Karan Patel first off the ramp as KNRC 2023 season gets underway

Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC) defending champion Karan Patel alongside his navigator Tauseef Khan are first off the ramp as this year's campaign gets underway in Machakos. 

The season-opening KNRC leg has attracted 17 crews that will tackle the 185km rally set to be flagged off at Machakos People's Park. 

Karan Patel crowned 2022 Motorsport personality of the year

Drivers will have 155.27 km of competitive distance spread across seven stages on Lisa farm with the longest 30.58km long while the shortest is 6.45km long and serves as the spectator stage too.

Fresh from being named the Motorsport personality of the year 2022, Karan will pilot a Ford Fiesta as he looks to repeat his 2022 November heroics at Lisa farm to win the season-opening leg. 

Last year, Karan won in Machakos, which was his sixth win of the season and the penultimate round of the 2022 series, cutting the then leader Jasmeet Chana's advantage to nine points. 

Jasmeet, who finished third in Machakos last year, behind Africa Rally Championship (ARC) junior champion Hamza Anwar, is second off the ramp and will be followed on the road by Aakif Virani. 

Hamza misses the KNRC-opening leg as he is in Europe preparing for his first ever competition on snow at Rally Sweden. 

Eric Bengi, Evans Kavisi and Issa Amwari will power Mitsubishi Evo's in this competition while the Ford Fiesta features prominently on the field confirmed. 

Youngsters McRae Kimathi, Jeremiah Wahome and Yasin Nasser as well as Rio Smith all compete in Ford Fiestas. 

The duo of Sam Karangatha and Edward Ndukui are back competing in KNRC in a 2WD Sunaru Leone. Last year, Karangatha concentrated more on autocross.