Legendary rally driver Azar Anwar has done it all. He was the schools’ bicycle race champion, tried his hand in marathon races and clinched the boxing featherweight title during his days in university before venturing into rallying.
His father drove in the first Safari Rally while his uncle raced motorbikes at “Langa Langa” just before he was born.
But tragedy struck Azar’s family when his uncle died due to a practice accident. In a bid to overcome the loss, his father took their family to Arusha and shut them off from motorsport—yet racing was flowing in his blood.
Azar attended primary education in Arusha, Tanzania, secondary in Nakuru and finally ended his successful academic journey at a university in Nairobi where he graduated with a Mechanical Engineering undergraduate degree.
Today, Azar, in his mid 60’s, no longer races rally cars but spends much of his time in preparing and grooming the younger generation to embrace the “Man and Machine” game on a low budget through his “Raia Motorsport” initiative. Raia Motorsport organises grassroots budget rallies ostensibly to tap talent.
“My aim is to help realise motorsport dream of enthusiasts from all over Kenya and beyond by helping them with training opportunities, advise guidance, technical support, management and even in sourcing sponsorships. Safety and discipline are key elements to success in motorsport and prominent in my training. My motorsport training program is aimed at finding Kenya’s future champions.”
Azar has had so many exciting and memorable seasons in his long-standing racing career. In 1995, he came face to face with international fame in the unheard-of Daewoo car.
In 1998, the never-say-never veteran became the first-ever winner of both KNRC and Group ‘N’. After his maiden KNRC title in 1998, he bounced back with back-to-back championship crowns in 2005 and 2006 just when motorsport fraternity had written him off and expected him to be retiring. In 2011, he won the KCB Eldoret Rally aged 57 years.
“After winning the championship in 2005 and 2006, I was in heavy debt and had to miss the 2007 season to recover. If it were not for the Oil-Libya sponsorship, I would still not even be able to rally at all. My greatest blessing is my wife Tabassum. Her hospitality is famous within our family and in motorsport circles. Everyone is made to feel welcome at our home, rally workshop and racing camp. Our service crew always has lots of delicious foods and Tabassum keeps team morale up. Most of my dreams have already been fulfilled. Yet I really had a very hard time for many years to find success and break into motorsport. Along the way, I have been cheated, blocked and misled which is very disheartening..... I want to help others with my dream to achieve success and enjoyment with less pain and cost.”
Azar has always tried to promote and train everyone who joined their team or approached him for help. Some of the top technicians who build Kenyan champions started their careers as team members of Anwar’s Aztek Motorsports.
“Jaspal Ubhi made Rory Green champion, Mike Mwangi built Lee Rose’s championship-winning contraptions, Peter Mburu made Charles Hinga who he is today while Charan Thethy made Leo Varese the multiple 2WD champions,” explains Azar.
Some of the navigators who helped him succeed in his illustrious racing career were Nadir Sunderjee, Raj Burmi, Zain Essajee, Kent Singh, Hassan Sidi, Tim Davies, late Farakh Yusuf, Dave Macharia, Surinder Thatti, Shailen Shah, Jamil Khan, Ian Street, Kul Sandhu, Arshad Khan, Abdul Sidi, Tom Muriuki, Dan Maxwell, Frank Gitau, Imran Khan, Tej Sehmi, George Mwangi and Pastor Julius Ngige.
Asked what he would you like to see happen to rally in Kenya, Azar went said: “I would want to see hundreds of local new faces joining as drivers, navigators, controllers, organisers, sponsors, mechanics, teams etc. This will assure us a healthy motorsport future, new business and job opportunities.”
Azar was born in Nairobi on May 14, 1954. He always was interested in fast cars and wanted to race no matter what. Apart from winning the Safari Rally in 2006, Azar was also declared the motor sportsman of the year in 2008.
“Despite winning many events and championships, the motorsports personality award still swept me off my feet. I was in shock and cannot even remember clearly going up to the stage and the cheering. This meant so much to me because it was recognition by distinguished motorsports people,” said Azar.
After his Safari victory in 2005, veteran Azar went into the history books as one of the very few drivers to have won the Safari Rally title as a defending Kenya National Rally and Group ‘N’ champion. Azar achieved the historic win when the opposition was at its best with over 15 foreign drivers and all the top local boys in the mix.
These days, Azar spends a lot of time working at his family garage. Driving on farms with his father saw him learn motorsport the hard way, build reliable machines and drive in difficult conditions. He did his first Safari Rally in 1981 and has done many of them since.
“I have serviced and been a test driver for Nissan, Daihatsu and Citroen.”
Azar builds Kenya’s first Group ‘N’ Daewoo. “I first went to the MD of Hyundai who did not believe in my offer to make his car a Safari winner. Kingsway, however, saw the potential to promote Daewoo and sponsored me. After winning the Safari in 1995 (2WD World Cup event that year), my Daewoo was airlifted to Korea, China, Israel, India, London and many other International motor shows.
Daewoo invited Manish Shah, our MD and my navigator to accompany me to Korea and to the Seoul International Motorshow. Several visits to their factories and research centres followed. I also visited Subaru at Prodrive, Ford Motorsport, Hyundai WRC team and SA team, Mitsubishi Ralliart WRC, Ohlins in Sweden, Proflex in the Netherlands and many other builders of leading rally cars and parts.”
On the homologated cars, Azar is of the opinion that FIA technical regulations for International rallies are very complicated and need to be strictly followed.
“Vehicles have to comply exactly to homologation papers. I designed and made the homologation for Group ‘N’ as well as Group ‘A’ for the Daewoo through the factory and the process was tedious and expensive. These were then used all over the world by Daewoo dealers. Because manufacturers use motorsport publicity to sell their brand, they want their latest vehicles to be seen competing internationally. Therefore, they limit the time any model can participate to up five years with a little extension. Fortunately, because Africa is a small market, FIA allowed an extra four years for expired homologated models. In Kenya, we allowed for another two years which helps us to use older and cheaper rally cars.”
Azar regrets having not had a feel of supercars as other locals did back in the day. “That is my one regret! I have almost never had a serious ‘works’ rally car. The accident Evolution 8 we had used is probably the nearest to a ‘Super Car’. I don’t support the notion of supercars. Definitely not for our local scene because the high cost denies the opportunity for our talented drivers. I owe my success to the strong support of my family who has not only put up with my long absences while preparing or rallying but also provided much-needed hospitality and moral support.”
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:
-Three-times KNRC and Group N Champion in 1998, 2005 and 2006
-2008 Kenya Motor Sportsman-of-the-Year
-2006 KCB Safari Rally winner with George Mwangi