KENYA’S Karan Patel could only breathe a second off homeboy, Leroy Gomez to take the lead of the Zambia International Rally after the day’s nine tight competitive stage runs.
Patel worked up from an early 22-second baptism from Gomez, with the latter beating him in the first four stages.
Karan picked himself in stage 5, Bull2 when he beat the Zambian by just a second, and extended it in stage 6, Waterfalls2 when he picked 6 seconds off Gomez before the second service of the day.
The two old friends extended their neck-to-neck battle to stages 7, 8 and 9, where the defending African champion (Gomez) loosely lost the leg1 lead by a second, after getting a left rear tyre peel in a repeat of the Chartonel stage, and the car switched off in Bull stage.
Top Ugandan contenders at the event, the crew of Jas Mangat in Hyundai i20 and Yasin Nasser in Ford Fiesta Mk2 played a calculative mind gameplay, as they kept in close chase of the top two runners.
Nasser currently leads the African championship board with 93 points, Mangat is third with 87, and Karan is second with 90 points.
Any of the trio needs the Zambian win, to have a cushionable advantage ahead of the last round set to be held in Tanzania, next month.
Other ARC category contenders Innocent Bwamiki, Hamza Anwar and Price Charles Nyerere return into action under super rally rule after fixing their cars.
The local group N pack is led by Kyle Latif in Evo9, followed by Colin Gander in Toyota Runx and Mujo Simakoloyi in Subaru N14 respectively.
Patel back to road sweeping role as car number one, chased by Gomez, Mangat in second and third place. Nasser runs forth, as Anwar, Bwamiki and Nyerere follow in that order, with seven stages to be run today.
Author: Frank Kaheesi- FMU Media
