The second round of the African National Championship (ARC), the Equator rally, is set to take place in Kenya over the weekend from 17-19 March in Voi. Uganda is set to be represented by two crews; Jas Mangat and co-driver Joseph Kamya in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X, and Yasin Nasser with co-driver Ali Katumba in their Ford Fiesta R5.
This second event on the ARC calendar will also serve the second round on the Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC); (the first KNRC round was won by Jeremiah Wahome and co-driver Victor Okundi) has twenty entries of majorly Kenyans and one crew from Tanzania plus the two Ugandan crews. Managat and Nasser were flagged off at the Federation of Motorsport Uganda (FMU) offices on March 10 where the co-drivers said they are hoping to bring maximum points and bring home the championship. FMU gave the drivers fuel to help them out and its expected that both crews will compete in the ARC this season.
Legendary rally driver Ian Duncan is slated to take part in this event and it will surely be a treat for fans to see him compete with the youngsters.
The first round of the ARC was won by Garry Chaynes and co-driver Romain Comas in Cote d’Ivoire on 26 February last month, this was Rallye Cote d’Ivoire Bandama. There were no crews from Uganda or Kenya that took part in it due to logistical issues.
The entry list of the Equator rally:
- Karan Patel/Tauseef Khan-Kenya-Ford Fiesta R5
- Jasmeet Chana/Ravinder Chana-Kenya-Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X
- Hamza Anwar/Adnan Din-Kenya-Ford Fiesta R3
- Baldev Charger/Gareth Dawe-Kenya-Subaru Impreza STi N12
- Aakif Virani/Azhar Bhatti-Kenya-Skoda Fabia R5
- Raajpal Bharij/TBA-Kenya-Ford Escort MK1
- Jeremiah Wahome/Victor Okundi-Kenya-Ford Fiesta R3
- Piero Canobbio/TBA-Kenya-Hyundai i20 R5
- Kush Patel/Mudasar Chaudry-Kenya-Subaru Impreza GC8
- Nikhil Sachania/Deep Patel-Kenya-Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X
- McRae Kimathi/Mwangi Kioni-Kenya-Ford Fiesta R3
- Rio Smith/Riyaz Ismail-Kenya-Ford Fiesta R2
- Ian Duncan/Jaspal Matharu-Kenya-TBA
- Izhar Mirza/Kavit Dave-Kenya-Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X
- Nzioka Waita/Tuta Mionki-Kenya-Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X
- Asad Anwar/Shamir Yusuf-Kenya-Mitsubishi Evo X
- Anthony Nielsen/William Bass-Kenya-Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X
- Yasin Nasser/Ali Katumba-Uganda-Ford Fiesta R5
- Jas Mangat/Joseph Kamya-Uganda-Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X
- Singh Dhani Gurjit/Singh Birdi Manmeet-Tanzania-Subaru
