Motorsport ace Moses Lumala, one of the greatest to sit in the cockpit in Uganda, is our star ⭐️ of the day. Born and groomed at Katwe-Kinyolo, Lumala always chose the road less traveled.
Lumala actually started his sports journey as a footballer, first with the KCC City Cubs before being promoted to the senior side (then KCC) in 1983 by coach Moses Nsereko. He was in and out of the starting 11, and in a bid to get more playing time, he moved to UCB FC in 1984.
Despite some solid seasons as a stable team, UCB got relegated in 1987 and some players defected to other clubs. For Lumala, he decided to abruptly quit football.
It was a shocker as he was knocking on the Cranes door, and many people had tipped him to be a future star.
He would later bounce back in the revived Bika football tournament, appearing for his Musu clan but that didn’t last long before he settled into business.
The Big switch to Motorsport
In 1992, Lumala relocated to Japan, where he stayed until 1994 when he returned with a Toyota Levin Super Charger.
At the time, motor rallying had picked up, with the likes of Karim Hirji, Sam Ssali, Jimmy Dean, Gerald Kiddu, and Yusuf Karmali leading the pack. The pomp of the rally forced Lumala to convert his Levin into a rally car. In 1995, he started competing but lacked consistency.
By 1997, Lumala had turned into a rally driver and became a big threat to giants Charlie Lubega, Charles Muhangi and Emma Katto. But this did not come easily; he had to sink in money by buying three cars: a Mitsubishi Gallant, Mitsubishi Mileage and the Celica 165.
He sold the first two cars to Lubega and Katto and went for Jonathan Moi’s Celica 185, which was more advanced. This worked for him and he won his first National Rally Championship (NRC) title in 1999, beating Muhangi and Lubega to the title.
Fuel giants Caltex chipped in to give the newfound star a Shs 150 million sponsorship package. At the time, Lubega had a mega sponsorship from Total Uganda, while Chipper Adams was sponsored by Shell Uganda.
Winning the 2003 NRC title
Lumala desperately chased the shadows of Lubega for the 2000, 2001 and 2002 NRC. But in 2003, Lumala was a different driver; completing all the events. The most interesting one was the last event of the calendar, the Castrol-Mogas Independence rally.
Navigated by Cedric Buzabo, Lumala went into this tension-packed rally needing to finish at least second to be assured of the title.
His closest challenger, Lubega, led all the way to the podium but Lumala kept in touch to finish runner-up and walked away as the NRC champion.
After winning the 2003 NRC title, Lumala became disgruntled with his sponsors, not only with the package but also with his motivation. Just a few days before the Caltex rally in 2004, Lumala shocked the rally fraternity when he called it quits and never returned.
Such is Lumala’s unique sporting career that he did everything and left on his own terms.
Currently, he concentrates on his businesses, including road construction, under his Nippon Parts (U) Ltd.
This means more!
Courtesy Photos | Credit: Hassan Badru Ziwa.
