Reigning Kenyan Champion Karan Patel is expected to give home fans plenty to cheer about when the FIA World Rally Championship Safari Rally Kenya gets underway in Naivasha later in the month.
The KCB racing team’s lead driver is among the 13 entrants listed in the premier support WRC2 category; traditionally a preserve of the Rally 2 marques in the FIA Rally Pyramid.
Despite not finishing in the 2022 edition of Safari, Karan was among the three Kenyan drivers who scored the momentous WRC points in 2021 in a credible 8th overall position (second in WRC3) behind Onkar Rai in 7th and Carl “Flash” Tundo in 9th.
This year’s Safari will feature 10 starters in the headline Rally1 category, as well as a strong field of 13 in WRC 2.
--70th Anniversary Celebrations--
Karan was among those invited to mark Safari’s 70th anniversary celebrations in Nairobi and in his message to home fans, Karan emphasized: “Keep an eye on us, we are hoping to have a strong finish, and hopefully, come out as top Kenyan crew overall"
"Safari is still a very tough rally even for the modern cars. It’s not the same as it used to be many years ago, with respect to the distances that used to be covered in those days.”
--Fairytale Rally1 Dream--
And asked to explain just what it will take to match the world-beating priority1 WRC drivers, Karan continued; “We need the same cars as them, CS Namwamba has been speaking of having a few Kenyans to be racing amongst the top-runners in the WRC category, so that will involve Kenya acquiring the Rally1 car which privateer cannot really get their hands on."
"So it will be nice with Government support to get one of us on the bucket seat of a Rally1 marque; to show what we can do against the top divers like the Ogiers and the Rovanperas of the rally scene.”
KCB are the official banking partners of the 2023 WRC Safari Rally; also with a three-car line-up in Karan, Evans Kavisi and Nikhil Sachania. Other sponsors include Talanta Hela, KWS, Toyota Kenya and Government of Kenya (GOK) who are the main sponsors.
This year’s Safari will rev off with the June 21 Shakedown at KWS Naivasha where priority1 cars will savor the chance to warm their engines well in time for action propor from June 22, culminating with the Wolf Power Stage spectacle at Hell’s Gate on June 25.
Listed in the 13-car WRC2 entry alongside Karan's Ford Fiesta Rally2, are the likes of Oliver Solberg in a Skoda Fabia Evo Rally2, Polish driver Kajetan Kajetanowicz in a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2, Grégoire Munster (Ford Fiesta Rally2), Kenya’s Carl “Flash” Tundo, Piero Canobbio of Kilifi in a Hyundai i20 NG Rally 2, Nairobi-based Aakif Virani in a Skoda Fabia Rally 2 and Czech Republic’s Martin Prokop among others.
RALLY2 ENTRIES
11 (#20) Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson -SWE/GBR (Skoda Fabia Evo Rally2)
12 (#21) Kajetan Kajetanowicz/Maciej Szczepaniak-POL/POL (SKODA Fabia Evo Rally2)
13 (#22 )M-SPORT FORD WRT: Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka-LUX/BEL- (Ford Fiesta Mk II Rally2
14 (#23) Martin Prokop/Zdeněk Jůrka -CZE/CZE -(FORD Fiesta Mk II Rally2)
15 (#24) Armin Kremer/Timo Gottschalk-DEU/DEU-Skoda Fabia Evo Rally2)
16 (#25) Karan Patel/Tauseef Khan-KEN/KEN-FORD Fiesta Rally2)
17 (#26) Carl Tundo/Tim Jessop-KEN/KEN (Skoda Fabia Rally2)
18 (#27) Daniel Chwist/Kamil Heller -POL/POL- (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2)
19 (#28) Miguel Díaz Aboitiz/Rodrigo Sanjuan -ESP/ESP- (Skoda Fabia Evo Rally2)
20 (#29) M-SPORT FORD WRT: Georgios Vasilakis/Thomas Krawszik-GRC/GBR- (Ford Fiesta Mk II Rally2)
21 (#30 ) Aakif Virani/Azhar Bhatti-KEN/KEN (SKODA Fabia Rally2)
22 (#31) Piero Canobbio/Flavio Zanella -KEN/ITA (HYUNDAI NG i20)
