Multiple former Kenya National Rally Champion Ian Duncan and veteran Asad Anwar are back in the saddle.
Duncan, the 1994 WRC Safari champion, will return to the bucket seat of a Nissan 280Z Classic machine at Sunday's KMSC Kajiado Rally in Il-Bisil.
Asad will be navigated by Shameer Yusuf in a Datsun 180B. Both Duncan and Asad will be testing for the 2023 East African Safari Classic Rally.
Duncan and Asad will score points towards the KNRC Classic Car Championship.
Duncan is the most successful rally driver in the history of the KNRC and will be featuring in his third event of the 2023 season, hoping to gain the much-needed seat time ahead of this year's East African Safari Classic Rally.
The legendary driver retired during the 2023 ARC Equator Rally in a Nissan Patrol navigated by Jaspal Matharu. Duncan took rally lovers by surprise during the 2023 KNRC Eldoret leg, where he sped his Datsun 280Z to second overall position.
Also in the Kajiado Rally mix is current champion Karan Patel (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X), series leader Jasmeet Chana (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X), Jeremiah Wahome (Ford Fiesta Rally 3), and McRae Kimathi (Ford Fiesta Rally3)
Jasmeet Chana aka “Iceman” heads to the KMSC leg leading the championship by a massive 84 points ahead of Jeremiah Wahome after scoring a much-needed podium in Mombasa last month.
Iceman hopes to repeat the feat in Bisil, which he feels is perhaps one of the toughest events of the nine-leg KNRC series. He will renew his rivalry with Ford Fiesta Rally 3 youngsters McRae Kimathi and Jeremiah Wahome.
Wahome is tipped as one of the favourites, having won two rounds so far in Machakos and Mombasa. Like Wahome, Jasmeet has two wins under his belt in Eldoret and Nakuru.
But Bisil is likely to be a momentous event for Iceman, who only needs to return his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X in fifth place to seal the deal!
Bisil has proved to be a happy hunting ground for Iceman where he scored the much-needed podium last year.
Clerk of the Course John Kamau has singled out the event’s first stage (which is the longest) as the most challenging.
“The first stage will be rough on the cars, and navigators will need to be on top of their game. This very first stage (Il-Bisil 1) is a 60.43km run that ends at a quarry, so it will be quite dusty whilst the second stage (Marble 1/20.29km) will be quite interesting on the second run as it is doubling up as the Power Stage (Marble 2/20.29km) -so deterioration of the road can make it quite rough for the crews,” Kamau expounded.
The event will also feature a Clubman Rally category intended to bring in more entries as it will be a short event covering 50 percent of the entire route.
Kamau said: “It should be encouraging for people testing cars for events such as the Classic Rally. We have opened up the Clubman Rally to all drivers and vehicles with the exception of the RC2 and B13 classes and we are looking forward to an interesting mix of entries for the KNRC.”
The Clubman Rally will run one loop of the repeated stages behind the KNRC vehicles.
