Quentin Mitchell Zimbabwe Challenge Rally preview

Mitchell ready for the biggest Challenge of his rallying career

24 year old Kenyan rally driver Quentin Mitchell is ready for the most important rally of his career to date when the Limuru based singer will travel to Zimbabwe to debut his brand new car in the Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally. The young rallying talent will attempt to win a place in the World finals of the Pirelli Star Driver scheme which would propel him on to the world rallying stage in 2011.

Mitchell, who previously rallied a near standard Mitsubishi Evo rally car to a number of top results, has just taken delivery of a latest specification Prodrive built Subaru Impreza and will be hoping that this sophisticated machine can help him challenge for the top prize. The Subaru Impreza is such an amazing car, I've never driven anything with launch control, a dog box or a hydraulic handbrake before and am really looking forward to the rally now!

Quentin, who previously made history by becoming the youngest ever competitor on the Classic Safari Rally, has spent 2010 on the rallying sidelines as he has focused all of his efforts on this project, something which he is quick to acknowledge, would not have happened with out his sponsors. Rallying is not a cheap sport but over the years I have been lucky enough to have organisations support me in my quest to go rallying. And I have to say an enormous thanks to Tarpo, Recycle Africa, AccessKenya, Freem, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Insurance, Fuchs Lubricants and Jungle Oats for all of their support!

To ensure that he has the best possible chance of impressing on the Harare based rally Quentin has recruited young Welsh co-driver Chris Davies to sit alongside him in place of the absent Tim Challen who is getting married the same weekend! Chris is an experienced co-driver who currently competes in the U.K in an ex Tommi Makinen Subaru World Rally Car and has plenty of experience of the Subaru range of rally cars. I have never even been to Africa before so this trip is going to be a big adventure. But once we arrive in Harare it is just another rally and I will focus on doing the best job possible!

The Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally takes place from 27 to 29 August and counts as the final round of the 2010 FIA African Rally Championship. The event is also the African qualifier for the Pirelli Star Driver shootout. The top two juniors selected from the rally will fly to France later in the year where they will go head to head with contestants from around the world in an attempt to win one of the four seats available in the 2011 World Rally Championship.

-source: quentinmitchellrallying.com