McRae Kimathi laughs easily and speaks with the confidence of a man who has stretched his limits, seen his ability tested in the crucible and came out tops.
Lanky, with boyish looks that belie his 28 years, McRae is at ease when he arrives 40 minutes late for our interview on a warm and sunny Saturday July afternoon.
He hugs his manager Safina Khan to defuse her scolding for his tardiness before launching his defence, “I was at the office and then I had to rush home and change and wear the sponsor’s t-shirt. Plus, I honestly thought the interview was at 3pm, not 2.30pm.”
He then warmly says hello to all the mechanics as he finds out exactly what they are working on, then goes to check on the progress of the work on his rally car before eventually settling down for our chat.
We are at the Motor Atrep garage located off Ole Dume Road and nestled amidst the high-rise apartments in Nairobi’s upmarket Kilimani neighbourhood.
The garage houses and services the three M-Sport Ford Fiesta rally cars that McRae and his FIA Rally Stars programme teammates Jeremy Wahome and Hamza Anwar drive, most recently at the 2023 WRC Safari Rally.
McRae, navigated by Mwangi Kioni, finished third in the WRC3 category and 20th overall in the Kenyan leg of the World Rally Championships in 2023. “Compared to the past two years, this year the Safari Rally was quite rough, but we had a lot of fun. It was quite spicy with the rain. It was quite slippery, quite interesting,” he reflects.
Son to Kenyan rally ace and current Kenya Motor Sport Federation President Phineas Kimathi, and named after the late British rally legend, Colin McRae, rallying seems to have been his destiny since birth although he insists there was no undue pressure.
“In terms of rallying, it’s been my passion, it’s been natural for me. My father did not tell me, ‘Okay, you have to rally’. If I went and started doing something like chess or music or something else, he would still be supportive. But it was easier for us to interact because he did rallying in his time, now I’m doing it in my time,” asserts McRae.
He started off in autocross driving his dad’s Safari Rally winning Hyundai Coupe FX – which is now being rebuilt into a museum piece as sports memorabilia.
He then enjoyed breakout success five years ago during the Safari Rally candidate event in 2019, where driving a Subaru N12, he became the youngest finisher and got his first top five ranking nationally.
“That’s now when people started to take notice. At that time, I was 23, 24 and I was mixing it up with the Carl Tundos and Baldev Chagers – Kenyan top rally drivers – and they had better machineries than I had,” McRae recalls.
Entry into FIA Rally Stars
However, Covid-19 brought everything to a halt and put brakes on McRae’s fledgling rally career.
The end of the pandemic brought good tidings with his entry into the FIA Rally Stars programme where he has enjoyed great success, “We were doing it concurrently with the African Rally Championship and I managed to win the Junior Rally Championship and the African Rally 3 championship where I was double champion in 2021 and in 2022. Then I got to do the Junior World Rally Championship and the ARC3 championship again so yes, I think we are on the top of trajectory.”
Launched in 2021, the FIA Rally Star programme seeks to ‘detect, train and develop drivers to become the future stars of the World Rally Championship’.
A component of the programme is the Junior WRC where continental representatives participate in select World Rally Championship events. For the 2022 edition, the junior drivers tackled five rounds in Sweden, Greece, Portugal, Estonia and Croatia.
“It is very intense. It’s absolutely a whole different ballgame. The first time I went down to Sweden, it was like being thrown in the deep end. Never driven on snow, never even seen snow. That world is so fast paced, they are absolutely on a professional level. Coming from amateur rallying, being pushed to professional rallying was a real eye opener,” he said.
Racism in Sweden
In addition to his experience of first time seeing then driving on snow in Sweden, McRae had to battle racism online that had the WRC coming to his defence. He also remembers feeling like he was the sole black person in the entire city during the Rally of Poland. Meanwhile, his compatriots were giving him hell regarding his results and questioning his selection to Junior WRC. The emotional toll piled up and it took a break to give him perspective.
“Those are some of the things that made me not enjoy driving, it made me contemplate stopping, not doing it this year (2023). But once you take a break from it, recharge your batteries, and you start to miss it, and then you’re like, okay, I want to do it differently. I want to really enjoy it. Because if I’m not enjoying it, I’d’ rather sit out and just watch. And I think that’s the main difference between last year 2022 and this year 2023,” says McRae.
Aside from dancing to his own tune in rallying, McRae is musically inclined. He loves music, plays the guitar, and is quite a dancer.
He adores Tanzanian musician Ali Kiba, “I’m a fan of Mapenzi Yanarun Dunia by Ali Kiba. I don’t think there’s any rally or even any stage that we start without without that song on repeat. It drives my co-driver mad, but I love it.”
Having enjoyed success in the Junior WRC, WRC Safari Rally and the Africa Rally Championship, McRae has now set his eyes on conquering the Kenya National Rally Championship and cementing his status among Kenyan rally greats.
As for his future in motor sport, McRae is clear-eyed, “I’d love to drive a WRC1 car, maybe in future if I can. But more realistically, WRC2 is something that I’m thinking about. Now of course, it’s not life and death anymore, because as I said, been there, done that. Now for me, rallying is just pure enjoyment. It would be great if I could be able to mentor other people. I have a passion for rallying, I have a passion for cars and now I’m actually really enjoying doing it.”
The Strathmore University Bachelor of Commerce and Finance graduate has a day job working as a tax analyst for PKF Taxation Services Limited.
