Manvir Baryan, navigated by Drew Sturrock, led from start to finish to win his second career KCB Kilifi Rally that ended on Saturday.
Driving Skoda Fabia R5, the reigning African champion, who missed this edition last year, swept the ground to savour his first win of the 2019 KCB Kenya National Rally Championship season.
Manvir who won the 2017 edition of the Mombasa Motor Club race at the same venue won five out of seven stages with Baldev Chager winning CS3 and CS6.
Out of the 24 starters, only 13 survived the demanding course but a 21km night stage at Mombasa Cement in Vipingo on Friday was a positive start for the victor who went on to claim the overall prize.
Coast Pelee’s Izhar Mirza celebrated his career-best KNRC position after completing the podium dash.
Another homeboy Ammar Haq came in fifth behind Tejveer Rai while Paras Pandya of Mombasa came sixth.
Onkar Rai who was second fastest in the night stage was an early casualty on Day Two after his new VW Polo ran out of fuel in CS2 MCL stage.
Chager, who lost the fourth stage by three seconds, came second but he is still top of the KNRC series standings.
“It was a very tough rally but very enjoyable stages. The traffic was well controlled. We tried to push and keep up with the Skoda so we beat Manvir on CS3 and he beat us again on CS4 with three seconds. In the long 46km stage at Bamba we were pushing extra hard then went off and got stuck for several minutes,” Chager said.
Geoff Mayes retired at the start of SS2 with engine problem as Adil Mirza also retired in stage 2.
Other casualties were Raaji Bharij with gearbox problem and Naushad Kara with a broken ball joint.
The action heads to Nanyuki in the next two weeks.
Overall result
- Manvir Baryan/Drew Sturrock (Skoda Fabia) 01.50.50.60
- Baldev Chager/Ravi Soni Mitsubishi Evolution 10) 01.57.57.00
- Izhar Mirza/Kavit Dave (Mitsubishi Evolution) 01:58.27.90
- Tejveer Rai/Gavin Lawrence (Mitsubishi Evolution 10) 01:59.22.70
- Ammar Haq/Victor Okundi (Mitsubishi Evolution 10) 02:05.35.70
- Paras Pandya/Falgun Bhojak (Mitsubishi Evolution 10) 02:05.53.70
- Jasmeet Chana/Ravi Chana (Mitsubishi Evolution 10) 02:08.37.60
- Sohanjeet Puee/Adnan Din (Subaru Impreza) 02:08.57.90
- Issa Amwari/Job Njiru (Mitsubishi Evolution 10) 02:12.48.80
- Amit Vaja/Willy Kibata (Subaru Impreza) 02:23.10.20
- Arjun Patttni/Dinesh Varsani (Subaru Impreza) 02:26.30.00
- Evans Kavisi/Absolom Aswani (Subaru Impreza) 02:36.22.60
- Daren Miranda/Wayne Fernandes (Subaru Impreza) 02:47.27.20
Casualties
- Onkar Rai/Gareth Dawe (VW Polo R5) Ran out of fuel CS2
- Pietro Canobbio/TBA (Mitsubishi Evolution 10)
- John Ng’ang’a/George Njoroge (Subaru Impreza)
- Minesh Rathod/Sameer Yusuf (Mitsubishi Evolution 10)
- Karan Patel/James Mwangi (Subaru Impreza)
- Raaji Bharij/Rajay Sehmi (Porsche) Hussein Malik/Linet Ayuko (Mitsubishi Evolution 10)
- Adil Mirza/Guveer Pandhal (Mitsubishi Evolution 8)
- Nashad Kara/Kailesh Chauhan (Subaru Impreza) ball joint
- Geoff Mayes/Suzanne Zwager (Land Rover) engine problems
