- Varese says SportPesa Racing made encouraging progress in developing the new Toyota GR Yaris Rally3.
- He and navigator Kigo Kariethi finished seventh at KNRC Round 1 in 02:09:28.7 (+17:25.6).
- Varese said recent modifications since the WRC Safari Rally have boosted the team’s confidence in the car.
SportPesa Racing driver Leonardo Varese believes they got a few answers in their mission to develop the new Toyota GR Yaris Rally3 car after managing to finish seventh at Round 1 of the 2026 Kenya National Rally Championship.
Varese and his long-time navigator, Kigo Kariethi, hit the road on Saturday for a run of more than 158 kilometres at the Stoni Athi round, where they stopped the clock in 02:09:28.7 (+17:25.6).
It was a day when 17-year-old Amaan Ganatra made a dream start to his rallying career by winning Round 1 of the 2026 KNRC.
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Although he could not match the pace of the rising stars, the 54-year-old six-time Kenya National Rally Championship 2WD champion said his focus is to gradually get back to his best while ensuring the locally built machine reaches a level where it can truly compete.
Speaking to the SportPesa Blog after tackling seven special stages covering 139.70km within an overall route of 158.91km, Varese stated that they felt very confident with the car after making a few modifications since their last test at the WRC Safari Rally, and they enjoyed every bit of the outing.
“We’re still in the early stages with this car. We only drove a couple of stages during Safari, and Safari was not really an event where you can push and do a lot of work on the car,” Varese said.
“But today we got faster and faster as the event progressed, and we were very comfortable with the pace. The car handled very well, and the small modifications we made before the rally to strengthen it worked perfectly.
“This car was originally a standard car that was developed into a rally car. We will get quicker and quicker, and hopefully develop this car to the level where we can push a little harder.”
He also pointed out that one of the key areas where they found answers was the engine mounts, which they had to replace, and believes everything will fall into place gradually as they continue developing the car.
“Yeah, a lot. For instance, we changed the engine mounts because the ones that came with the car were weak during the last autocross.
One mount gave in, so we replaced it with a locally built one. Slowly by slowly we are identifying the weaknesses, and hopefully by next season we will make this car more competitive. We also need a little more power,” he added.
Varese and Kigo are back on track with solid backing from leading online gaming firm SportPesa, which earlier this year came on board with a massive KSh 40 million sponsorship.
Meanwhile, Mombasa’s Javed Lota and navigator Komaine Yakub finished second overall in a Subaru N10 SPV for Lota Motorsports with a time of 01:57:07.7, but their charge was hampered by a five-minute penalty for missing a junction.
Rajveer Singh Thethy and James Mwangi took third in a Subaru N12 for Rajveer Racing in 01:58:55.6, ahead of Issa Amwari and Dennis Mwenda in fourth, while Harpreet Singh Bhogal and Ismail Taher completed the top five.
Full Results – 2026 KNRC Round 1
- Amaan Ganatra / Mudasar Chaudry – Mitsubishi Evo 9 – Ganatra Racing – 01:52:03.1
- Javed Lota / Komaine Yakub – Subaru N10 – Lota Motorsports – 01:57:07.7 [+05:04.6]
- Rajveer Singh Thethy / James Mwangi – Subaru N12 – Rajveer Racing – 01:58:55.6 [+06:52.5]
- Issa Amwari / Dennis Mwenda – Mitsubishi Evo 10 – Issa Amwari Racing Team – 01:59:40.1 [+07:37.0]
- Harpreet Singh Bhogal / Ismail Taher – Mitsubishi Evo 10 – TAI Racing – 02:01:19.6* [+09:16.5]
- Michuki Hinga / Dennis Yaya – Toyota Runx – M.K.H Racing – 02:05:06.0 [+13:02.9]
- Leonardo Varese / Kigondu Kareithi – Toyota Yaris – SportPesa Racing – 02:09:28.7 [+17:25.6]
- George Kyriazi / Max Green – Ford Escort – Equatorial Classic Rallying – 02:12:09.1 [+20:06.0]
- Azar Anwar / Azhar Bhatti – BMW – AAM Team – 02:14:11.5 [+22:08.4]
- Shakeel Khan / Riyaz Ismail – Ford Escort – ALS Motorsports – 02:17:00.2 [+24:57.1]
- Timothy Kinoti / Qui Mungai – Toyota Runx – Arkadios Motorsport – 02:32:16.1 [+40:13.0]