All-Uganda crew of Yasin Nasser and Joseph Kamya will be among the star attractions in this weekend’s Eldoret Rally.
Nasser is no stranger to Kenyan terrain having entered the Safari and Equator rally on numerous occasions.
Nasser is a two-time Uganda rally champion (2019 and 2023) and won the Tanzania Rally last year.
Behind the wheel of a Ford Fiesta Rally 2, Nasser will take Kenya’s rising star Samman Vohra (Skoda Fabia Rally2) and KNRC Champion Jasmeet Chana in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X.
Nasser, of the Moil Rally Team, won the SMC Masaka Rally to seal 2023 Uganda’s National Rally Championship (NRC). He also featured in last year’s FIA African Rally Championship.
Nasser’s closest challenger, Samman, was one of the fastest drivers on the KNRC last year.
Samman said his car is all set for the Western Kenya Motor Club round.
“The objective this year is to keep improving our pace rally by rally. The car has gone through a major strip-down and rebuild in readiness for the 2024 season. We are planning for Safari and Eldoret presents a good opportunity for us to dust off the cobwebs,” Samman said during scrutineering in Eldoret.
Kenyan champion Jasmeet also landed in the County of Champions exuding confidence.
He said: “We are excited to start of the KNRC series but it’ll be hard to fight the Rally 2 cars this year. We shall do our best and focus on strong finishes. Our objective is to retain our championship by building on points at every round. We did a small test drive and all looks good.”
Eldoret Rally will feature a total distance of 299km of which 139km will be competitive. The longest competitive stage distance will be 35.20km while the shortest is 17.14.
The opening stage at Kaptagat is 1.8 km and will be done once while Bugar (17.14 km) will be covered thrice.
The ceremonial start will be on Saturday at the Eldoret Town Hall. The cars spent the night at Rupa Mall.
“Parc Ferme will open on 0630hrs (Saturday) for cars to proceed to Eldoret Town Hall as per the road book, where all cars should be in a pre-start Parc Ferme by 0700hrs and any late arrival will be penalised,” said the event organiser, Jagjeet Patter.
KNRC — Eldoret
1 #4 Samman Vohra /Alfir Khan (Skoda Fabia Rally2)
2 #100 Yasin Nasser/Joseph Kamya (Ford Fiesta)
3 #1 Jasmeet Chana/Ravi Chana (Mitsubishi Evolution 10 NAT-B13)
4 #7 Ian Duncan /Jaspal Matharu (Nissan Patrol P/UP NAT-SPV)
5 #31 Minesh Rathod /Yusuf Shameer (Mitsubishi Evolution 10)
6 #40 Ghalib Hajee/Riyaz Ismail (Mitsubishi Evolution 10 NAT-B13)
7 #25 Joey Ghose/Kashif Shaikh (Porsche 911 NAT-Classic)
8 #9 Jose Sardinha/Assad Mghal (Pajero Mitsubishi NAT- SPV)
9 #50 Khalid Omar /Salim Mohamed (Subaru Impreza NAT- S)
Samman Vohra’s Skoda after the strip down.
