Joginder Singh (rally driver)

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Sardar Joginder Singh Bhachu (born February 9, 1932 in Kericho , Kenya , † October 20, 2013 in London , Great Britain ) was a Kenyan rally driver in the 1960s and 1970s. His nickname was The Flying Sikh. He won the Safari Rally three times . His first win in 1965 drove a Volvo PV544 . His brother Jaswant was his co-driver at the time. In his second and third wins, 1974 and 1976, he drove a Mitsubishi Colt Lancer 1600 GSR .

Career

Sardar Joginder Singh Bhachu, the eldest of ten children of Sardarni Swaran Kaur and Sardar Battan Singh, was born in the Kericho District ( British East Africa ) during the British colonial period . Not much is known about his youth. He attended boarding school in Nairobi . He made his first work experience as a Spanner Boy in his father's garage. He later worked as a mechanic for major engine manufacturers before becoming the first patrol officer with the Royal East African Automobile Association in 1958 . During his work, he drove a motorcycle with a sidecar, a BSA 650 cc .

Mitsubishi Colt Lancer 1600 GSR from Singh on the Safari Rally (1974)

Singh was the first Sikh driver to compete in an international rally and win the Safari Rally three times. As a result, he became known as The Flying Sikh . Although his Ugandan rival Shekhar Mehta took more overall wins at this event, Singh's record was 19 wins out of 22 stages. This was an unprecedented show of perseverance in what was then the toughest rally in the world, where the failure rate could exceed 90%. He was also one of the so-called Unsinkable Seven , the only crews who reached the final destination in Nairobi in 1968, when the remaining total field of 74 stranded at the Mau Escarpment , a terrain along the western edge of the Great African Rift Valley.

Singh had no motorsport experience until he was 26 years old. But he made up for this shortcoming in the following years with his 60 victories at the East African Rally Championships in Kenya , Uganda and Tanzania . In addition to his three wins at the Safari Rally, he was three times in the top 5 at the Southern Cross Rally in Australia in the 1970s. He was also awarded Kenya's Motor Sportsman of the Year twice, in 1970 and 1976.

His first historic victory in the Rallye Safari in 1965 came completely unexpected and undermined prevailing superstitions. It was the 13th Rally Safari and his car was carrying the number 1, which at that time was considered the unlucky number on the Rally Safari. The two brothers Joginder and Jaswant won, although they drove the same Volvo as the works driver Tom Trana in 1963 and 1964 before. The Volvo had 42,000  miles on its odometer before the Bhachu brothers won.

Singh lived in the UK and Canada for many years during the 1980s . He was a guest at the start of the 50th Safari Rally in 2002 and was named Patron of the Safari Classic in 2007.

Joginder Singh died in 2013, at the age of 81, of complications from heart failure in London.

The Flying Sikh

Roger Barnard and Peter Moll wrote a book about Joginder called The Flying Sikh. It was illustrated by Mohamed Amin. The book was published in 1975 by TransAfrica Publishers . This 109-page book provides an overview of Joginder's early years. An article in the Daily Nation uses a quote from the book where Joginder's father is mentioned as his inspiration.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Safari Rally Roll of Honor , Rallybase.nl website
  2. ^ A b c d Cecil, Eric: The East African Rally & Joginder Singh , Sikh Heritage, 1973
  3. ↑ a b Datsun and The East African Safari Rally ( Memento from May 6, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), Merlin, DatsunHistory.com website
  4. ^ Njenga, Peter: Recalling the days when Safari was a grand event, Daily Nation, June 21, 2001
  5. ↑ Profile of Singh , Rallybase.nl site
  6. ↑ Joginder Singh is Kenya Airways Safari Classic patron for 2007, East African Safari Classic press release
  7. ↑ Kenyan 'flying sikh' Joginder Singh passes away  ( page no longer available , search in web archives ),@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.hindustantimes.com Hindustan Times, October 22, 2013
  8. ^ Roger Barnard, Peter Moll, Mohamed Amin: Joginder Singh, the Flying Sikh , TransAfrica Publishers, 1975
  9. ↑ Gachuhi, Roy: Celebrating the 'Flying Sikh' , Daily Nation, October 22, 2013
personal data
SURNAME Singh, Joginder
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Singh Bhachu, Sardar Joginder
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Kenyan-British rally driver
DATE OF BIRTH February 9, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Kericho , Kenya
DATE OF DEATH 20th October 2013
Place of death London , UK