You cannot talk about the current Africa Rally Championship (ARC) without mentioning Manvir Baryan and the Skoda Fabia R5.
The same however can’t be said of both driver and car when it comes to the Kenyan National Rally Champions (KNRC).
Manvir Baryan took over the Africa rally scene and made for much of the talking points the moment he entered the chase for the 2017 ARC title. The Skoda Fabia R5 too was all but a phenomenal car on the continent.
Probably, making the shift to the ARC was the best decision for his rally career.
With Scotland’s Drew Sturrock calling the pace notes, Baryan easily dominated the region, winning four (Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Zambia) of the five events he featured in. It’s only the home event; Safari rally that proved a challenge, finishing in ninth position overall then.
2018 has been another regional walk through with the African title already sealed for for the MRT crew with one more round to go.
But after competently conquering the region, one would conclude that Manvir should equally be at the same winning streak in his home championship.
There has however been little to show.
Baryan had his KNRC breakthrough with a maiden victory in the 2017 season opener in Mombasa. It was the Skoda Fabia’s debut in Kenya as well. He would later secure another victory in Kajiado rally the same year.
Since June last year, Baryan has not appeared on the winner’s list in the KNRC. Only a few podium finishes to count for.
Carl Tundo, who has been Baryan’s rival on the stages with his Mitsubishi Evo X says the varying performance can be attributed to the tougher competition at home.
“Manvir is a great driver with no doubt. But Kenya has better drivers and strong competition unlike in ARC events. Competitions at home is at a high level for him.
“Besides, everyone tried to up their game the moment those R5 were introduced. We all improved to try and match them. So they are not new to us like it is to other crews in the ARC event who get to compete with them once,” said Tundo.
Tundo however believes Baryan will eventually catch up.
“But Manvir is still getting the experience required, he has had good training from Tapio and greatly improved. Very soon he will be the best driver and take the home championship,” he added.
2016 KNRC champion and Baryan’s former trainer Tapio Laukkanen believes the difference is in the drivers’ experience.
“There’s no competition for Manvir in ARC. So he can easily cruise to win. But he can’t just drive and win in Kenya with so many capable drivers.
“Many drivers have more experience for sure which is good for them. But both Skoda drivers Onkar and Manvir are still not using whole capacity/performance for the car,” he said.
Mike Mwangi, a rally ace mechanic also concurs with Tapio that it is about experience and skill.
“The pace in Kenya is very high and the drivers dominating are very experienced and good drivers. Manvir has won rallies here beating the currently dominant drivers with sheer pace.
“But the pace is obviously much higher now. The skills of the top drivers is very close if not same.
“It then boils down to experience whereby a driver would know how much he can push a car without breaking it and what risks to take as well,” said Mwangi.
Manvir Baryan is currently in fourth position on the KNRC championship with 78 points from four events.
With two events remaining, the Skoda driver has no chance at this year’s KNRC title.