Karan Patel Not Slowing Down as He Leads Day One of the Mountain Gorilla Rally in Rwanda

The fifth round of the African Rally Championship (ARC) is underway in Rwanda (the Mountain Gorilla Rally) and Kenya’s Karan Patel and co-driver Tauseef Khan are coming for the top spot after cruising through day one in their Ford Fiesta R5, they did a time of 00:48:16.5. Patel moved beautifully through the satges on Saturday and is looking to score another ARC win after winning the Equator rally in March and the rallye in Burundi in August. Patel is third on the standings behind Jas Mangat and Yasin Nasser but is putting on spectacular performances that will secure him a good finish if he does all the remaining rounds.

Some of the drivers, co-drivers and crew members at the ceremonial start in Kigali. Photo Credit: Innocent Mutaawe.

Coming through for Uganda, was Jas Mangat and co-driver Escatefigue Jules in second place in their Hyundai i20, doing a time of 00:49:11.2. The team had a time difference of 00:54.7 from Patel/Khan. This is Jas Mangat’s first official time competing in his i20 in a rally and he is not disappointing fans as they cheered him only loudly in the stages. Team Pili Pili will be looking to mantain its position for day two and it will be a truly good performance from Mangat.

Kenya’s Hamza Anwar and co-driver Adnan Din finished in third in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X with a time of 00:51:34.5. Anwar was first place in the ARC 2 category and the ARC Junior championship; he has been taking part in the World Rally Championship (WRC) since the start of the year and he has represented Kenya and Africa really well throughout all the rounds he was in.

In fourth place was Kenya’s Rio Smith and co-driver Riyaz Ismail in their Subaru Impreza GVB, Tanzania’s Prince Charles Nyerere came in fifth, Innocent Bwamiki in sixth and closing out the ARC class was Yasin Nasser in seventh place after retiring due to a slight fire that caused the clutch to wear out. They will do a super rally on Sunday to score some points for the team.

On a national level, Umar Dauda took the lead for team Uganda with his co-driver Steven Bunya in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6, overall Dauda finished in fourth place giving a very impressive performance throughout the day. Dauda put up really good times and the long term driver will be looking to keep the pace for day two to keep off Rwanda’s Giancarlo Davite. Davite came in second with long term co-driver Sylvia Vindevogel in their Mitsubishi Evo X. In third was Kanangire Christian Ngabo, also representing Rwanda. Fans are looking forward to day two to see how things shake up for all crews.

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