Karan raring to roar at the Safari rally
With the seventh stop of the World Rally Championship set to zoom off this Thursday in Naivasha, Nakuru county, Kenya’s Karan Patel who is the national rally champion and the Kenya motorsports personality of the year is eager to redeem himself after bowing out in 2022 prematurely.
Patel is already in Naivasha ahead of the start of the WRC event which begins on June 22 to 25. He competed in 2022 but was unable to finish.
“ 2022 safari was tricky, without going into much deeper details, there was an error in communication which resulted in us being disqualified in the event, a technical issue. Lack of communication from both sides is the reason we were disqualified, now we are here for 2023 hopefully for better results. he said”
Last year’s rally tested the vehicles and the drivers to their limits. the infamous naivasha fesh fesh sand compromised the drivers’ ability to compete at their optimum although it gave the entire rally some flavor.
“Fesh fesh sand is some fine dust, this fine dust can be ingested by the engine, especially at high RPM, and it gets sucked in a lot more. and it tends to block the capability of the engine to breathe it reduces performance significantly. It’s very very fine dust.”
Karan will be competing in WRC two which is the second-tier rally. He will be navigated by Khan Tauseef in the ford fiesta R5. He says he will tackle the rally like any other race and will not allow the pressure of competing on home soil to affect his performance.
“We treat every rally, to be honest as important as this one..nothing special, it’s a very big event, mentally in my head it’s a big event…I will treat it just like any other..so that the way I attack it would be that I would attack any other rally. If I make it a special rally in my head it adds stress, it adds other factors.”
The Kenya motorsports personality of the season says he is mentally focused for the 2023 safari rally and he is targeting a strong finish.
“It will be nice to finish the rally as opposed to what happened in 2022..to finish would be nice, but given the competition that is the other WRC 2 drivers these are the drivers who will set the benchmark for me. A strong finish would be to within reach of them at any one point.”
Competing against some of the world’s best is not a foreign concept to the 2022 Zambia international rally champion. the experience battling top drivers in Portugal, Poland, Finland, Germany and Spain was invaluable.
“The main point is that a lot was learnt, the amount we spent on those events does not outweigh the lessons and valuable technical and skills we took away from all that competition.”
Patel says the gap between the local and top rally drivers is compounded by the financial costs required to revamp a vehicle to world rally championship standards.
“To bridge the gap, you need the same car. That’s not easy, the value of the top drivers’ cars ranges from 500,000 euros upwards so you looking at 60 or 70 million Kenya shillings which is very unaffordable for a majority of us rally drivers.”
On the domestic front, Kale says he does not feel the pressure as the defending national champion.
“Even if I feel the pressure, I do not allow it to affect my performance..pressure is not good for competition..yes there is a target on my back from some, I know they will try to beat me.”
The financial toll involved in being a professional rally driver almost made him pull the plug in his flourishing career.
“ The sacrifices my family made to bring me where I am, my Dad and my mum spent all the money they have to keep us going, to keep me going..no vacations.. the luxuries of life were put aside for my sake..yeah we decided we wouldn’t continue this season because a lot of money has been put in this season.”
The red bull partnership which he penned in 2022 was a lifeline for his rallying career.
“That changed the world for us, it gave us a sense of hope. It’s my hope it will open doors for us, my athlete manager is here in Kenya. I do have a lot of people who believe in us,” he said.
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