Sachania’s confidence flies high after WRC Safari finish

KCB Racing Team’s Nikhil Sachania is probably Kenya’s most relaxed driver but you can imagine what this has done for his confidence behind the wheel of a hand-controlled Evolution X.

The paraplegic driver now says he's got a great feeling inside him after a credible fourth position on WRC Safari Rally’s Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC) Category.

Fighting against the able-bodied drivers and beating the two M-Sport Poland Rally 3 Fiestas of Jeremy Wahome and McRae Kimathi was quite an achievement in 18th overall position.

 Carl “Flash” Tundo won the KNRC3 Class followed by Jasmeet Chana, Maxine Wahome and Sachania in fourth.

“We are really happy with our finish as we completed the rally without any major issues and were one of the crews to finishwithout having to restart any day on Super Rally. The 2022 WRC Safari Rally was a very tricky and tough event compared to last year. Our main goal was to bring the car home and achieve a good finish,’ said Sachamia.

Sachania got through Day 1 (Thursday) at the 4.8km Karasani Super Special Stage (SSS) without any issues.

But the second day on Friday was a lot tougher for him especially with the red flags on the Kedong fesh fesh stage.

 “Our Evo behaved well through and through; so we managed to bring it back to Naivasha’s (Wildlife Research and Training Institute) Service in one piece,” added Sachania.

The third day on Saturday was where Sachania felt he could gain some time on his competition. During the first loop he had a clean good run. But on the second pass of Soysambu, Elementeita and Sleeping Warrior, the rains had really changed the dynamics and the sodden surface turned out to be quite challenging.

Sachania: “With slippery and muddy conditions, we backed off the pace a little to try and keep the car on the road.”

“On the final day (Sunday), we thought it would be quite easy to navigate through but we realised the roads were quite deteriorated as we passed. The Hell's Gate stage was challenging on the final pass, so we we got stuck for a short time which lost us two places.”

Sachania was happy to get through the challenging Hell’s Gate stage, where the second pass served as the Wolf Power Stag and indeed the last speed test of the Safari.

He quipped: “After Hell’s Gate, we checkedeach into the Parc Ferme on our time to complete the world's toughest rally- such a great feeling.”

“I would like to thank our sponsors KCB Bank for trusting us. It was such a great pleasure flying their name high. Without their support through the rally, it would have been a mission impossible,” Sachania, who teamed up with Deep Patel, added.  

The 2014 KMSF Sports Personality-of-the-year and Soya Award winner is also grateful to the FIA Accessibility and Disability Commission for their continued support and helping drivers in his condition to run their campaigns competitively.

 KNRC Safari Rally Kenya Results

1. Carl Tundo (Evolution X) 4:47.13.4

2. Jasmeet Chana (Evolution X) 4:55.05.3

3. Maxine Wahome (Ford Fiesta Rally3) 5:20.21.6

4. Nikhil Sachania/Deep Patel (Evolution X) 5:27.44.6

5. Zameer Verje/Zahir Shah (Subaru Impreza) 5:42.34.8

6. Jeremy Wahome/Victor Okundi (Ford Fiesta Rally3) 5:45.49.0

7. Minesh Rathod/Jamie MTavish (Evolution X) 5:54.30.5

8. McRae Kimathi/Mwangi Kioni (Ford Fiesta Rally3) 5:55.59.3

9. Josiah Kariuki/John Ngugi (Evolution IX) 5:56.41.5