Samman Vohra may have had a brief adventure at the Pearl of Africa Uganda rally but his participation will forever linger among the rally fraternity.
With the rally odds weighing more for the two-time African champion Karan Patel, Samman was outrightly cautious about his own expectations.
“Coming to the Pearl rally is a fantastic opportunity for us as a team to look beyond motorsport in Kenya and test ourselves against other fantastic teams in the region as we gain more experience,” he told Kawowo Sports prior to the event.
And that was only before the gears locked in a rubber touched the smooth terrains of Mbarara last weekend.
The 2024 Kenya national rally champion then made his intentions known; starting the Pearl rally more with a bang than a whimper.
The Sheffield sponsored crew opened the rally lead by winning the first stage on Friday with a 7.8 seconds over his Kenyan counterpart Karan Patel.
At the end of the 23.28km Kaguta stage, Samman further asserted his pace, coming out 21 seconds ahead of Karan. A sublime drive through the super special was a clear indication of what Samman had come for.
The end of leg one had him pocketing four stages and with a commanding lead going into the final leg.
“It has been a decent day overall. It was about getting a good rhythm from the start. We found our pace at the start and we just kept a steady drive, clean and cautious,” he said at the ending of leg one.
Confident yet anticipative is how Samman summed up his Friday drive.
Pearl rally was Samman’s ninth career event.
The expectation of a newcomer to the Pearl leading the way had been out of reach. The fans’ talk had now shifted to a new name.
Samman drove the opening stages on Saturday with as much gusto as he had the day before; claiming the day’s morning stage by 31.4 seconds over the closely chasing Karan.
That made it a clean sweep of five straight stages for a driver debuting in the Pearl rally.
But the shine for the Sheffield sponsored crew faded and eventually went out in the sixth stage. Their car landed hard from a jump breaking a front right hand side control arm. That ended the crew’s run in an event they could easily have won.
The incident handed compatriote Karan the lead who would go on to win the rally.
Samman’s drive in Mbarara has exposed him even more to the demands of the championship.
Nevertheless, he leaves Uganda a good memory of an event well driven and a hungrier urge to fight for African championship glory anywhere else the champions will go.
The third round of the ARC heads to Rwanda on 4-6 July.
Drivers’ ARC Standings
Yasin Nasser 63
Nikhil Sachania 50
Carl Tundo 50
Jeremiah Wahome 42
Samman Vohra 36
Karan Patel 35
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