Patel dominates Tanzania Guru Nanak Rally

Kenya’s Karan Patel led from start to finish in Arusha to win the Tanzanian version of Guru Nanak Rally.

Navigated by Tausef Khan in a Ford Fiesta R5, Karan one of the fastest rising Kenyan youngstars beat Ian Duncan (Nissan Patrol) by a1.33minutes to win the event which counts towards the round of the third round of the Tanzanian National Rally Championship.

Karan won all the five competitive stages clocking a cumulative total of 1:07.36hours after a rally total of 215.58km of which 116.2km was competitive and 99.18km transport distance.

Karan said: “I am very happy to have won the rally for the second time though this time it was in a different car and with a different navigator. The Ford Fiesta went very well leading from start to finish. Well done to my navigator, Tauseef Khan. I first won the rally in 2018 in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo10 with James Mwangi. We are in the right moods to celebrate an excellent victory.”

Five Kenya drivers Karan, Duncan, Evans Kavisi, Hamza Anwar and Hussein Malik took part. Malik didn’t start in the morning due to diff problems.

Hamza Anwar, son of Asad Anwar ,came fourth while Evans Kavisi finished fifth.

Malik didn’t start in the morning due to diff problems.

Kenyan navigator Riyaz Ismail who is taking part in the 2020 TNRC series suffered a major blow when their car caught fire in the second stage.

Riyaz, who navigates Tanzanian Gurjit Dhani of Hari Singh Rally Team in a Skoda Proto, said: “It was really scary. I spotted the flames at Gurjit’ s feet when the car was at max speed.

He managed to swerve the car before it came to a stop. We both rushed out but by then the fire had spread all over. We used all the Fire Extinguisher equipment but still it was not easy to put the fire out.

Spectators rushed and spread the car with whatever they were drinking which helped put the fire out. We were very lucky. We were lying second behind Karan Patel in SS2.”

Provisional Results
1 (43)FILMICO RACING Karan Patel/
Tauseef KhanKE KE(Ford Fiesta )
1:07:36

2 (42)IAN DUNCAN RALLYING Ian Duncan/Tej SehmiKE KE(Nissan Patrol ) 1:09:08

3 (4) BIRDI RALLY TEAM Randeep Singh Birdi /Zubayr PiredinaTZ TZ(Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX) 1:12:13

4 (45) HAMZA RACING Hamza Anwar /Harshil LimbaniKE KE
(Subaru Impreza GVB 15) 1:16:48

5 (41)GREENLIFE RALLY TEAM Evans Kavisi/Absalom AswaniKE KE(Subaru Impreza) 1:18:11