running late, there may be times when missing out competitive sections in order to reach a main control without going OTL may incur fewer penalties.

Always remember that being early at a control can incur even greater penalties than being late, so read regulations in detail.

How long is a rally stage? Stages vary in length from five to 60kms, with the cars’ times being recorded after each stage to the tenth of a second.

Over the entire event, the special stage distance must not be more than 250 km. forget about ‘first across the line’. Rally cars don’t race directly against each other.

What does SS mean in rally? Special Stage: A special stage (SS) is a section of closed road at a stage rallying event.

Racers attempt to complete the stage in the shortest time. A race on a special stage is coordinated such that each competing racer begins after a set interval, to reduce the chance of impedance by other competitors.

How does a rally work? Rally racing or just rally is a type of motorsport run on closed road sections.

There is a driver and co-driver in each car. Rally is also conducted on different surfaces from snow to gravel to tarmac.

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