As the Mt. Gorilla rally of Rwanda; the fifth round of the ARC gets underway this Friday to Sunday in Kigali, eight Ugandan drivers are aready.
1999 Africa Rally Champion Charles Muhangi led a Ugandan contingent containing Duncan ‘Kikankane’ Mubiru, Wycliffe Bukenya and Hajji Abdul Sempebwa among others but will face stiff competition from Ivory Coast’s youthful rally ace Gary Chaynes plus seasoned campaigners in homeboy Giancarlo Davite, Zambia’s Essa Mohammad and Kenya’s Jaspreet Chatthe.
It is the first time Uganda is sending such a huge team and Muhangi will be eager to score his first points on this season’s African Rally Championship (ARC) calendar after missing three of the last four events on the calendar.
Muhangi only participated in the Bandama Rally of Cote d’Ivoire where mechanical problems denied him to complete the event.
Besides Muhangi, all eyes will be on Hajji Abdul Ssempebwa as he is the only other Ugandan driver eligible to score ARC points. He already boosts of 18 points after finishing the Oryx Rally of Tanzania in third place amongst ARC drivers last month.
Duncan Mubiru who opted out of the SMC challenge early this month will drive a Subaru N12 instead of his newly-acquired Subaru N16 but will not be driving to score point. Instead, he is gearing up for the Pearl of Africa Rally, which is scheduled for next month.
ARC STANDINGS AFTER FOUR ROUNDS:
Gary Chaynes (Civ) 58
Jaspreet Chatthe (Ken) 58
Mohamed Essa (Zam) 50
Giancarlo Davite (Rwa) 27
David Mukosa (Zam) 25 pts
Morifere Soumaoro (Civ) 18
Abdu Sempebwa (Uga) 18
Courtesy of kawowo.com