After a high intensity Day One of the ARC Equator Rally held in Naivasha yesterday, Kenya’s Carl ‘Flash’ Tundo of the Minti Motorsport topped the charts after posing an outstanding performance in the competition opener.
Tundo was at the top of his game as he dominated all the six stages to finish line at the opener of the race after recording a total of 1:39:14.4 hours to boast a comfortable 7:15.1minutes lead over compatriot Tejveer Rai going into the last day stages at the challenging Malewa, Kedong and Loldia.
Tundo was happy with the handling of his new VW Polo R5, saying he is looking forward to running it on the main event of the WRC Safari Rally in June.
The heavy downpour around the lake region yesterday posed a huge challenge in the works of an already-technical terrain course with the wet and slippery conditions sloshing the usually dusty conservancy roads for what turned out to be a grueling start to the opening day.
The harsh weather conditions posed a challenge in the afternoon loop to some of the big household names in the competition such as Chager and Rai who hit a rock that damaged Chager’s steering rack while Rai had his suspension dented in SS5.
Some of the other drivers who had a dark day and could not finish the race included the Ugandan trio of Duncan Mubiru, Ronald Sebuguzi and Rajiv Ruparelia while Kenyan drivers comprised of Karan Patel, Amanraaj Rai, Jas Mangat, John Ng’ang’a ,Pierro Cannobio,and Nzioka Waita .
DAY 1 Results.
1. Carl Tundo – Tim Jessop (KEN-Volkswagen Polo GTI R5) 1:39:14.4hours
2. Tejveer Rai- Gareth Dawe (KEN-Volkswagen Polo GTI R5) 1:46:29.5
3. Guy Botterill – Simon Vacy-Lyle (RSA-Toyota Etios R5)1:59:28.4
4.Giancarlo Davite – Sylvia Vindevogel (RWA-Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X) 2:03:12.9
5. Hamza Anwar – Riyaz Ismail (KEN-Subaru Impreza WRX STi) 2:03:27.9
6. Kepher Walubi – Mohammed Asuman (UG-Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X) 2:06:19.6
7. Jasmeet Chana – Ravinder Chana (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X) 2:06:31.3
8.Steven Mwangi- Dennis Mwenda (Subaru Impreza) 2:07:58.5
9. Evans Kavisi – Absalom Aswani (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X) 2:08:19.6
10. Aakif Virani – Azhar Bhatti (Škoda Fabia R5) 2:09:30.2
11. Kailesh Chauhan – Tariq Maliq (Ford Escort RS) 2:13:10.
12. McRae Kimathi – Shameer Yusuf (Subaru Impreza)2:13:16.2 13.
13. Eric Bengi – Peter Mutuma (KEN Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X) 2:19:21.4
14. Edward Maina – John Ngugi (KEN-Subaru Impreza) 2:24:25.2
15. Nikhil Sachania – Deep Patel (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X) 2:24:27.5
16. Daren Miranda – Wayne Fernandes (KEN-Subaru Impreza) 2:27:27.6
17. Yasin Nasser – Ali Katumba (KEN-Subaru Impreza WRX) 2:33:43.2
18. Geoff Mayes – Suzanne Zwager (KEN-Land Rover Tomcat SPV) 2:35:06.1