The African Rally Championship (ARC) headed to Sarajago Zambia over the weekend of September 24 and it was Kenya’s Carl Tundo’s victory with a total time of 2:15:03 with a competitive distance of 189.18km. This was his first win in Zambia and third ARC victory.
Minti Motorsport’s Carl Tundo alongside his co-driver Timothy Jessop in their VW Polo put on a great show throughout the rally weekend right from the start in the very hot and humid plains of Sarajago. The team put on a competitive front and showed they had come to win. Throughout the weekend, Zambia’s Leeroy Gomes did not let Tundo have it easy; they went head to head and most thought he would come out on top but the Zambian driver suffered an accident in the last stage when he hit a tree and damaged his car leading him to retire and register a DNF (Did Not Finish). Leeroy Gomes and his co-driver Urshilla Gomes had come to represent their country but unfortunately crashed their Ford Fiesta R5 in the last stage as their hopes for a win were no more.
South Africa’s Guy Botterill and co-driver Simon Vacy-Lyle of Wildcat racing came in second place at a total time of 2:19:37 in their Toyota Etios R4. This was a good performance for the South African…
Uganda’s Yasin Nasser and co-driver Ali Katumba were third at a total time of 2:27:23 in their Subaru Imprezza GVB; the Moil rally team gave us a podium finish that rally fans here at home were routing for…
This rally was meant to take place in 2020 but was cancelled due to the Covid 19 pandemic. This was the fifth round of the ARC and the last Ugandan to have a podium finish in Zambia was Charles Muhanji in 1999 with his co-driver Byaruhanga Steven in a Subaru Imprezza at a time of 3:06:32. Kenya has dominated the ARC and Zambia rally as well with majority of wins.
The ARC is next headed to Rwanda with the sixth round being called the Mountain Gorilla Rwanda rally scheduled to take place from the 22nd to 24th October. Thereafter it will head to South Africa and that will be the last event on the ARC calendar for 2021 mid-November. On the standings currently, Carl Tundo is number one with 90 points, in second position is Guy Botterill with 71 points, and in third position is Yasin Nasser with 48 points.
