Africa-Press – Tanzania. ORYX Rally of Tanzania was officially launched in Dar es Salaam yesterday announcing the names of 68 heroes to be involved in dusty road showdown.
The Tanzanian round of African Rally Championship (ARC), Oryx Rally of Tanzania has so far attracted 34 cars, with 34 drivers and 34 navigators fully involved in a chase for the event’s top diadem, according to Nizar Jivani, the President of the Automobile Association of Tanzania (AAT).
According to Jivani, there are five types of rally cars in this year’s round of the continental class event.
Besides the usual Subaru- Mitsubishi showdown, this year’s Oryx Rally has added Toyota Etios, Ford Fiesta and Skoda Fabia on the event’s flag off podium.
The event’s surprise entry is Kenyan wheeling start Carl Tundo, who will be competing in Tanzania for the first time.
Tundo is one of the nine Kenyan drivers coming to race for Oryx Rally throne while others like Ugandan Jas Mangat, Yassin Nasser, Duncan Mubiru(Kikankaane) have been regularly competing in Tanzanian Safari rallies.
South African champion Guy Botterill is likely to be event’s golden boy whose presence in Tanzania will be paraded in Toyota Etios.
The Oryx Rally of Tanzania is the third round of the African rally championship 2020/2021 after Ivory Coast’s Rallye Bandama and Kenya’s Equator rally.
There are 19 Tanzanian drivers and 14 foreign entries from South Africa, Burundi, Kenya and Uganda.
There will be also a personal showdown between Kenyan Carl Tundo and South African Botterill who will be renewing the second round’s rivalry.
Most observers expect to see Tundo and Botterill renewing rivalry after the Equator rally battle in Kenya that ended up in favour of Tundo.
Botterill failed to reach the last flying finish after his Toyota Etios R4 broke down in the last stage only to be time-barred and was excluded from the event.
The two drivers are joint ARC table leaders with 30 points from the two rounds done so far, and according to the latest entry list of Oryx Rally, Tundo will return in the VW Polo R5 fresh from the WRC safari rally where he finished 9th overall and 3rd in WRC 3 category.
Guy Botterill will bounce back in the Toyota Etios R4 after missing out on the WRC Safari rally, where he put it clearly as he had no reason to participate since he is vying for the African rally championship, yet the time frame between the two events couldn’t favor the team to do both events.
The event’s Chief of Organizing Committee Satinder Birdi said during the launch at Onomo Hotel in Dar es Salaam that Highland Estate in Ubena, Coastal Region will host the main event from 23-25th July 2021.
Adding Birdi said the Oryx Energies are the title sponsors and they have been supported well by ASAS, Onomo, Highland Estate and Southern Sun.
According to Birdi, the major title contenders from Tanzanian include Dharam Pandya, Gurjit Dhani, Kelvin Taylor, Altaf Munge, Manvir Birdi and Randip Birdi who represented other driver during the launch.
