•Karan was the leading Kenyan on shakedown as he returned 14th fastest while Tundo and Samman came 17th and 18th respectively.
•The WRC2 winner on Rally Sweden and son of 2003 world champion Petter Solberg, will make the second points-scoring start of his campaign in Kenya and so will Hyundai man Nicolas Ciamin.
Image: SAFAR RALLY
The long wait is over and it’s all systems go as local drivers resume their spirited hunt for the second tier WRC2 points at the iconic WRC Safari Rally Kenya which starts in Nairobi on Thursday.
Following, two days of reconnaissance on Monday and Tuesday which preceded Wednesday’s Shakedown at Loldia, Kenyan drivers will now embark on the rally proper which will culminate with the Wolf Power Stage at Hell’s Gate on Sunday.
Kenyans are pegging their hopes on Aakif Virani (Skoda Fabia), Carl Tundo (Ford Fiesta), Samman Singh Vohra (Skoda Fabia) and African Champion Karan Patel (Skoda Fabia) who are the four locals listed on the FIA WRC support category (WRC2).
Virani rolled on Loldia's shakedown but he is expected to start the event tomorrow. “We rolled on Shakedown but the damage was superficial, so we hope to fix it well in time,” Aakif said.
Karan was the leading Kenyan on shakedown as he returned 14th fastest while Tundo and Samman came 17th and 18th respectively.
WRC-2 has attracted Europe’s leading professional drivers among them Brit Gus Greensmith and Kajetan Kajetanowicz who will both kickstart the Kenyan round behind the wheel of Skoda Fabia RS Rally2s.
Greensmith outpaced his Toksport team-mate Oliver Solberg by 1.2sec. The WRC2 winner on Rally Sweden and son of 2003 world champion Petter Solberg, will make the second points-scoring start of his campaign in Kenya and so will Hyundai man Nicolas Ciamin.
Charles Munster— younger brother of M-Sport driver Grégoire Munster— will also pilot an i20 N marque in the competitive WRC2. Kenyan youngster Hamza Anwar, who ran a full campaign of the Junior WRC series last year, will score points towards WRC3 in his Ford Fiesta Rally3.
He is among the 29 drivers listed in the main WRC entry, although he will also score national points in the Kenya National Rally Championship category which has attracted 20 entrants.
Kenyan champion Jasmeet Chana has pulled out of the event following the late arrival of his Ford Fiesta from Europe. Navigator John Ngugi, who is a second-generation driver, says preparations to rev off at KICC on Thursday are on track after the team incorporated Don Smith’s team of mechanics to service their N14 Subaru car on this year’s Safari.
“We have brought in mechanics from Don Smith’s crew who know the car inside out. We enjoyed recce on Monday and Tuesday. The stages are not that bad in this season of Easter rains. It’s a bit slippery though it’s something we can manage. The beauty about it is that it is a marathon and not a sprint,” Ngugi, who will co-drive Josiah Kariuki for the second year running said.
Meanwhile, reigning WRC champion Kalle Rovanpera kick-started the third round of the FIA World Rally Championship with a point to prove as he set the pace in Wednesday morning shakedown, beating Belgian rival and series leader Thierry Neuville by just two-tenths of a second.
The shakedown result at the 5.40km shakedown stage in Loldia was a welcome relief for the Flying Finn who crashed from the lead of Rally Sweden early on Day One. On his first gravel event of the season, Kalle was back in the groove in Loldia, as he gave a tip of what to expect in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 marque.
Rovanpera was 0.9s slower than Ott Tänak after his first pass of the Loldia warm-up test. But the Flying Finn managed the fastest time on his second and penultimate pass, racking up the top spot on the leaderboard ahead of Thierry Neuville’s Hyundai i20N.
Rovanperä said: “This is a rally where you normally don’t expect too much before the weekend because you never know what’s going to happen,” admitted Kalle.
He added: “That’s my plan at the moment. I am not expecting too much; I just want to have a good rally and we will see what happens.”