Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE climax of the Oryx Rally which also served as the fifth round of the National Rally Championship (NRC) placed Arusha ahead of the rest in the chase for this year’s best driver title.
According to the seeding points standings released yesterday by the Automobile Association’s Motorsports wing, Gurpal Sandhu of Arusha is leading the race with 95 points, beating his closest challenger Gurjit Dhani of Kilimanjaro by 35 points.
Dhani from Harri Singh team has notched 60 points at the second position ahead of his brother Mandeep Dhani, also from Kilimanjaro, who has penned 48 points.
The best from Dar es Salaam in the race for driving supremacy is Altaf Munge who is parading 45 points. Also from Dar es Salaam is the fifth-placed Randeep Birdi with 38 points. Kilimanjaro’s Jamil Shahbahai is standing sixth having collected 37 points.
Seventh overall after the end of the fifth round of NRC is Ajminder Dhani of Kilimanjaro who has been shouldered 31 points, a point superior to Ahmed Huwel of Iringa who has carved 30 points.
The top ten list also includes Hassan Ramzan with 30 points and Kelvin Taylor of Dar es Salaam with 29. Dar es Salaam’s Shahzad Munge is 11th overall with 24 points; Mussa Mswaki at the 12th position has also notched 24 points, a point superior to Emanuel Lyimo with 23 points.
Young Ismail Tharia follows with 22 points and has tied with veteran Fayaz Chandu also with 22 points. Tanga’s best placed driver in the race is Aliasgar Fazal who has bagged 21 points while Daudi Charles is placed 17th with 11 points.
Others in the list are Saidi Baghoza with 11 points, Manveer Birdi (10 pts), Rajpar Dhani (9),Kelvin Pianis(7),Zaneal Somji (7) and Charles Bicco(4). Dave Sihoka who navigates Gurpal Sandhu commands the race the season’s best navigator’s title. Sihoka, one of the continent’s top co-drivers, has hauled 95 points followed by Ally Hamoud with 45 points.
Third overall is Tanga-based Awadh Bafadhil with 42 points. The fourth position has been taken by Zubeir Peredina who has bagged 38 points, four points superior to the fifth-placed Victor Okundi with 34 points.
