The Oryx energies rally of Tanzania came to a great finish for Uganda’s Yasin Nasser alongside his Navigator Ali Katumba on Sunday in their Subaru Impreza GVB. Moil rally team’s Nasser finished third overall and put on a show and quite a competition for his counterparts.
Nasser was first on the road in the qualifying top five ARC start and he set a good pace for himself throughout the whole rally. Together with Katumba, they managed to go through the whole event with no mechanical issues; it was the first time for Nasser to finish a rally with no car troubles. Nasser and Katumba did a total time of 2:21:33.
This third-place finish for Nasser was a win for Uganda given that the remaining three Ugandan crews withdrew before the administrative checks according to the amendments made on the competing final lists provided by the ARC official page. This meant that Duncan Mubiru, Jas Mangat, and Hassan Alwi did not get to participate in this round of the African Rally Championship. Nasser now holds 28points and is currently third on the ARC standings.
Minti Sports UK’s Carl “Flash” Tundo and co-driver Timothy Jessop took home the big honours, winning the second round of the ARC in their Volkswagen Polo GTi R5. Tundo dominated the rally right from its start and he completed at a total time of 2:07:36 putting him on top of the ARC standings table with 60points ahead of his competition. Karan Patel alongside co-driver Tauseef Khan finished second overall in their Ford Fiesta R5 with a race time of 2:10:35.
Wildcat racing driver Boterill suffered mechanical issues in his Toyota Etios in stage five which saw hopes of a podium finish slip away, Boterill was really looking forward to this rally so this was a setback for him. Boterill and co-driver Simon Vacy-Lyle finished fourth overall with a total time of 2:22:49. Boterill is second on the ARC board with 49points. Rounding up the top five was Kenya’s rising star, WRC/FIA Rally stars program Jerome Wahome in his Ford Fiesta R3 putting in a time of 2:22:58, on the tail of South Africa’s Boterill. This was a really good performance for Wahome, who is on the radar of the racing critics.
Team Tanzania had AESL Racing’s Gurpal Sandhu with co-driver Dave Sihoka come in at a distant sixth place in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X.
On the ARC board, coming in at the fourth position after Yasin Nasser, are Daniel Assaf, Tejveer Rai, and Karan Patel with 24points for all of them. Rounding out the top five is Uganda’s Jas Mangat with 21points.
The drivers were all looking forward to the next event on the ARC calendar; the Pearl of Africa rally that was to be held in August in Uganda but was postponed due to the ongoing lockdown in the country due to the coronavirus pandemic. So the next event will be in Zambia from 24th to 26th September.
