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SIDIS RALLYJULY 2011 ISSUE NO. 80

ASRA Party 2011

Tundo Savours Safari Hat-trick as Jamie Wins in ARC Category

Azar Triumphant in the Valley

Poor Media Services Dog Safari RallyKMSF ElectionsNjiru to enter KQs Classic Safari Rally

most glamorous rounds of the KNRC series.

Tundo is on high seas, fresh from winning the recent Sa-

fari Rally and looking for vital points to strengthen his cham-pionship title winning hopes.

Meanwhile, the route of

the Nakuru Rally is spectator friendly, especially coming on the heels of the Safari Rally plans which restricted the movements of the spectators to just single stages.

The Nakuru Rally route is 395 kilometer long. It is divid-ed into eight spectator-friend-ly competitive stages. Several stages will be repeated.

The rally is organized by the Frank Tundo under the um-brella of the Rift Valley Motor and Sports Club. The club is re-garded as one of the longest running motor sports clubs in the East African region.

Start START KCB 7:00CS1 KAPRORWA 1 7:23CE1 SAWICH 1 7:47CS2 TUGUMOI 1 8:06CE2 CHEMUSUSU 1 8:24 SERVICE A IN 8:44SERVICE A OUT 9:04CS 3 POROR 1 9:17CE 3 KIMNOGORUM 9:43CS 4 SPECTATOR 1 10:06

CE 4 SPECTATOR 1 10:07 SERVICE B IN 10:11SERVICE B OUT 10:31 CS5 KAPRORWA 2 11:00CE5 SAWICH 2 11:24CS6 KUGUMOI 2 11:43CE6 CHEMUSUSU 2 12:03 SERVICE C IN 12:23REGROUP OUT 13:03

CS 7 POROR 2 13:16CE 7 KIMNOGORUM 2 13:42CS 8 SPECTATOR 2 14:05CE 8 SPECTATOR 2 END 14:06 SERVICE D IN 13:50SERVICE D OUT 14:10HOLDING OUT 16:00 Finish 16:00

2 SIDIS RALLY BULLETIN JULY 2011

KAPTAGATFLOURSPAR

ELDAMARAVINE

TO ELDORET

TO NAKURU TO NAKURU

KENOL

KABARNET

MARIGAT

SAOSEMINING

ROAD

CS 1/535.40 KM

CS 2/619.5 KM

CS 3/736.5 KM

A104

B52

CS1/5 StartKaprorwa

CS3/7 StartPoror

CS3/7 EndKimngorom

CS2/6 EndChemususu

CS2/6 StartKugumoi

CS1/5 EndSawich

CS4/8Spectator Stage

KCB Start/Finish / HQ

4km

15km

9km

18km

KNRC ROUND 5 of 8 NAKURU RALLY - 30TH JULY 2011

Return of the former Safari Rally win-ner and one of the icons of the Kenya

National Rally Championship, Lee Rose, will no doubt add spice to the Nakuru Rally this weekend.

Rose, who is regarded as one of the quickest drivers to ever grace the KNRC series, recently immigrated to South Africa to start afresh new life with his family.

The flamboyant driver re-turned to Kenya a fortnight ago to spend a short holiday with his parents and also to coincide with his home rally which he has won on several occasions.

With Rose in the lineup since his last rally in Kenya with the 2010 Guru Nanak Rally, the Nakuru Rally is ex-pected to produce fireworks with likes of Carl Tundo, Alastair Cavenagh and Ian Duncan looking for nothing short of victory in one of the

Lee Rose to Grace Nakuru RallyRound 5, Nakuru >>

Lee Rose (left) the flamboyant driver returned to Kenya a fortnight ago to

spend a short holiday with his parents

and also to coincide with his home rally

which he has won on several occasions.

ITINERARY

The Abdul Sidi Rally Acad-emy recently celebrated in style the successful ac-

complishment of its students in the 2011 KCB Safari Rally where 21 of the original 28 starters finished Kenya’s premiere event.

A grand party to celebrate the participation of all the students in the KCB Safari Rally was graced by former Safari Rally winner and multiple Kenya National Rally Champion, Lee Rose, Commis-sioner of Sports Gordon Oluoch, George Yego, Coordinator of the Kenya Empowerment Project in the Prime Minister’s Office, Major General Charles Mwanzia and Chairman of the Kenya Rally Drivers Association, Mark Tilbury were among the over 100 guests who attended function yesterday.

Other leading rally drivers and officials included Azar Anwar, Dave Macharia, George Mwangi, Chris Eden, Arjun Ruzaik, Susheel Shah, Robert Gow, Dave Macha-ria, Kunal Pattni, Kashif Sheikh,

Richard Onyoni, among others.“I am so pleased to see true

Kenyan hospitality with people from various communities having fun together. Rallying is a great sport. I am pleased with the work Abdul has carried out to help the young generation. This is a great project for the development of the sport,’’ said the Commissioner of Sports, Olouch. His sentiments equally echoed by Lee Rose, the former Safari Rally winner and multiple holder of the Kenya Na-tional Rally Championship titles.

The likes of Joe Muchiri, Pat-rick Kibaara, Job Njiru, Norris Ongalo, Elodie Sampere, Mike Ogwapit, Stella Macharia, Hellen Shiri, James Mwangi, Issa Amwari, Mutuma Marimba, Shameer Yu-suf, Riyaz Ismail, Nehreen Ismail, Pauline Sheggu, John Langat, La-ban Cliff, Absalom Kuya, Adnan Din and Denis mwenda are among the latest competitors to emerge from ASRA.

ASRA Party 2011 << Rally Academy

SAFARI RALLY RECORD21 Finishers: 7 Drivers – 14 Navigators

15 Non-Finishers: 7 Drivers (4 Teachers) – 9 Navigators (3 Teachers)

MAIN CLASS:- (3):10. Imran Mogul/Mutuma Marimba; 20. Said Hamad/Victor Okundi; 22. Aakif Virani/Azhar Bhatti.

NON-FINISHERS:- (6): Alex Horsey/Frank Gitau; Phineas Kimathi/George Mwangi; Azar Anwar/Julius Ngigi; Charles Hinga/Norris Ongalo; Fahd Barry/Kashief Shaikh

SUPPLEMENTARY CLASS:- (9): 3. Shazar Anwar/Job Njiru; 4. Issa Amwari/James Mwangi; 6. Paras Pandya/Roy Mckenzie; 7. Farhaan Khan/Thabit Kandwalla; 8. Mohamed Noormohamed/Shameer Yusuf; 10. Pauline Sheghu/Hillary K. Kipchillat.

NON-FINISHERS:- (4): Johnson Langat/Robert Soi; Stella Macharia/Helen Shiri

F2:- (9): 2. Patrick Kibaara/Nehreen Ismail; 4. Joel Muchiri/Riyaz Ismail; 5. Naveed Khalid/Adnan Din; 7. Adnan Suhail/Absalom Aswani; 8. Dennis Mwenda/Shakil Umar; 11. Gideon Kimani/Laban Cliff

NON-FINISHERS:- (5): Sammy Nyorri/Mwangl Waithaka; Julius Kihunyuro/Julius Mwachuya; Philip Kyriazi/Katrine D

SIDIS RALLY BULLETIN JULY 2011 3

Joe Muchiri / Riyaz Ismail

Naveed Khalid / Adnan Din

Rashid Kabi / Eric Nzuva

Shazar Anwar / Job Njiru

Round 3, Eldoret >>

Azar Triumphant In The ValleyAzar Triumphant In The Valley

4 SIDIS RALLY BULLETIN JULY 2011

RESULTS KNRC

1. Azar Anwar/Julius Ngige (EVO8) 1h22m04s

2. Ian Duncan/A SLatch (EVO9) 1h22m21s

3. Alex Horsey/Frank Gitau (EVO10) 1h25m33s

4. Onkar Rai/Andrew Doig (Subaru N12) 1h27m50s

5. Tejvir Rai/Bharat Pattni (Subaru) 1h28m29s

6. Jaswinder Chana/Ravi Chana (Toyota Celica GT4) 1h29m23s

7. Jas Mangat (Subaru N10) 1h30m04s

8. Sandeep Jandu/Gurdeep Mehangra (Subaru) 1h30m10s

9. Stefano Rocca/Franco Donadel (Datsun 260Z) 1h30m16s

10. Anwar Pandya/Ken Masoni (Subaru N10) 1h31m36s

2WD

1. Adnan Suhail/Absalom Aswani (Daihatsu) 1.02.54

2. Niaz Bashir/J Kosgey (Toyota Levin ) 1.05.53

3.Naveed Khalid/Riyaz (Toyota Levin) 1.06.59

4. James Kirimi/KImeli Korir (VW Golf) 1.09.36

5. Nadeem Kana/James Mwangi (VW Golf) 1.10.39

6. Joan Nesbit/Dr Tamara K Jones (Toyota Celest) 1.12.25

7. Imran Kana/Mohammed S Mohammed (Toyota L) 1.12.39

The “gods of the val-ley” finally answered Azar Anwar’s prayers

as the three-time former National Champion savored victory in the action-packed KCB SME Banking Rally.Azar beat Ian Duncan by a mere 17 second to pull through following a steady run in the high altitude region.

Eldoret, which has been known to produce surpris-es, saw Baldev Chager, de-fending champion Alastair Cavenagh and Carl Tundo fall by the wayside. Chager suffered turbo problems in the early morning run while Alastair had his run stymied when his navigator Gavin Laurence got sick in the car.

Tundo went out with tur-bo problems. With Chager, Baldev and Cavenagh gone, Duncan was well on course for a second successive win but his lead was short-lived with an excruciating punc-ture on the first run of the rough 35KM Chebulbul-FF Uhuru Stage.

As at CS6, Horsey was leading the Western Kenya Motor Club (WKMC) event with a minute ahead of Azar until a puncture dipped him to third overall. Onkar Rai

posted his career best fourth in his Eldoret home turf.

The competitive stages tackled around Kaptagat Forest, Kapangetich and Flax areas proved quite un-forgiving to the big bulls who kept abreast of subse-quent proceedings crestfall-en. Punctures also proved quite a menace to teams with Horsey lost his lead to Azar on the rough CS7 Cheb-ulbul stage.

Horsey unveiled his state-of-the-art Evolution 10 ma-chine, the only one of its own in the region, sound-ing quite febrile of the 2011 season campaign.“The car is step further than the EVO9s and I am hoping to win the championship this season before the big boys win,” said Horsey.

Azar staunchly admit-ted he wasn’t really aggres-sive in a strategy to avoid punctures.“We were going steadily to avoid punctures because almost everybody was experiencing prob-lems,” said Azar. This was Azar’s third win in Eldoret after winning it in 1989, 2006 and this year.

Duncan now leads the KNRC series with 190 points.

Onkar Rai / Andrew Doig

Joan Nesbitt / Tamata Jones

Tundo Savours Safari Hat-trick as Jamie Wins in ARC Category

<< Round 4, SAFARI

Carl Tundo, a wheat farm-er from the Great Rift Valley, savored his third

career KCB Safari Rally victory as curtains came down on “The World’s Toughest Rally.”

Tundo’s calm and assured march to last service in Isinya Service belied the excitement that was bubbling underneath- and at exactly 3pm, it spilled over in a solid stream of joy at the Kenyatta International Con-ference Centre (KICC) finish ramp.

The game plan in the Safari was to get points because you know if you don’t score points your championship is kind of over; so went in with a sensible head from the first day and on the third stage we realized we were leading by over a minute. We spend lots of time in prepa-rations and made sure every-thing was running well, said Tundo.

Jas Mangat secured his ca-reer best second overall posi-tion despite trailing Tundo by a massive 8.43minutes margin.

It feels great. It hasn’t sunk in yet; I think we will realize this tomorrow. We knew the Safari was a long rally and that it would be rough. Towards the end we were like four or five people fighting for the third po-

sition and at the end of the first stage today (Sunday) morning they had all caught up with us so it was a decision to either push and get a reward or just hand around, said Mangat.

Mangat was also bestowed with the inaugural Lochab Me-morial Trophy for the best Sikh driver.

In winning the 59th edition of the KCB Safari Rally 2011, Tundo achieved his third Safari career scalp with previous vic-tories in South Coast in 2004 and in 2009.

Tundo’s drive on Saturday’s

Leg 1A was peerless when he won five stages and went to bed with a 5.42minutes cushion from reigning Afri-can Champion Jamie Whyte. Tundo won all the five stages at stake on Saturday but ap-peared to back off in Leg2’s three long stages around Kon-za, Kipeto and Olekajiado on Sunday.

Youngster Quentin Mitch-ell set the fastest stage time on CS7 (Konza 2-Olekajuado) while Mangat took CS8 in Kipe-to and Duncan the closing CS9.

Behind Tundo was a spir-

....The game plan in the Safari was to get points because you know if you don’t score points your championship is kind of over....

SIDIS RALLY BULLETIN JULY 2011 5

I dont know if you noticed ...but we still have a hand held flag for a flying finish !!! And then we are timed to the second ???? Get real !!!-Nicholas Patel

Quote of the Day...

Ben Muchemi /

Poor Media Services...

Main Class provisional results (top 10)1. Carl Tundo/ Tim Jessop-Kenya (Evo 9 2.43.45 hrs2. Jas Mangat/ Gihan De Silva –Uganda- (Subaru N12) 2.52.283. Ian Duncan/ Amaar Slatch – Kenya- (Evo 9) 2.52.484. James Whyte/ Philip Archenoul – Zimbabwe (Subaru N10) 2.54.145. Raaji Bharij/ Raju Chaggar- Kenya- Subaru N10 2.54.406. Conrad Rautenbach/ Nicholas Klinger –Zimbabwe (Ford Fiesta S2000) 2.55.247. Quentin Mitchelle/ Tim Challen-Kenya (Subaru N16) 2.55.568. Hardeep Rehsi/ Ravi Soni- Kenya (Evo 9) 2.58.369. Jean Yves Ranarivelo/ Rila Ranaivomamiani – Madagascar (Subaru N12) 2.59.0210. Imran Mogul/ Mutuma Marimba – Kenya (Subaru N10) 2.59.0211. Christakis Fiditis/ Guy Dekelver- Rwanda (Subaru N12) 3.02.2812. Izhar Mirza/ zahir Shah- Kenya (Evo 9) 3.02.4913. Valery Bukera/ Nital Khetia- Burundi (Subaru N10) 3.04.2014. Ronald Ssebuguzi/ Cedric Buzabo- Uganda (Evo 9) 3.06.2315. Alain Dethise/ Ronald Vanderveken- Burundi (Subaru N11) 3.06.2316. Onkar Rai/ Andrew Doig –Kenya (Subaru N12) 3.15.1917. Sandeep Jandu/ Gurdeep Mehangra- Kenya (Subaru N10) 3.16.4418. Khurram Butt/ Salim Khan-Kenya- Subaru N10) 3.22.02

6 SIDIS RALLY BULLETIN JULY 2011

Round 4, SAFARI >>ited FIA African Rally Cham-pionship (ARC) rivalry pitting Champion Jamie Whyte and his Zimbabwean counterpart Conrad Rautenbach.

As at CS8 end, Whyte was well on course for a second place but dipped to fourth overall place after the Zimba-bwean picked up a puncture on the last stage around Kipeto.

Ian Duncan, the 1994 WRC Safari Rally winner, sealed the podium dash in a National Oil sponsored EVO9.

Kenya’s former Pirelli Star qualifier Raaji Bharij from Ke-

nya savored his fifth career best Safari result with Conrad Rautenbach settling for sixth overall. Rautenbach finished second in the ARC class while Madagascans Jean Yves Rana-rivelo and Rila Ranaivomami-anina took third in the ARC.

Ranarivelo in his Safari de-but ran quite aggressively with a joint second fastest time in Friday’s Jamhuri Spectators stage and 4th fastest on CS3 and CS4 but had his spirited fight stymied with two punc-tures on the latter stages. Ranarivelo finished 9th.

The Safari Rally ended but reminded many people es-pecially those in the media

how standards have plummeted from the good old efficient days of the Marlboro sponsorship days.

Also affected are rally fans who depend mostly on official programme and media for route guide and results. Many were seen driving in the wrong direc-tion and missed the action all to-gether.

Thousands of fans depend on the Sidi’s Bulletin for proper guide to the hot spots.They follow Na-tion photojournalist Anwar Sidi and his brother Asgar like bees leading them to places where

they enjoy watching the cars at full speeds. The Safari route was also the most spectator unfriend-ly as many people showed distis-faction.

Despite arriving at the route three hours before the start of the rally, some journalists were blocked by marshals and police.

Anwar’s efforts to include the route map of the Safari Rally were frustrated by officials whose inter-est seemed against the develop-ment of the sport.

My efforts to get the map from the organizers were thwarted on many occassions until I stopped following the issue “I tried in vain to get the map and route guide so that I could include it in the bulle-

tin on time. Unfortunately it is the sport and not me, that lost two sponsors considering I could not assure them of posting these two important pieces of information,” said Anwar.

He said in the old days the media used to be provided with a press kit which had all relevant information from the road book to wiring material five days before the Safari. At the press centre at the KICC, each journalist had his own pigeon hole to collect every bit of information collected by the Safari field crew and put together by another group at headquar-ters.

“Those were the days of two way radio call, manual typewriter

and telephone booths but the sys-tem worked.

He cited the elaborated FIA re-lationship with the media as high-ly professional. FIA did away with the system of issuing temporary press passes over a decade ago by introducing permanent passes for seasoned journalists.James Njoroge, a middle aged fans recalled days they would get Safari updates on radio after every 30 minutes. “If we can get such results from international matches played in Nairobi in foot-ball, cricket andathletics in real time why can’t we get a full score card for the Safari as we used to several decades back,” he asked.

Jitendra Dodhia/Gugu Panesar Quentin Mitchelle /

Mohammed Noor / Shameer Yusuf

Much is expected as the process to elect the new board of directors of the

Kenya Motor Sports Federation gets under way next week with the Annual General meeting of the motor sports governing body.

While the governors of the sport may differ with the rest of the motor sports fraternity and, especially with the Kenya Rally Drivers Association, changes are needed at the top of the fed-eration for the sport to maintain its healthy association with the sponsors and competitors alike.

Issues like the Petition and sideling of the drivers from the KMSF’s Rallies Commission have remained under the car-pet since they were brought to the public eye over four months ago, have yet to be addressed by the governors of the sport. The thorny issues have contin-ued to hurt the development of the sport.

With the expected change of guard at the top of KMSF, much is expected from the new lead-ers in order for the sport not to be hurt by personal egos. These issues can only be put to rest for the sport to continue to grow and also give sponsors the con-fidence to remain with one of the most thrilling motor sports

events in the world.Ministry of Sports through

the Commissioner of Sports, Gordon Oluoch and chairman of the Kenya Rally Drivers Associa-tion, Mark Tilbury echoed their concerns at a recent function of the Abdul Sidi Rally Academy suggesting the rot should not be encouraged to safeguard the interest of the sport.

“Rally drivers need to give KMSF a “nudge” to make sure the sport does not suffer any more than what we have wit-nessed in the recent past. Driv-ers and sponsors have shown disillusion with the way our leaders have continued to run the sport. What I see here today is the true picture of Kenya with people from all communities en-joying together. Let us work to-gether,’’ said the Commissioner of Sports.

Tilbury said KRDA has long been frustrated by certain offi-

cials from the federation, mak-ing it impossible to have any sort of dialogue in the spirit of taking the sport to another level.

He said the Commissioner’s comments come as boost to the rest of the rallying fraternity whose interest is to develop the sport. A KRDA letter addressed to KMSF asking its members to be reinstated to the Rallies Commission, has received no response despite pressures in-serted also by main sponsors of the KNRC.

“Drivers’ concerns have been ignored to the extent even not allowing its members to sit at the Rallies Commission. Changes need to be made in the spirit of maintaining good rela-tions at all levels,’’ said Tilbury.

Four of the oldest members of the KMSF Board of Directors will need to step down while the remaining three will stay

for a further one season.Those required to step down

include KMSF Chairman Jim Kahumbura, Bimal Patel, Ben Muchemi and Sunil Vinayak while Surinder Thatthi, Dave Macharia and John Rose are among those staying put. Ka-humbura is also the chairman of the Kenya Motor Sports Club, a position he has held for nearly a decade.

Macharia and former chair-man of KMSF, Maina Muturi are at loggerheads with the fed-eration after receiving a letter, signed by the current chairman, stating that they banned from any active motor sports activi-ties for a one year. The duo al-leges malice in the manner the action has been taken.

Muturi and Macharia have threatened to take legal mea-sures against what is seen as egoistic and dictatorial actions by the current leadership.

Patrick Njiru kicked off his official programme for the 2011 Kenya Air-

ways E.A. Safari Classic Rally with the Media launch at the Serena Hotel .

The chief architect of the Race for Change, Dr. Steve Funk, business tycoon Manu Chandaria and Surinder That-thi of the East African Safari Rally limited were among senior dignitaries to have graced the occasion.

A household name and one of the best known Safari Rally drivers in the country, Njiru will drive a Porsche 911 as part of a three-car-team en-tered by Dr. Steve Funk under

the “Race for Change” ban-ners. “It is a fantastic feeling coming back to the sport and also wonderful for the people of Kenya.

Race for Change is a proj-ect initiated by Funk to em-power Women of Kenya and I am honored to be part of the team that is trying to look at deeds of our women,’’ said Njiru while talking to Nation yesterday.

Apart from Njiru, the rest of the team will include for-mer Safari Rally winner, Bjorn Waldegaard and American racing driver Travis Pastrana. The Classic rally is a 10-day event which starts and finish-

es in Mombasa after a journey through major parts of Kenya and Tanzania.

Maina Muturi Mark Tilbury Dave Macharia Jim Kahumbura

Njiru to enter Kenya Airways Classic Safari Rally

Story By The Sidi Brothers Photography by: Anwar Sidi Cell: 0722 786 714

<< WITHOUT PREJUDICEKMSF Elections

KAPTAGATFLOURSPAR

METEKEI

ELDAMARAVINE

TO ELDORET

TO NAKURU TO NAKURU

KENOL

KABARNET

MARIGAT

KIMNGOROM

SAOSEMINING

ROAD

CS 227 KMS

CS 3

CS 135 KMS

A104

B52