Kimathi hungry for more after Sweden outing

Kenya’s World Rally Championship junior driver McRae Kimathi has vowed to put in the work to move closer to the top of the standings, as he celebrated his fourth-place finish at the just concluded Rally Sweden.

The Kenyan driving sensation alongside his navigator Mwangi Kioni put in a decent performance after they entered the history books as the first Kenyans to complete a world rally series event.

Being his first time to race on ice, Kimathi spoke of the difference between driving on ice as compared to the rock and gravel of the Kenyan roads while noting he had a long way to go to get to the very top level.

“My experience in Sweden has been really fantastic; lots of challenges we had. Driving on snow is quite different than driving on gravel. There were very fast routes, something that I’m not really used to; the competition has been very stiff, the guys here are quite crazy and fast, so there is a lot of work for me to do to get to their level,” Kimathi said.

Trading the highly humid Kenyan weather for the cold Sweden weather with temperatures of as low as -11°C, Kimathi noted this was a huge adjustment for him to make.

“The change of weather has been really difficult for me, of course I come from Kenya where its 25°C or 26°C, on a normal day here in Sweden its -11°C or -16°C so it’s been very difficult for me to acclimatize but if you stay warm you will be okay.”

Kimathi noted he didn’t experience any mechanical problems with his Ford Fiesta except for a small blip where he got stuck in a snowbank which he successfully maneuvered.

He dismissed the unfortunate racial abuses that were subjected to him before the commencement of the rally saying that they had not affected his performance at the event.

Hours before the start of the rally, Kimathi was racially abused by a section of fans on social media with the world motorsport governing body FIA condemning the incident terming it as unwelcome within the sport.

The youngster says he didn’t pay much attention to what was happening online as he had a job to do in putting up a good performance to mark his debut in Rally Sweden.

“I just blocked it out of my mind because I was here to focus on a job which was to finish the event which I did. Whatever happens on social media can just happen but I was here to achieve my dream and I’m fully focused on that”.

His performance in Sweden will raise expectations within the rally fans in Kenya even as he prepares for the forthcoming world events and ultimately the WRC Safari Rally here in Kenya.