Jas Mangat Wins Rally of Tanzania; Karan Patel Takes African Rally Championship 2023

The 2023 African Rally Championship (ARC) season ended with the ASAS Rally of Tanzania on Sunday, 12 November in Iringa; Uganda’s Jas Mangat navigated by Jules Escartefigue came out winners of the event in their Hyundai i20 R5 with a time of 1:51:27.6. This was a tremendous win for Mangat as it was his first event win and also given the fact that he started competing in his i20 a few months back in Rwanda. Mangat was first placed from day one and won eight stages out of the twelve that were run. Mangat ended his ARC season with 141 points, three points behind Patel.

Podium finishers of the ASAS Rally of Tanzania; from left, Karan Patel, Tauseef Khan, Jules Escartefigue, Jas Mangat, Hamza Anwar, and Adnan Din. Photo Credit: Innocent Mutaawe.

Karan Patel navigated by Tauseef Khan finished in second place overall in their Ford Fiesta R5 but secured enough points for them to be crowned ARC champions for the 2023 season. Patel amassed 144 points to put him ahead of Mangat to become the champion for this season; he did a total time of 1: 56:09.0, and there was a time difference of 4 minutes 41 seconds between Mangat and Patel. Patel remained consistent throughout the event maintaining a second or third-place spot through most of the stages. Patel won four rounds out of the seven on the ARC calendar: the Equator rally in Kenya in March, the Rallye International du Burundi in August, the Rwanda Mountain Gorilla Rally in September, and the Zambia International Rally in October. This is his first ARC championship win as he becomes the seventh Kenyan to win the ARC championship behind Carl Tundo, Manvir Baryan, Don Smith, Jaspreet Singh Chatthe, David Horsey, and Shekhar Mehta.

2023 African Rally Championship winners, Karan Patel (right) and his co-driver Tauseef Khan (left). Photo Credit: Innocent Mutaawe.

Closing out the podium was Kenya’s Hamza Anwar navigated by Adnan Din in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X R4, they did a time of 1:57:36.3. Anwar also won the ARC2 category and the ARC Junior class. He finishes the season in fourth place with 63 points. Anwar stayed within third and fourth place spots throughout the event which enabled him to nub a podium finish at the end.

Hamza Anwar (left) and co-driver Adnan Din (right) won the ARC2 category as well as the ARC Junior championship. Photo Credit: Innocent Mutaawe.

Yasin Nasser and co-driver Joseph Kamya suffered mechanical issues which landed them in eighth place at the end of the event, they did a super rally after retiring on day one. Nasser scored a third-place finish in the ARC with 110 points and also was crowned the Tanzania National Rally Championship winner, this is a tremendous achievement for Nasser who also is the 2023 National Rally Championship winner; he has won two championships in two different countries: Uganda and Tanzania, a first for him.

Yasin Nasser (left) and co-driver Joseph Kamya (right) won the Tanzania National Rally Championship of 2023. Photo Credit: Innocent Mutaawe.

Innocent Bwamiki finished his ARC quest in fifth place with 55 points, he did not compete in the Tanzania rally but a fifth-place finish on his ARC debut is impressive. Tanzania’s Prince Nyerere also finished with 55 points tying with Bwamiki in fifth place.

The next ARC season will kick off in 2024 with the Rallye Cote d’Ivoire Bandama.

Overall Results of the ASAS Rally of Tanzania: