BY FRANK KAHEESI & HENRY MBAZIIRA-KASARANI, KENYA
MOIL-sponsored crew of Yasin Nasser and Ali Katumba in a Ford Fiesta R5 have embarked on their target of finishing at this year’s WRC Safari Rally with impressive time postages on leg1.
The duo relighted their candlelight at the Safari with a calculative super special stage run at Kasarani with a P21 position finish in the WRC classification, then pushed harder in the 8.12km Mzabibu stage, managed to post the fifth-best time on the African Rally Championship scoreboard.
Nasser posted three minutes,44.5 seconds for P21 overall finish at Super special run, and came in fifth amongst top ARC contenders in SS2.
Topping both the ARC and Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC) categories is two-time African Rally Champion Karan Patel with the fastest stage times at both SS1(Kasarani) and SS2 (Mzabibu).
Youngster Jeremiah Wahome, who has been away from the cockpit, seemed sharper than rusty when he managed to beat off impulsive charges from the experienced driver and Safari winner Carl Tundo and to defend National champion, Singh Vohra.
Kenya’s problem child, Hamza Anwar, who sounded worried about Friday’s rough and highly demanding stages, is sixth with a minute and 07seconds off Patel.
The 2WD class saw Ugandan representatives outlay their expertise, as Mildred Kibuuka ably guided Kenya’s Timothy Kinoti in Toyota Runx to 20th position on KNRC and second best in the 2WD category.
The event’s newsy maker, Timothy Gawaya, co-driven by Francis Wamala, managed to push their Seat Ibiza to 21 positions ahead of today’s challenging Safari terrain.
Friday’s stages of being run are Camp Moran1(31.4km), Kengen Geothermal (13.18km) and Kedong1(15.10km), to be repeated before the closing of leg2.
