Kenya Breweries Limited has unveiled 20 teams that will compete for an all expenses paid Formula 1 Championship trip.

Through a month-long competition dubbed Kenya Racing Festival that combines both Go-Kart racing and F1 Virtual Reality Simulation, the teams will be subjected to an F1 simulator to take them through a virtual journey F1 experience.

The winning team will get to travel to Abu Dhabi for Formula 1 Championship later in the year.

Speaking at a ceremony to unveil the event in Nairobi, KBL head of premium spirits Grace Nshemeire-Gwaku said KBL was excited to host the inaugural Kenya Racing Festival competition under its Johnnie Walker brand.

“The final 20 teams were selected from over 80 hopeful teams across the country in a grueling qualifier held at Whistling Moran. Tonight, we present to you these 20 teams that will compete among each other to beat the fastest time. We believe this is an exciting chapter for Kenya to show the world that there are Go Kart champions in this part of the world and Johnnie Walker is proud to sponsor them,” she said.

The decision to leverage Formula 1 sport is meant to tap to it growing popularity in Kenya and fuse it with Diageo trends.

“This is the coming together of two globally acclaimed brands. Formula 1 is the perfect fit for Johnnie Walker, which inspires and is giving consumers the opportunity to explore the rich possibilities of their world. This association will enable Johnnie Walker to greatly extend its reach to F1 fans,” said Nshemeire-Gwaku.

The competition feeds into the larger Johnnie Walker serve campaign that is ongoing across the country whose aim is to energizing consumers to push their boundaries and taste more out of life by exploring the unfamiliar.