Ian Duncan

Background

His first tastes of driving occurred when he was aged around ten, as he helped his mother when she got stuck at farm roads during rainy seasons.

Career

This was one of seven consecutive top ten finishes in the event from 1990–1996, despite its notorious attrition rate. He went to Saint Mary"s High School, but was more interested in repairing cars and motorcycles. He also competed in motocross winning the national 125 cc title in 1979 and 1980.

He competed at the Safari Rally first time in 1983 driving a Nissan pick-up navigated by Gavin Bennett, reaching ninth position and a class victory, gaining the attention of rally people.

His first victorious national rally was Nakuru Rally in 1987 while driving a Toyota Celica twin-cam turbo navigated by Ian Munro. Having competed with a Group A Subaru Legacy RS and Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD in the 1990s.

Apart from Safari Rally, he competed in WRC rallies only few times. The best result was finishing 8th overall and winning the Group North class in a Subaru Legacy RS at the 1990 Acropolis Rally in Greece, navigated by Yvonne Mehta (the wife of Shekhar Mehta).

Later he was running a non-homologated Toyota Hilux with a turbocharged 4.5 L engine in the Kenyan National Rally Championship (KNRC).

He was imposed a four percent time penalty due to his non-homologated vehicle. He extended the record in 2007 by winning Guru Nanak Rally again. He has competed in motorcycling.

In 2003, he was the runner up of Kenyan enduro, motocross as well as rally championships.

He introduced his newest rally car, a Nissan Patrol pick-up, in October 2008.

Achievements

• He was Kenyan Rally Champion six times (1987, 1988, 1989, 1991, 2000 and 2011), and achieved outright victory in a World Rally Championship round when he won the 42nd Trustbank Safari Rally in 1994. Duncan won his first national championship the same year winning most of the races. He won the 1987 national Motor Sportsman of the Year Award. In November 2006 Duncan won Guru Nanak Rally, becoming the first driver to win a KNRC round for tenth time. Duncan has won the Rhino Charge off-road event in 1998, 2006 and 2007. In 2008 he also won the national autocross championship. In 2009, 15 years after winning the Safari Rally proper, Duncan won the Safari classic rally driving a 1968 Ford Mustang navigated by his current navigator Amaar Slatch. The defending champion Björn Waldegård was left to the second place. In 2011 he won the Kenyan National Rally Championship for the sixth time. Duncan entered the 2011 Classic Safari Rally as a defending champion, now driving a Ford Capri. He finished seventh The next year he became close to win his second Safari Rally, now with American Red Cross status, but lost to Carl Tundo by just 15 seconds.