The 2019 Kenya National Rally Championship season revs off on Saturday in Nakuru with the Rift Valley Motor & Sports Club organizing the KCB Nakuru Rally.
Top class drivers led by defending KNRC Champion Carl “Flash” Tundo and Baldev Chager have signed up for the opening round of the 2019 KNRC season. Eric Bengi, Jasmeet Chana and Nairobi based Eric Bengi will be making their debut in the KNRC Premier class following a good run in Division 1.
Others are the Rai siblings Onkar and Tejveer who will team up with Chager in Kabras Sugar Racing livery.
Onkar will be navigated by Gavin Laurence driving a Skoda Fabia R5 make which made its competition debut in 2015 as a successor to the Škoda Fabia S2000. The Skoda Fabia R5 which are two in Kenya at the present have proved to be very successful in the WRC-2 class.
Making a comeback is Karan Patel after rolling his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 10 car on the 2018 ARC Rally of Tanzania.
Karan, a former KNRC Group S and Division Three champion has since imported new a shell; to replace the damaged one but has resorted to his championship winning Subaru GC8 for Nakuru.
Karan, who has since been relegated from Premier to Division One, over committed to a technical corner in Tanzania at which point he lost control of his car and in the process lost track of where his two wheels were pointing.
“We are overly excited to be back after staying away of the championship in the latter stages last year,” said Karan who is partnering up with James Mwangi.
Meanwhile, the rallies commission Chairman Gurvir Bhabra has promised drivers a thriller this weekend. The event will be centred on Nakuru county and Mogotio in Baringo county.
Cars will be flagged off outside KCB Mogotio Branch at 7am covering a total distance of 324 kilometers out of which 163km will be competitive.
Drivers will tackle four stages which will be reputed twice, The longest stage is the 30.74km Ankole stage and the shortest is the flatout Sprint stage which totals 6.16km.
Official reconnaissance of the route will be held on Friday, a day prior to the start of the event.
Scrutineering of cars will take place at the RVM&SC Club Solai Clubhouse on the same day with recce.