NAIVASHA, Kenya, March 14 – SportPesa Rally Team pair, driver Leonardo ‘Leo’ Varese and his trusted navigator Kigondu ‘KV’ Kareithi have forged a lifelong bond that transcends the sport they have devoted all their passion to.
Varese and Kareithi debuted their new Toyota Yaris GR 4 machine at this year’s WRC Safari Rally Kenya 2026, competing in the national category of the famous event.
Gaming firm SportPesa that powers their car also came on board as the main commercial partner of the third leg of the 2026 World Rally Championship (WRC).
Fate brought them together at the independent British curriculum co-educational day and boarding school Brookside in Nairobi.
With the Safari all the rave in the 1990s, the compound at Brookhouse served as the last checkpoint of the WRC Safari Rally before the event relocated to the Kenya International Convention Centre (KICC).
And that is how they were bitten by the rallying bug.
Since then, their shared passion for the sport has seen them grow together to become more than a driver and co-driver.
“I think this August will be 20 years. I’m I wrong or right,” the more talkative Kareithi started.
“It feels like just the other day, but yeah. Actually, it’s 20 years, 20 good years. Yeah. Wow!” his driver responded.
Here’s their engaging and light-hearted interview that demonstrates how deep their bond forged since high school goes.
Q: If you two swapped roles for one stage, what’s the first thing that would go wrong?
KV: I don’t want to be the first one to say.
LV: I think we’ll get lost.
KV: Leo’s strengths are not in reading books. So we might end up in Nairobi and not Naivasha. But yeah, I mean, naturally, I’m a navigator, he’s a driver. Of course, I believe I can drive but I don’t know whether I’m better.
LV: Yeah, he can drive but I cannot navigate. That’s the issue.
KV: He can’t navigate, so we’d be lost. You get the picture?
Q What’s more dangerous? A wrong pace note from you or an overconfident Leo?
KV: Both are dangerous, but now when you add a wrong pace note and an overconfident Leo, now that is very dangerous. Both are not good.
LV: Wrong pace note, no. You know, in fact, that’s worse maybe, let me just repeat myself, worse. Wrong pace notes is a big no. Because sometimes you know, you can control the car. Maybe sometimes not that well, but you still control the car.
KV: When you have more experience as a navigator, you realize if you’re not sure, you better tell him that you’re not sure. Reading notes that are not accurate can lead to a bad situation. So if you skip a couple of notes and you’re a bit lost, you tell him DBS, which stands by Drive by Sight.
Q: Who would survive longer alone on a rally stage?
KV: As in outside the car?
Q: No, on a rally stage like when you’re checking on a stage, who will survive alone?
LV: Probably him because he is better at directions.
KV: Well, I’m the navigator, so I know the stage, so I probably would, who knows?
Q: If YouTube was a rally team and had a theme song, what would it be?
LV and KV (singing together): The song “Stand up for the champions, for the champions, stand up.” That’s our song.
Q: What would be the worst thing for the navigator to say during a 180 km straight?
KV: Oops, slow left.
LV: Too late. Yeah, yeah.
Q. If we had to replace one rally tool with snacks, which tool goes first?
KV: Which tool goes first, the socks, socks.
LV: No, I wouldn’t replace a tool. I can live without snacks during the rally.
Q: If you two were arguing mid-stage, who would apologize first?
KV: We never apologize. It just disappears.
LV: Yeah, the uncomfortable moment goes away. We’ve been running for so many years. You don’t hold grudges, you move on. We’ve spent 20 years together.
Q: If the intercom stopped working mid stage, how long before chaos starts?
KV: Yeah, it’s actually happened to us a couple of times. Of course, we’ll be slower.
LV: He was using sign language. It happened about two, three times and it works because you can’t hear. And we used to have very loud cars.
KV: Yeah, that happens. Of course, you slow down, but you improvise.
Q: If your car could talk after a rally, what would it complain about first?
KV: Okay, depends on which car, but maybe the first one would complain about not being washed enough.
LV: It’s not the case now, you can see it’s a clean car. But, yeah, I don’t know.
KV: As we got progressively better, maybe the cars would complain about being driven too rough, too hard.
LV: Yeah. We were very careful when we were new, but now we have more experience, and you drive the car a bit harder.
Q: If you could describe your partnership in one word, what would it be?
KV: Compatibility. Yeah. That’s what I would say. We match pretty well because we have more or less the same sense of humor. So we also get to enjoy being outside the car, which is not like he comes to do a job and goes.
LV: We socialize a lot outside. We were friends before becoming a rally crew, which I think is very important. It’s very important. So, I would say that.
