Kenyan drivers go on the rampage in Arusha Guru Nanak Rally

Kenyan drivers emphatically dominated the Arusha Guru Nanak Rally in Tanzania over the weekend taking four of the first five positions.

Karan Patel won the rally in a Ford Fiesta.

Former Safari Rally winner Ian Duncan was placed second overall in a Nissan Patrol out of the 14 finishers in the event that had attracted 21 entries.  

Kenyan drivers, who have been deprived of the sport in their home country due to Covid-19 restrictions, showed their hunger with some impressive performance on the Tanzanian roads.

 “This is my second victory here. Makes me very happy and excited.

My Ford Fiesta went very well and I led from start to finish. I first won the rally in 2018 in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo10. We are very excited in celebrating this special victory,’’ said Patel.

Hamza Anwar/Harshil Limbani (Subaru Impreza) and Evans Kavisi/Absolom (Subaru Impreza) were the other top-placed Kenyan drivers in fourth and fifth places respectively.

Eight out of the 12 Kenyan competitors in the road race finished.

Those who failed to finish the penultimate round of the Tanzania Rally Championship included Hussein Malik/James Mwangi, Riyaz Ismail, who was navigating local driver Gurjit Dhani, and Ravi Chana, who was with home driver Manveer Birdi.

Ismail and his driver survived an accident where their Skoda Proto got burnt.

“It was a very scary moment. I spotted the flames at Gurjit’s feet when the car was at max speed.

“We managed to stop and rush out of the inferno.  

“Fortunately, spectators helped us put the fire out with,” said Ismail.

Arusha Guru Nanak Rally provisional results:

1. Karan Patel/Tauseef Khan (Ford Fiesta) 67.36mins. 2. Ian Duncan/Tej Sehmi (Nissan Patrol) 69.09, 3. Randeep Birdi/Zubayr Piredina (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO10) 72.13, 4. Hamza Anwar/Harshil Limbani (Subaru Impreza) 76.48. 5. Evans Kavisi/Absolom Aswani (Subaru Impreza) 78.11, 6. Altaf Munge/Ally Hamoud (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo10) 80.16, 7. Mandeep Singh/Awadh Bafadhi (Subaru Impreza) 83.24, 8. Daudi Charles/Albert Macha (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo10) 89.34, 9. Jamil Shahbhai/Aron John (Subaru Impreza) 91.51, 10. Jayant Shah/Sahil Haria (Porsche 911) 97.11.
 
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Did you know that…

Rally cars run upgraded engine valves to allow more fuel in and exhaust gasses out.

This makes for bigger bangs in the engine. Bigger bangs make more noise.

The compression ratios are also higher than in a standard road car and the engines are designed to rev higher than that of an average road car.