Karan Patel Pulls no Punches in the Tanzania Atlantic Rally in Arusha

Karan Patel and co-driver Tauseef Khan won the fourth round of the African Rally Championship (ARC) in Arusha, Tanzania over the weekend of 24 July 2022 in their Ford Fiesta R5 at a total time of 1:59:35.9 in a competitive distance of 205.14km.

From left to right; Urshlla Gomes, Leroy Gomes, Karan Patel, Tauseef Khan, Hamza Anwar, and Adnan Din at the podium celebration in Arusha. Image by Rob Styles.

Dubbed the Tanzania Atlantic rally 2022, crews put on a great performance from different African countries but taking the top prize was Kenya’s Karan Patel. The crew put on a great performance throughout the weekend, holding the first-place position right from day one (he came in first place in all the stages). This is also Karan’s second ARC win in the season; the first was the Equator Rally Kenya back in early April.

Gomes racing team’s Leroy Gomes and co-driver wife Urshlla Gomes held second place in their Ford Fiesta R5 doing a total time of 2:01:25.7. The Zambian couple did their best despite having issues from the start with their luggage being stolen and a few technical problems. There was a time difference of 1:49.8 between Karan and Patel. Gomes is still leading the ARC and with the remaining events, he just has to secure a podium finish for him to become the 2022 African Rally Champion.

In third place on the ARC category was WRC/FIA Rally stars’ Hamza Anwar and co-driver Adnan Din in their Ford Fiesta R3 with a total time of 2:12:35.8. The young Kenyan crew faired through the event and secured themselves a podium finish with careful driving and steady pacing.

Jeremiah Wahome and co-driver Victor Okundi, also from the WRC/FIA Rally stars, finished fourth in their Ford Fiesta R3. The Kenyans did a time of 2:19:45.5 and the from Tanzania, AESL Racing team’s Gurpal Singh Sandhu and navigator David Sihoka completed the top five in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X with a time of 2:29:22.6. Moil Rally team’s Yasin Nasser and co-driver Ali Katumba from Uganda came in sixth place in their Subaru Impreza GVB with a time of 2:52:13.1. Those are the only crews that fully completed the event.

The crews that did not finish were: Maxine Wahome and navigator Murage Waigwa, McRae Kimathi and co-driver Mwangi Kioni- the two from Kenya; Pili Pili rally team’s Jas Mangat and co-driver Joseph Kamya of Uganda, and Giancarlo Davite and co-driver Sylvia Vindevogel from Rwanda.

This event also served as a national event for Tanzania, and in first place on the national level was Tufail Amin and co-driver Victor Jackson in a Subaru Impreza GC8, they did a time of 2:08:45.4 and came just behind Leroy Gomes. Munge Shehzad and navigator Chandu Imranali came in second place in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9 with a time of 2:13:00.1.

In third place was Khan Jamil navigated by Fazal Maisam in their Mitsubishi Lancer X with a time of 2:14:12.8. Coming in fourth place was Manveer Singh Birdi navigated by Ravinder Chana of the Chana brothers in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9 slightly behind Jamil with 2:14:42.0. Closing out the top five of Tanzania was Mandeep Singh Dhani and co-driver Bafadhil Awadh in their Subaru Impreza with a time of 2:26:03.6.

The next round on the African Rally Championship is scheduled for 23-25 September 2022 in Rwanda, commonly known as the Mountain Gorilla Rally of Rwanda. Fans are looking to see who will win that event.

ARC Standings