Amaan Ganatra, 17, Floors Seasoned Rivals to Win on KNRC Debut in Stoni Athi Thriller

Teenage sensation Amaan Ganatra made a dream start to his rallying career, winning Round 1 of the 2026 Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC) at just 17 years old at the weekend.

The Ganatra Racing driver, with Mudasar Chaudry reading the notes, clocked 01:52:03.1 to take his first-ever KNRC victory and maximum points after also winning the Power Stage.

“It’s a big relief, I mean, the whole team put in a lot of work and to bring back a good result on my first KNRC event at such a young age is really a big achievement,” said Ganatra after his win on Saturday.

“After the first loop, the plan was to keep it clean, as we were already leading at that point. Between Neel and myself, it was pretty close, one stage after 27kms, we were separated by two seconds, so it was a really big push.”

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 dented by a five-minute penalty for missing a junction.

“We almost hit first position but got a penalty for missing a junction, no worries, we managed to recover lots of time in the rest of the stages,” Lota said.

“It was a new challenge, new terrain, a whole new event. I am really thankful to the Motorsport Kenya Federation for reviving the KNRC. It was our debut KNRC, and we locked in second. SS1 is a terrain we have been doing in the Shell Autox series on this side of the ranch, but on the other side, it was a totally different section with black cotton soil. There were some rough stages there, so I had to change my driving style every 5 kilometres.”

Another youngster Neel Gohil had been Ganatra’s closest challenger in a Mitsubishi Evo 10 but retired on the second pass of the Simba speed test with an electrical problem.

“It was a really good event. The first loop was good. We had a few issues with the electrics, but we thought it would be okay. We came back to service and we were 18 seconds down on Amaan. We won one stage but then got lost on the notes on the second stage, which cost us like 15 seconds,” Gohil explained.

“In the second loop, we hit the fastest time on the spectator stage. In the second stage we had an electrical issue. The car switched off into the first corner. We switched it back on, got it running, but it ran for 200 meters and went into limp mode, so we just nursed it to service. Thanks to Ian Duncan who towed us back to service.”

Rajveer Singh Thethy and James Mwangi took third in a Subaru N12 for Rajveer Racing in 01:58:55.6, ahead of Issa Amwari/Dennis Mwenda in fourth and Harpreet Singh Bhogal/Ismail Taher in fifth.

The Anwar family were also part of the action. Patriarch Azar Anwar drove a BMW Classic, while his children Samnia and Shabaz Anwar teamed up in a Daewoo Cielo.

Shabaz, who navigated his elder sister, was all smiles at the finish: “Today I navigated my sister in a Daewoo Cielo and we had lots of fun, the loops were amazing, a good experience for me in the navigator’s seat.”

According to Clerk of the Course Pipi Renu, Round 2 of the KNRC will return to the same fast and demanding terrain of Stoni Athi on the weekend of September 19-20, 2026.

With a 17-year-old winner and a family affair on the entry list, the revived KNRC could not have asked for a better start.