Carl Tundo achieved the African Rally Championship (ARC), his first in his shinning career, dominating and winning the Rwanda Mountain Gorilla Rally held through the weekend of 23rd ending on Sunday 24th October.
Tundo came in fresh after his win in Zambia just at the end of September, where he already was in the first position with a lead of 164points. The Minti Motorsport driver and co-driver Timothy Jessop in their Volkswagen Polo GTi R5 won the Rwanda rally in a total time of 1:29:42.8 in a competitive distance of 195.42km. This, being the second last event on the ARC calendar, gave Tundo a boost in the right direction and enough points to win the ARC. “An African rally championship title is something that I have dreamt about for a long time” Tundo said to press after the event. This was his fourth back to back victory in this championship. Tundo gives Kenya its sixth ARC title and he is the fifth Kenyan to win the title after Manvir Baryan, who won it in 2019, 2018, and 2017, Don Smith (2016), Jaspreet Chatthe (2015), and David Horsey (1984).
After a total of fifteen entries for this rally, in second position was Filmico Racing Team’s Karan Patel and his co-driver Tauseef Khan in their Ford Fiesta R5 with a time of 1:29:57.2. Tundo beat him by on 14.4seconds! Patel did not take part in the Zambia rally due to some technical issues there but he put on a show in Rwanda giving Tundo a run-for-his-money. In third position was, WRC/FIA Rally Stars Program’s McRae Kimathi and his co-driver Kioni Mwangi in their Ford Fiesta Rally R3 with a time of 1:40:17.2. In a historic first, the podium had all Kenyan drivers, a great victory for their country.
Coming in fourth place, for Rwanda, was Gakwaya Rally Team’s Gakwaya Jean-Claude and his co-driver Mugabo Jean-Claude in their Subaru Impreza STi N11 with a time of 1:50:40.1. The only all-female crew in this race came in sixth place; Kenya’s WRC/FIA Rally Stars Program’s Maxime Wahome and co-driver Linet Ayuko in their Subaru Impreza STi N10, did a time of 1:52:25.6. These ladies keep improving and making women proud as they give us something to look to and be proud of.
Uganda’s Moil Rally Team’s Yasin Nasser and co-driver Ali Katumba suffered mechanical issues throughout the race and all weekend but came out in seventh position in their Subaru Impreza WRX STi 4D with a time of 1:54:05.2.
The notable drivers that retired from the race were the Giancarlo Davite and co-driver Sylvia Vindenogel in their Mitsubishi Lancer EvoX retired in SS6, South Africa’s Wildcat Racing’s Guy Botterill and co-driver Simon Vacy-Lyle in their Toyota Etios R4 retired in SS7, and Kenya’s WRC/FIA Rally Stars Program’s Hamza Anwar and co-driver Mwenda Dennis in their Mitsubishi Lancer EvoX retired in SS7. The last event is scheduled for November in South Africa.
