- Shaban is the son of rally legend Azar Anwar
- He will be using his dad’s Daewoo Cielo in the rally
- Karan Patel will be the first off the ramp
Shaban Anwar has talked of growing confidence and motivation ahead of his KMSC Kajiado Rally debut in Il-Basil on Sunday.
The son of three times Kenya Rally Champion (Azar Anwar) has been entered in the Clubman Rally category and will ne navigated by tarmac racer David Ngugi in a Daewoo Cielo. The Daewoo was previously driven by his father Azar in KNRC events back in the 1990s.
The last time the car was entered in a KNRC was i 1997 but young Shabaz is eager to ruffle feathers in his dad’s old car.
Autocross contenders Qahir Rahim and John Kadivane have also signed up for the clubman category in a Subaru Impreza.
Qahir’s car has been prepared by Shaz Esmail aka Coach at the Shazco workshop in Parklands.
Shabaz was all smiles after the reconnaissance and scrutineering which was held at the Kenya Motor Sports Club in South C.
Driving a 1994 Daewoo Cielo
“The car that I will be driving is a 1994 Daewoo Cielo which was previously run by my dad in the Safari and KNRC events. It was a winner on 95 Safari. We have just finished the scrutineering and earlier today we were doing the recee on the route course. It’s quite rough and dusty but we are looking forward to the action tomorrow.” Shabaz said.
The main category of the event is the Kenya National Rally Championship which has attracted leading drivers among them Jeremiah Wahome and McRae both entered with Ford Fiesta Rally 3 cars.
Karan Patel will be the first one off the ramp in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X. He will be followed by Samman Vohra in a Skoda Fabia R5 and series leader Jameet Chana also in a Mitsubishi Evo X.
Clerk of the Course John Kamau has singled out the event’s first stage (which is the longest) as the most challenging.
“The first stage will be rough on the cars, and navigators will need to be on top of their game! This very first stage (Il-Bisil 1) is a 60.43km run that ends at a quarry, so it will be quite dusty whilst the second stage (Marble 1/20.29km) will be quite interesting on the second run as it is doubling up as the Power Stage (Marble 2/20.29km) -so deterioration of the road can make it quite rough for the crews!” Kamau expounded.
Kamau noted that the Rally HQ and Service Park location will be based St Kumpa, adding: “There will be a designated spectator zone with access that does not interfere with the rally stage and will allow spectators to see cars as they run the two loops.”
Spectators to turn up in large numbers
“As I call on spectators to show up in large numbers as they have not had much rallying action around Nairobi since the WRC, they must also follow instructions of the marshals for their own safety.” Kamau emphasized.
The event will also feature a Clubman Rally category intended as a training category as it will be a short event covering 50% of the entire route.
Kamau: “It should be encouraging for people testing cars for events such as the Classic Rally. We have opened up the Clubman Rally to all drivers and vehicles with the exception of the RC2 and B13 Classes, so we are looking forward to an interesting mix of entries for the KNRC.”
The Clubman Rally will run one loop of the repeated stages behind the KNRC vehicles.
The KNRC category will feature 161kms of competitive driving and a liaison distance of 55km for a total rally distance of 216kms. The Rally starts and ends at Kumpa on Sunday 8th October.
A total of 14 cars have singled up for the event.
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