Chana Out To Widen Lead In Machakos Rally
NAIROBI, Kenya- The eighth round of the 2022 Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC) series heads to the expansive Lisa Farm in Machakos County on Saturday.
Focused to widen his lead in the second last round of the series is competition leader Jasmeet ‘Iceman’ Chana who is commanding the standings on 187 points.
Chana enjoys a 20 point advantage from second placed Karan Patel who has bagged five of the eight rounds.
Surprisingly, Chana has not won any of the rounds of the series, he has instead finished all the eight legs of the season in second place.
Ahead of the Machakos contest, Chana has been putting many hours into the works this week, doing several performance tests in Maili Tisa region to ensure his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X is meticulously prepared for grueling battle ahead.
“The car has undergone vigorous test-drives in the past week. We are hopeful that all will go well during the event,” he told Standard Sports.
“There are no new parts fitted to the car after the last Bamba rally in Coast but all we have done is to make sure everything is working the way it should be.
“But if it rains on the race-day, then it will be very tricky as Lisa Farm is all black cotton soil. All in all, it will be exciting to see how the title fight with Karan pans out at Lisa,” the Ongole Beef sponsored Chana stated.
Patel, on the other hand, dropped to second position on the log after failing to finish the Mombasa Motor Club Bamba Rally which counted towards the seventh edition of the 2022 series.
The KNRC title race is officially a two-horse race between Chana and Patel who are chasing their maiden career top-flight titles with zeal and vigor.
Third placed Leonardo Varese is out of contention for the main KNRC title but will be going for an unprecedented double victory in the Two Wheel Drive and Division 3. Varese only needs a finish to seal both titles.
The Machakos Rally has attracted KNRC regulars among them Patel’s brother Kush, Rajveer Thethy, Shakeel Khan (Classic), Edward Maina and Daren Miranda (2WD) among others.
The rally will feature three repeated stages-Phill (30.27km), Mickey (28.22km) and Phinny (14.95km)-which make up a cumulative competitive total of 146.16km and a total liaison distance of 2.84km.
“The route is compact, which means that transport will be less than 3-kilometers. The course is not the usual Lisa roads that drivers are used to. It’s a totally different technical experience,” Clerk of the Course Helen Shiri explained.
The 2022 KNRC series has been to Nakuru, IL-Bisil, Nanyuki, Eldoret, twice in Naivasha for the WRC Safari Rally and ARC Equator Rally and most recently Bamba in North Coast.
KNRC STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 7 -MMC BAMBA RALLY
DRIVERS
1 Jasmeet Chana “Iceman” 187
2 Karan K Patel 167
3 Leonardo Varese 75
4 Maxine Wahome 74
5 Kush Patel 73
6 Carl “Flash” Tundo 59
7 Steve Mwangi 49
8 Jeremiah Wahome 41
9 Ghalib Hajee 40
10 Raaji Bharij. 33
10=Zameer Verjee 33
CO-DRIVERS
1 Ravi Chana 187
2 Tauseef Khan 167
3 Kigo Kareithi 75
4 Murage Wa Waigwa 74
5 Mudassar Chaudry 73
6 Riyaz Ismail 52
7 Dennis Mwenda 49
8 Deep Patel 45
9 Victor Okundi 41
10 Tim Jessop 39
