Karan peerless in season-opening ARC Pearl Rally

• Karan convincingly won the rally
• He is the ARC defending champion
• Uganda’s Jas Mangat was second

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 ARC top spot winning every single stage through to the last flying finish at Sura Mbaya.

Kenyans dominate in ARC opener 

Hamza Anwar in action in Uganda

Adding to the celebration was the third-place finish by Karan’s compatriot, Hamza Anwar, highlighting the dominance of the Kenyan contingent in the ARC 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 ARC triumph, they set a high bar for the upcoming legs of thecontinental championship, signalling 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.”

Battle with Karan

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.”

Karan Patel in action in Uganda

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 ARC 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

1. #101 Karan Patel/ Tauseef Khan (Skoda Fabia-KEN) 01:45:11.6
2. # Jas Mangat/Laurent Magat (Hyundai i20-UG) 01:46:54.4
3. #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

5. # 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

8. #80 Michael Jr Mukula/ Edward KIYINGI (Subaru Impreza GRB-UG) 02:06:34.5
9. #76 Abas Sebunya/ Shameer Yusuf Pyarali (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X). 02:10:26.2
10. #100 Jonas Matayo Kasiime/ Bukenya Ronald (Mitsubishi Evo 8-UG) 02:10:33.1
11. #10 Busulwa Fred Kitaka/ Joseph Bongole (Subaru Impreza N10. 02:13:39.3
12. #91 Kuku Ranjit Singh/ Sirajih Tweranire Kyambadde (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo Ix-UG) 02:13:44.8