Hot Tejas best

A 13-year-old Tejas Hirani became the youngest Cross Country Rally Raid winner after bagging the buggy class in Masinga region on Sunday. Tejas was content with his reliability, navigation and speed on some stretches and promised even better displays next time. Vincent Boulanger won the quads class after beating Voi-based Christian Collette and Joe Boulanger to the podium.

Defending quad champion Shazar Anwar could only manage fifth place same as bikes’ champion Shivam Vinayak on bikes. The bikes class was won by Sean Wilckock, who beat former three-time champion Anthony Nielsen to second while Mbaabu Muturi returned third. Defending car class champion Nish Lakhani was back in the groove in his ‘Kenya Cat’ Land Rover machine winning against the Tomcat of Suzzy Jauss. Like Tejas, Nish had his campaign accomplished with Simon Sharpe falling by the wayside on Saturday. Sharpe suffered gearbox problems hence failing to complete a hat-trick of victories after winning in Ol Doiny Lemboro and Soysambu rounds.

Young Tejas was on cloud 9. Driving the Rob’s Magic sponsored two-seater Magi-Bug, Tejas achieved the feat navigated by Riyaz Ismail on his second ever cross country raid in two months. This was also Riyaz’s first ever win in motorsports. “We won the raid buggy category and it was truly exciting. I must admit it was a fun but challenging route of 180kms. We both bonded well, and the buggy was in tip top form, thanks to Robs Magic,” said Riyaz.

Tejas had his campaign effectively sewn up when other buggy contenders Andrew Pleasance, Ian Duncan and newcomer Moses Mugo failed to finish. Chirag Soni and Dilip Dinesh failed to finish in the cars class when their Range Rover encountered mechanical problems. “It was good event though we didn’t finish. We had mechanical problems with the alternator getting spoilt and the battery running out of power,” said Dilip.

RAID 3 RESULTS

QUADS

1.Vincent Boulanger (Renegade) 3:28:30

2. Christian Collette (KTM 525) 3:31:37

3. Joe Boulanger (Raptor 350) 3:36:01

Arafat Vaiani (Renegade 800)

4. Zane Young (Raptor 660) 3:37:21

5. Shazar Anwar (Bombardier 650DX) 3:40:45

6. Adil Vaiani (Honda 700TRX) 3:56:59

7. Chris Wahome 4:04:14

8. Chantel Young (Honda 450)

9. Charles Mugo (Raptor 700) 4:.49:13

10. Annick Deridder (Yam 450) 5:03:24

CARS

1. Nish Lakhani (Land Rover) 3:45:08

2. Suzzy Jauss (Tomcat) 4:00:30

BUGGIES

1. Tejas Hirani/Riyaz Ismail (Magi-Bug) 4:05:17

BIKES

1. Sean Willcock 3:04:52

2. Anthony Nielsen (Hus 450) 3:06:29

3. Mbaabu Muturi (KTM 520) 3:15:47

4. Ross Field (Hus 570) 3:22:27

5. Shivam Vinayak (Yam 450) 3:22:50