Over the weekend, Kenya’s Karan Patel chased his maiden win in Rwanda from second position on day one, to winning the 2022 Mt. Gorilla Rally after a few hiccups.
The penultimate African Rally Championship round saw Patel pick the crucial 30 points from Rwanda when he beat earlier event leader Leroy Gomez by 13.2seconds.
The Zambian who managed a second place finish, still holds the ARC chat lead by a margin of 21 points, with one round left settle the scores, to be held next month at his backyard.
Patel’s win in Rwanda relighted his ARC title dreams to a 21 point deficit off Gomez, who only needs to finish in the top five as the kenyan needs an ultimate win with the latter finishing far off the prime score grid.
Uganda’s top crew of Jas Mangat and Joseph Kamya in Mitsubishi Evo10 finished fourth as he lost the podium to Kenya’s WRC young star driver, Hamza Anwar in Ford Feista Rally3 car by a margin of 34.6 seconds.
Crew of Duncan Mubiru ‘Kikankane’ in Ford Proto, Jonas Kansiime in Evo8 managed seventh and eighth positions respectively.
Other ugandan crews that managed to see the finish line included Fred Kitaka in 10th place, Gilberto Balondemu in 16th, as crew of Isa Nyanzi co-driven by Nasser Nasib in Subaru pick-up had their flying finish chances dash in air after their gorgeous mechanical problem in last stage of the day.
Next stop is Lusaka, Zambia 21st-23rd October 2022 to witness who will be the crowned African champion 2022.
*Credit: Frank Kaheesi – FMU Media Officer
