BY FRANK KAHEESI- HEAD FMU MEDIA COMMISSION.
POINTS STANDING AFTER ROUND 2:
- Yasin Nasser 63
- Nikhil Sachania 50
- Carl Tundo 50
- Jeremiah Wahome 42
- Samman Vohra 36
- Karan Patel 35
The 2025 FIA African Rally Championship is headed to Rwanda, where Kenya’s Karan Patel secured crucial points in the recently concluded Shell V-Power Pearl of Africa Uganda Rally. The Kenyan driver, who is defending his continental title while driving a Skoda Fabia, entered the Pearl Rally without any points after dropping out of a home rally, the WRC Safari Rally in March this year, which served as both the opening round of the African Championship and the third round of the FIA World Championship.
An 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 Moran 1.
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 up a 31-second lead against Patel in the Charles Muhangi stage (18.11km), cementing his earlier lead; however, the advantage was shortlived when the Skoda nose-dived a few kilometres from the start of the Kaguta stage (23.3 km).
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 a repeat of the Kaguta and Ankole Cow stages, his car developed a gearbox problem that cost him valuable time as he struggled to service it. As luck would have it, on his, his mechanics were able to fix the gearbox, and he was firing up again into the event’s last stage, the Shell V-Power stage, which had only ARC contenders drive it due to to time management, with the day’s late start.
A podium finish for the Moil Crew got them onto the ARC leaderboard with now 63 points, with Rally3 driver Nikhil Sachania second with 50, tied with WRC Safari ARC category winner Carl Tundo with the same points, and Jeremiah Wahome who finished second behind Tundo, now fourth with 42 points, Vohra fifth with 36, and Karan sixth with 35.
All the contenders in the African Championship hold the potential to emerge victorious. 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 04-06th of July, 2025.
