Nine months is not a long time for a rally driver fine-tuning a new race car in the run-up to a major event.
But the 2024 Kenya National Rally Championship winner Jasmeet Chana, aka Iceman, believes he has ample time to overcome his teething problems well in time for the 2025 WRC Safari Rally, which will take place in Nairobi and Naivasha, Kenya, from March 20–23.
The event will double up as a WRC, and indeed, Kenya’s round of the FIA African Rally Championship (ARC), event is expected to be more eco-friendly and even more exciting than previous years.
With an apparently insatiable hunger for success, Chana and his team of mechanics are working round the clock to ensure that the new rally car is in ‘good nick’ well in time.
Jasmeet jumped ship from a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10 to his current state-of-the-art Ford Fiesta R5 and hopes to pull out all the stops to meet his team deadlines for the Safari, including a thorough check of the car and a test drive later in the New Year.
Despite two outings in Kenya and Tanzania in 2024, the switch to the Fiesta appears to have unlocked the much-needed zest for his Rubis-sponsored CRS Racing team to tackle the world-famous Safari.
The Fiesta is being prepared at Chana’s family workshop in Parklands, Nairobi, under the watchful eye of his elder brother and chief technical engineer, Jaswinder Chana.
The Fiesta arrived in the country in March this year, and due to the delay in arrival, Chana was compelled to skip this year’s WRC Safari as he couldn’t meet the fabled event’s deadlines.
But the 2023 Kenya National Rally Championship holder is now looking forward to his debut in the WRC2 category, as his new car is eligible to score points in WRC’s second-tier support category.
After several months of implementing his technical strategies, Chana is convinced that he’ll gain ground over some of his R5 race adversaries.
Reflecting on his 2025 WRC Safari dreams, Chana said: “We’ve been trying to master the new car better this year, but unfortunately, we didn’t get to drive it around because there were fewer rallies in Kenya in 2024. The last event we did was Arusha, and it was all about learning the car as much as we didn’t finish. We also did one event in Nanyuki with the new car.”
After the two events in his new contraption, Chana is glad that his pace isn’t that bad and that he is overcoming his teething problems day by day, while also trying to fathom the dynamics of the car.
“In Arusha I made a mistake which resulted in my retirement, but it’s a steep learning curve. Safari holds a special place in everyone’s heart – not only mine but also the spectators. It’s like a heritage to us, a festive occasion for us, something we are looking forward to, especially now that I am driving an R5,” Chana, who is planning a test drive in January as he anticipates a fairytale Safari participation, added.
“It will be something interesting, and it will be good to see the pace we have in the Safari. It will be interesting to compare our pace with that of the World Rally 2 drivers.”
Jasmeet’s brother Jaswinder expects a trouble-free run on the Safari and is leaving nothing to chance in as far as preparations are concerned.
Jaswinder said: “We are always interacting with M-Sport online, and we have received some new upgrades from them to try and calibrate this car to work with this specific engine and chassis number. Upgrading from Evo to Fiesta makes a big difference; we have not had much seat time, but the car is good, very competitive. The suspension system on the car is totally different and has more travel.”
