Yasin Nasser and Ali Katumba ought to thank lady luck for their Pearl of Africa rally finish over the weekend.
The two-time Uganda rally champion had an earlier upset at the qualifying stage when his Ford Fiesta rally2’s alternator developed issues. The team managed to fix that and drove through shakedown on Thursday.
Yasin was restricted to third position on leg one which was dominated by Kenya’s Samman Vohra with his country-mate Karan Patel faring behind in second.
The Moil rally team would get elevated to second position after rally leader Vohra retired from the event in stage two of the second leg.
All seemed well until a gearbox problem sent the team in panic mood as they took on the penultimate stage. The crew limped through the stage losing over eight minutes.
A service before the power stage came in handy as the crew managed to fix the gearbox which guaranteed them a finish.
“Rally has its things. And whatever happened to us is one of them. But that was a real scare,” said Yasin.
“Only drivers can understand the feeling. We just wished to get to the FF even when it meant limping in the rest of the stages. But luckily we got more,” he added.
Yasin was well in position that even after losing a lot of time, did not lose his second position.
The crew spiced the finish by posting the second fastest time on the power stage to claim 28 valuable points from Pearl rally.
They now lead the ARC leaderboard with 63 points after round two.
“The main focus is collecting points from each event. And we are lucky to have secured them all thanks to the team and our sponsors that made it possible,” he said.
Yasin and Katumba are having their third attempt at the African rally championship title. In 2021, the crew clinched the ARC2 title.
Meanwhile Karan Patel claimed victory in the Pearl rally to register his first ARC points. Nikhil Sachania finished third while Aine Sodo Kaguta was fourth.
The third round of ARC heads to Rwanda on 4-6 July.
Drivers’ ARC Standings
Yasin Nasser 63
Nikhil Sachania 50
Carl Tundo 50
Jeremiah Wahome 46
Samman Vohra 36
Karan Patel 35
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