Asad Anwar

Assad Anwar had to pull out of the rallycross event due to brake failure caused by a broken brake pipe. He collided with another driver, damaging his own car. Africa Eco Motorsport, founded by Hamza Anwar, aims to develop Kenyan mechanics and engineers to be able to compete internationally. Assad believes Kenya has the talent to compete with other rally car hiring companies around the world. He also mentioned the lack of financial support from sponsors like Safaricom for Hamza's participation in the Junior World Rally Championship. Assad emphasized the need for transparency and direct support from sponsors to honor Kenyan drivers' achievements. He expressed hope for the government to focus on transparency and for sponsors to support sports directly. He confirmed participation in the last round of the Kenyan National Rally Championship and invited the interviewer to attend as a guest. I'm Assad how are you fine thank you um hello guys we are here with Assad Anwar and we are speaking to him about his experience so far in the third round of the rallycross event the last round sorry about the noise so Assad we see you now you are doing the finals and then unfortunately we see that you stopped but we know what happened but I would like for our listeners to know so because of the mud and the rough we broke our brake pipe and on the straight unfortunately when I pressed the brake there was no brake because the fluid had leaked and we hit Ron Oakley on the back and I apologized to him and that's the second time we've touched we've collided and this is a contact sport so and we both happy with it so but unfortunately we damaged our radiator and timing belt on the car so we're out for the day I feel bad for we've got the Africa rally champion 2022 mr. Leroy Gomes and his son Seth who's come all the way to race and now I've spoiled their car for them well my car but we're bringing international flavor to to rallycross and motorsport here we've got the we've got Musa from Uganda who finished third in the autocross in in Kampala the other day and now the fans are starting to come the Zambians are going to start coming the Ugandans the Tanzanians so we're really happy we have in African flavor international flavor we will see that the Africa Eco Motorsport just recently come up what does what do you do with because I reckon that you actually rented some of your cars for the WRC so what does Africa Eco Motorsport what is all about Africa Eco Motorsport Africa Eco Motorsport is Hamza's brainchild so because Hamza has been doing the World Rally Championship he's built up a small business of race car hire so Carl Flashtundo in 2022 drove one of Hamza's cars in the WRC KNRC and he won it last year again he drove an R5 in the WRC 2 and he finished podium in one of Africa Eco Motorsport squatters so we run the cars we are training our Kenyan mechanics we bring in trainers from Europe to teach them so quietly we're building up our own people in Kenya to be able to run these cars to international spec so that's what Africa Eco Motorsport is all about do you feel like you can be able to compete with the likes of I believe you know the rally car hiring companies all around the world like Kerosol Racing Team yeah he's been brought some ice cream so do you feel like do you feel like you can be able to compete with where you trained Kenyan engineers Kenyan mechanics to be like in three years yes in three years yes we've got fantastic talent in in in Kenya I mean Kenya is the best in many things around the world we can compete with the rest of the world we've got people like Mike Mwangi who's a rally engineer Patrick who's here in fact these boys worked all night we blew an engine yesterday they worked all night 24 hours they haven't slept and now they're still working on the car that is passion that is dedication and that will get us international to an international standard I really hope because I really see the rally rally car hiring companies all around the world and I would really like to see something from Africa and most especially from Kenya moving on we've been seeing you doing also the KNRC but with the with the Datsun I believe and reckon that that is the car that you also use in classic yes I am doing the classic in the smallest slowest car in the Toyota Levine so I was just practicing a little bit before that but it's been built again by Africa Eco Motorsport and I think we're going to chase the back enders of the Escorts and the Porsches with that car but yes we're I'm getting ready for the classic which is in 20 days time yeah we also wish you the best in that in that event so coming back to to RX you say that you won't be able to do the finals because of the car grinding yes unfortunately I hit Ron really hard and we broke our radiator and the timing belt and unfortunately we're out so we we live to race another day when you say you live to race another day that means we're going to see you in other events in next year yes yes in all all the events cause I think they still need us old people they call us legends but they need us all people in the team because the team is the female a champion a junior and a legend so I'm over 60 so I'll always get a drive in the legends also I just wanted to to mention we rented out the four cars to the girls in the WRC Talanta those were our cars and then they all finished all four of the ladies finished and we had some other cars on hire but if you want to rally and and you want to learn easily and and and see how you you want to do it please come and see us come and see Hamza Hamza we we can give you training we'll teach you how not to spend a lot of money and get into motorsport RX is the best way to get into it please you don't have to spend millions spend 200,000 and come and race that's my message to you you spoke about money and we see that we saw that this year Hamza Anwar was doing the junior WRC but without the backing of Kenya unlike what we've seen in the previous years how hard has that been I asked Hamza this question and he told me his side but from your side how hard was it to run Hamza in the junior WRC you see these are our sportsmen and women they're representing our country we are proud of our country it would be really nice to have a little bit of help from the Federation and the government and and and and it's okay from the government it doesn't matter we are representing the government so I don't mind but we had Safaricom sponsorship we had Safaricom branding on the car and unfortunately and I hope someone from Safaricom is listening to this we didn't get a single shilling for Hamza's rallying in the JWRC not one shilling so why would Safaricom put branding on the car on every rally Sweden Croatia Estonia Sardinia Greece five rallies they got a lot of mileage Hamza was mentioning Safaricom and Kenya Airways in his speeches I beg Safaricom please please please kindly support Hamza directly please do not go through third parties come to Africa Eco Motorsport we are straightforward we're renting out cars we're doing we're helping motorsport please deal with Hamza directly please no middlemen please we beg of you I hope someone's hearing from Safaricom please come to us directly we've had the sentiments and I can really see the pain that you're showing and I hope that this message actually gets to someone and they actually do something and they actually do something about this whole situation because it's really saddening and even something that I said it's really sad that you see our own going to international events winning international events but it's something that I always ask myself why is these drivers are still human you know they still have they're still flying the Kenyan flag high you know and they are winning just like the the marathoners and the athletes the other athletes who run they're also athletes from Kenya so we actually need to be flagged off to better need support and even when we win we need money to be given to us once we win because like someone like Karen Patel I mean he's won the championship now but I'm sure there's nothing that the government has done so on all that that I've said what can you add on the government side what should the government do to actually honor the Kenyan drivers that actually go outside I think the government should should not put in a single cent towards towards any of the support the money should come from the advertising the sponsors Kenya breweries coca-cola Safaricom Kenya Airways because that is how advertising works the government should just ask for transparency from the Federation's beat football beat athletics beat motorsport all we ask for as sportsmen and women is please bring some transparency so our children are sportsmen can get what is due to them please please keep the middlemen out of it please we will be a hundred percent transparent we will give every receipt we will not we're not squander anything just come to us directly bring I'm ready to take someone from Safari come someone from Kenya Airways with us to the World Rally Championship they come with us we don't even want to touch the money they come and they run they come and they just pay the bills Hamza is sitting on three hundred and fifty thousand euros of sponsorship in the World Rally Championship that is being paid not by the Kenyan government not by the Federation not by Kenya Airways not by Safaricom it's an initiative of the World Rally Championship the junior program now he's rallying against ten other juniors and so did McRae so we know exactly how it works it's not the government supporting the Kenyan government this is supported by WRC Pirelli Wolf Racing they pay M Sport Poland what is not paid by by them is the variables the variables being the hotel accommodation the recce car the fuel those are the variables so that is that is my my request transparency no money from the government but just transparency that is really sentimental and we hope that actually someone will listen to this and action is taken but moving on to something later will you do the last round of the KNRC in Kajal of course we are going to support KMSF we're gonna have fun we're gonna come out and have some fun and I hope to see you there and at the finish whether I win or lose or finish or not finish we will have a big hug and a talk we will I also hope that I'll get the facility to get there because as I also do this podcast it's really sometimes hard to get to to the stages and to get to to to people to drivers I really want to but it's actually hard so from today the whole of next year you've been sponsored by Africa Eco Motorsport and Africa Eco Safari you are a guest Leonard you see this gentleman and his his assistant they are now our guests all of next year so you'll swap numbers you are our guests at the Kajal rally if we camp there you'll be camping but you'll also be helping you have to come carry your own bucket to your shower and make your own bed but we'll give you a bed thank you you're most welcome thank you so much thank you for speaking to us I hope that someone else has heard your sentiment and we pray that moving on forward things get better and all the best in this event and even the future