HOW TO RACE IN KENYA — A ROOKIE RACING GUIDE
Types of racing
The granddaddy is of course rally but in this post, I’ll focus on tarmac events. These are usually Gymkhana, hill climb and most recently, auto cross.
In Gymkhana, a course is laid out using cones for markers. Drivers drive the course, to get the best time. Each hit of the cone, attracts a time penalty. The driver with the least time to clear the course (after all penalties are assessed) wins. Races are commonly held on unused airstrips over the weekend in Masinga(Machakos county) or Nyaribo(Nyeri county).
Hill climb is set between two points of a winding ascending public road. The road is closed for the event and competitors can safely push to the limit knowing that they’re clear of any traffic. Some of the best roads that are near the the city for hill climb racing are Kiambu and Murang’a. The race format is Time Trial with several heats.
Autocross is styled similar to Gymkhana but on a closed private road with clear sections in between cone obstacles. The obstacles are composed of slaloms, chicanes and hairpin turns.
Choosing the car
Being rookies, we went with a Mitsubishi Colt Ralliart(2010) as our race car. It fulfills most of the requirements we deem important:
- Affordability — The Colt Ralliart is best known as a “pocket rocket”. It is inexpensive to buy and run while also kicking a punch. It shares lots of parts with the standard Colt which is fairly popular in Kenya. Technical knowledge and support is in abundance in many workshop garages owing to the fact that Mitsubishis and their Mivec engines have been in the market for a long time.
- Reliability — As a privateer team, we don’t have tons of money to burn in maintaining a race car. We therefore needed something that is reliable and will seldom break down. This was affirmed when during testing, we hit a kerb, and went off. The only damage sustained was a bent rim and under body plastics coming loose. The car was functionally unimpaired.
- Size — Taking into account the types of races mentioned above, maneuverability and handling are key factors. A smaller car is inherently more maneuverable and the Ralliart version of the Colt comes tuned for handling from the factory. Smaller and lighter also makes stopping easy without need for a big-brake upgrade kit. Already it was a good base to build off.
- Power — We needed a mid-powered vehicle with lots of torque. Colt Ralliart has a small turbo that spools up quite fast and delivers the power much sooner than is the norm in other performance vehicles. For races that rarely go over 100kph in outright speed, the ability to quickly accelerate between obstacles is key.
- FWD — Yes, you read it right. We deliberately preferred a Front Wheel Drive car because not only is the world of competitive driving headed that way but it teaches better driving skills and racecraft. Here, smoothness over outright power is key.
Prepping the car
TheSurgeon, our lead technician & mechanic who is in charge of technical development and maintenance christened the car SHADOW. It is a moniker that lends to it’s grey colour. Because we intend to race in hill climbs with its elevated risk factor, we decided to install a welded FIA spec roll cage and lighten the car by gutting the inside and removing everything that wasn’t required for racing. That included all the plastic trimming, seats, carpets, radio, A/C etc. There were cheaper options for the cage but being a dedicated race car and resale not a consideration, we decided to do it once and do it right in a manner that may allow us to participate in sanctioned FIA events should the time come.
The front seats were replaced with lighter Bride bucket seats, and in place of the factory seat belts, a 6 point point race harness installed. Having gotten rid of the internal A/C, we also removed the compressor and attendant auxiliaries from the engine bay. The engine has so far been left untouched with only regular service and oil changes. For our small privateer team, we value reliability more than power as we intend to race this car for years to come without blowing a hole through the engine and with it, our pockets. Finally, we upgraded the brake pads from standard to Ferodo track pads simply because of high wear on the standard pads.
Before a race, wheels are balanced and aligned, tyres rotated if necessary and a general suspension health check done.
Entering our first race
Once we were confident the car was ready and in good condition to race, the first hurdle encountered was finding a race calendar event and how to register for one. Unfortunately, most of the information is localised in WhatsApp groups and not searchable online. Once we found the right information, KES 3,500 in race fees was paid up and registration done for our first Gymkhana event. We however missed scrutineering and technical inspection because we weren’t in the right WhatsApp group to receive this information. However, the organisers thankfully spared us the KES 2,000 penalty in late fees.
On race day, we drove early in the morning to the race event at the Masinga airstrip, 150KM away accompanied with friends who are our biggest fans and supporters. John Kio of LegendAutotech offered his tools which we luckily didn’t need; but better safe than sorry. Our small entourage carried the tools and equipment to the track. There was a driver briefing before the race and a demonstration drive to get acquainted with the course which in retrospect, should have been taken more seriously evident from the multiple times we got lost in the sea of cones.
Lessons and future improvements
It’s important to be realistic and not expect to outright win your first race. This is an opportunity to find the limit of the car and driver while benchmarking against the competition. Proper preparations ensured we ran the whole day without any problems and drove the 150KM back to the city at the close of the event.
A good set of performance tyres is a key consideration for future improvement. We also intend to put in a lot of seat time by entering as many race and driving events as we can to muster the car and enhance driver skill.