Karan Patel kicked off his title defense in the FIA Africa Rally Championship (ARC) with a resounding victory at the ARC Pearl of Africa Uganda Rally (POAUR) which culminated at the Source of Nile River Hotel in Jinja.
Navigated by Tauseef Khan in a Skoda Fabia R5, Karan displayed remarkable prowess behind the wheel, conquering 8 out of 9 stages in an event which also counted towards the third round of Ugandan’s National Rally Championship (NRC).
Karan’s consistency and skill were evident from the third stage on Saturday as he secured a well-deserved maiden Uganda win including the closing V-Power Stage, the third run of the sleek 22.33km Sura Mbaya test.
Following the cancellation of Saturday’s SS1 Macarena 1 test, the battle for supremacy was intense, with Uganda’s own Jas Mangat putting up a formidable challenge with the fastest time through the 8.83km SS2 Tadooba 1.
However, Patel’s determination and precision on the sugar cane sections ultimately prevailed, edging out Mangat to clinch the top spot winning every single stage through to the last flying finish at Sura Mbaya.
Adding to the celebration was the third-place finish by Karan’s compatriot, Hamza Anwar, highlighting the dominance of the Kenyan contingent in the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of Uganda (FMU)- organized contested incidentally on his very first outing at the wheel of a Ford Fiesta R5
The iconic Uganda fixture marked Hamza’s maiden R5 outing in a contraption he lend Carl Tundo’s for this year’s WRC Safari.
As Team Karan basked in the glory of their triumph, they set a high bar for the upcoming legs of thecontinental championship, signaling their intent to maintain their stronghold on the African rally circuit.
Karan was all smiles: “Last year we didn’t do the Pearl Rally, but we still won the championship. It was a good race in Jinja, I dedicate the win to my mum, it’s Mothers’ Day. We expected Mangat to be quick because he was doing some training with Grégoire Munster, so we expected some improvements in his pace. We would have won all the stages, but we made a small mistake in one of the stages, a corner came too first, so we had to overshoot and lost 8 seconds.”
Mangat said: “We had a bit of a battle with Karan yesterday morning (Saturday) but then in the afternoon we lost quite a bit of time in the dust, which set us a bit back. Karan had a good lead this morning (Sunday) and in the first stage we had an issue with the brakes and afterwards the gap between us was too big.”
Veteran Uganda drivers Ronald Ssebuguzi in a Ford Fiesta Proto and Ponsiano Lwakataka aka “Mafu Mafu” in a Subaru Impreza N12 B settled for fourth and fifth respectively.
Lwakataka won the Pearl Rally in 2011 teaming up with Musa Nsubuga in a Subaru N8 and displayed occasional flashes of brilliance this weekend finishing third in the NRC behind Mangat and Sebuguzi.
PROVISIONAL RESULTS-ARC POAUR 24
- #101 Karan Patel/ Tauseef Khan (Skoda Fabia-KEN) 01:45:11.6
- # Jas Mangat/Laurent Magat (Hyundai i20-UG) 01:46:54.4
- #102 Hamza Anwar / Adnan Din (Ford Fiesta-KEN). 01:51:39.0
4 Ronald Ssebuguzi/ Anthony Mugambwa (Ford Fiesta Proto-UG) 02:00:41.0
- # Ponsiano Lwakataka/ Samuel Mugisha (Subaru Impreza N12 B-Ug). 02:03:23.3
6#35 Jon Consta KARUMUNA/ Aaron NSAMBA (Ford Fiesta-UG). 02:05:08.4
7 #12 Hassan Alwi/ Musa Nsubuga (Subaru Impreza-UG). 02:05:26.3
- #80 Michael Jr Mukula/ Edward KIYINGI (Subaru Impreza GRB-UG) 02:06:34.5
- #76 Abas Sebunya/ Shameer Yusuf Pyarali (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X). 02:10:26.2
- #100 Jonas Matayo Kasiime/ Bukenya Ronald (Mitsubishi Evo 8-UG) 02:10:33.1
- #10 Busulwa Fred Kitaka/ Joseph Bongole (Subaru Impreza N10. 02:13:39.3
- #91 Kuku Ranjit Singh/ Sirajih Tweranire Kyambadde (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo Ix-UG) 02:13:44.8
PAST WINNERS OF THE POAUR
2008– Jamie Whyte/ Phil Archenoul (Zimbabwe) Subaru N10
2009 -Kurji / Kadri (Kenya) Subaru N8 -Prize granted posthumously
2010-Whyte/ Archenoul (Zimbabwe) Subaru Impreza N10
2011– Ponsiano Lwakataka/ Musa Nsubuga (Uganda) Subaru N8
2012-Mohammed Essa/Greg Stead (Zambia) Subaru N12
2013-Jas Mangat (Uganda)/ Gihan de Silva (Kenya) Mitsubishi Evo X
2014-Rajbir Rai/ Tim Challen (Kenya) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X
2015– Jaspreet Chatthe (Kenya)/ Craig Thorley (UK) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X
2016– Hassan Alwi/Enock Olinga (UG) Subaru Impreza N14
2017– Manvir Baryan (Kenya)/ Drew Sturrock (UK) Škoda Fabia R5
2018– Manvir / Sturrock Škoda (UK) Fabia R5
2019 Manvir / Sturrock (UK) Škoda Fabia R5
2020-Cancelled due to COVID
2021 -Cancelled due to COVID
2022 Mangat/Kamya Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X
2023-Yasin Nasser – Katumba Ali (Ford Fiesta Rally2)
