ARC STANDING AFTER ROUND 2
- Yasin Nasser 63
- Nikhil Sachania 50
- Carl Tundo 50
- Jeremiah Wahome 42
- Samman Vohra 36
- Karan Patel 35
The battle for high scores on the 2025 FIA African Rally Championship is headed to Rwanda, as Kenya’s Karana Patel picked crucial points in the just-concluded Pearl of Africa Uganda Rally.
The Kenyan driver, out to defend his continental title driving a Skoda Fabia entered the Pearl Rally, with no single point at hand after dropping out in a home rally, the WRC Safari Rally in March this year, that doubled as the opening round of African Championship, and third on the FIA World championship.
Engine knock on day two of the Safari Rally saw the KCB Bank-sponsored crew drop out after their car engine clogged with heavy dust from the Fresh Fresh stage of Camp Moran1.
Coming in to defend the Pearl of Africa Uganda Rally title with a borrowed car engine, Karan cautiously drove from start to end, in a bid to score crucial points from the second round, a target the crew achieved.
Exciting moments of the event in Pearl had come when Samman Singh Vohra scratched the ‘untouchable’ Karan on Friday, beating him squarely from the first stage, in Robert Rukaari (6.1km) with a 7-second lead, cumulating more stage wins to lead the day(leg 1).
With his Skoda Fabia firing from all its cylinders, Vohra picked a 31-second lead against Patel in the Charles Muhangi stage(18.11km), cementing his earlier lead. However, this was short-lived, when the Skoda nosedived a few kilometers from the start of Kaguta stage(23.3km).
This painfully saw Vohra watch from the sidelines, as his hard-fought for glory blew into hot air, handing over the lead to the hard-chasing Karan, who later settled to shield off competition from Moil’s Yasin Nasser who had fired up.
Nasser, trying to get a home win, won the 19km Ankole Cow stage, but this was short-lived in repeat of the Kaguta and Ankole Cow stages, his car developed a gearbox problem, which cost him valuable time as he struggled to service.
As luck would have it, his mechanics were able to fix the gearbox, got him firing up again into the event’s last stage, the Shell V-Power stage, which had only ARC contenders drive it due to time management, with the day’s late start.
A podium finish for the Moil Crew, got them onto the ARC leader board with now 63 points, with Rally3 driver Nikhil Sachania second with 50 tied with WRC Safari ARC category winner, Carl Tundo with same points, Jeremiah Wahome who finished second behind Tundo is now fourth with 42 points, Vohra fifth with 36, and Karan sixth with 35.
This leaves the African Championship wide open, as all the table standers are potential winners.
In the flair for the top African contention in ARC2, is Godfrey Aine Sodo who won the class on his debut during the Pearl Rally.
ARC2 defending Champion Mike Mukula Junior who didn’t see the Pearl final flying finish due to engine knock, is focused for the next rally, as super lady, Susan Muwonge will be out to shoot at ARC2 title in Rwanda after aligning her car homologation with FIA, a thing that sidelined her maiden attempt during Pearl event.
The battle is now taken to the country of a thousand hills, Rwanda, where the scores have to be settled ahead of the last two rounds of the continental Championship.
The Rwanda Mountain Gorilla Rally gets underway on the 4th to 6th July,2025.
