ARC final standing:
1. Carl Tundo (KEN) – 120
2. Yasin Nasser (UG) – 99
3. Guy Botteril (SA) 73
MOIL-SPONSORED crew of Yasin Nasser and Ali Katumba placed Uganda at second overall position finish as the 2021 African Rally Championship (ARC) closed curtains on Sunday in the mountainous areas of Dullstroom, South Africa.
Making their debut in South Africa, the Moil crew raced wise against homeboy, Guy Botteril, who saw his rally end on day one, Friday.
Boterill, their only competitor at the continetal finale, painfully waved bye bye to his home event, when his left front ball joint of his Toyota Etios pulled out in stage five, and lost valuable time of 15 minutes 35.7 seconds.
The South African crew decided not to run on day two under rally 2, after realising their target of getting maximum points for local championship score and African championship was unachievable.
Though Kenya’s Carl Tundo already sealed the African title in Rwanda a month ago after scoring 120 points, Nasser managed to displace Boterill from second place to position low by total of 99 points emassed.
“As crew, we have tested our levels of competition against Continent’s best,and am sure my team has has gotten the exposure,” said Nasser after finishing the race.
Home boys Jonathan Simms in Toyota Tazz R4 won the regional title, followed by Natie Booysen in second and Anton Ralph sealing the podium slots.
Local Speedster Theune Joubert in Toyota Yaris seemed unbeatable, as he led the rally from start to end, posting the fastest time of one hour five minutes 07.6 seconds to seal the National rally championship(NRC1) title.
Nico Jienaber navigated Gert Nienaber driving a Toyota Etios were second overall two minutes 09.1seconds adrift, and rallytech chief executive officer, Chris Coertse in Hyundai I20 R4 finished third overall with time of one hour, eight minutes 15.8 second.
However, the Uganda crews will need to wait longer for their ARC 2 (Group N category) title crowing by the Confederation of African Countries in Motorsport (CACMS), as the annual glamorous prize giving in Monaco will be scientific with a few invites.
Credit: FMU Media
