Africa-Press – Uganda. Jas Mangat recovered from a tough day one of the three-day Equator Rally to finish on the podium in Naivasha, Kenya, on Sunday.
Mangat and Joseph Kamya had retired on day one of the event due to mechanical issues but repaired their Mitsubishi Evo X in time for the final push rejoining the race on ‘Super Rally’ rule that allows competitors to restart but suffer penalties for each stage missed.
The Ugandan crew eventually clocked 3hr, 3min and 32sec to finish behind race winner Carl ‘Flash’ Tundo and Tejveer Rai. The latter two drive VW Polos.
“After dropping on day one, we managed to fix the car and looked at the option of rally two and we decided to give it a shot,” Mangat said after the event.
Mangat led a team of eight Ugandan crews across the border but only he and reigning national champion Yassin Nasser managed to score points in the Africa Rally Championship (ARC) event.
“We are glad we got good points for ARC and ARC2, this gives us a boost to think of ARC again,” Mangat added.
The Pili Pili driver had sat out local events and only returned for the third round on the NRC calendar in Sembabule where he finished third.
Rajiv Ruparelia, Ronald Ssebuguzi and Amaanraj Rai were all on the causality list in an event where only 18 of the 32 crews lasted the distance.
The rally, a precursor to Kenya’s impending June return to the World Rally Championship after 19 years, featured mainly treacherous roads following heavy rains.
