Africa-Press – Uganda. It was not all gloom for Ugandan crews at the four-day Fia World Rally Championship (WRC) Safari Rally won by Frenchman Sebastian Ogier on Sunday in Naivasha, Kenya.
The quintet failed to meet the required standards to compete in an event of that magnitude are were consequently relegated to fourth class – the Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC.
Only reigning national champions Yasin Nasser/Ali Katumba (Subaru Impreza) met the standards and were consequently cleared to fly the Ugandan flag in the prestigious WRC category.
During scrutineering, it was found out that Duncan Mubiru’s racing helmets had a crack on one of them. The safety belts on Ronaldo Ssebuguzi’s machine were found outdated.
Alwi Junior has a roll cage that was tampered with. Kepher Walubi drives a car whose fuel tank was fitted in the wrong place and safety pads that don’t meet WRC standards.
Winners
Upon relegation, Mubiru, co-driver by Hajji Omar Mayanja in a Subaru GVB emerged winners of the KNRC class followed by Ssebuguzi and Anthony Mugambwa (Mitsubishi Evo. X)
Walubi (Mitsubishi Evo. X) finished fourth. Nasser and Alwi Jr (Subaru Impreza) dropped out. However, the lessons will stick as Walubi promised to return to the Safari Rally next year.
“I have never driven a tough and challenging rally like this one,” Walubi says. He said the 32.68km Kedong section almost cost him the rally.
“He was stuck in the sand section alongside Mubiru Kikankane and at one point they were declared among the drivers who had dropped out.“The event was very expensive despite the expenses in preparing the car. We had a rally which lasted a week. We started Recce on Monday and we had to driver cars all week” said Walubi.
“I have participated in four4 rallies in Kenya but this was a true WRC event. It was man versus machine” he added.“I was given a 10-minute penalty after delaying in the Kedong section and I almost counted myself out of the rally, but with God’s grace, we managed to push and finish the race in a respected position.
Rocky
He added that the routes were designed for Group A and R5 Cars they had a lot of rocks and sand he was now going to start working on the car ahead of the Pearl of Africa Uganda Rally in August.Walubi also said that they had to wait 24 hours to hit to routes on Friday having missed the ‘shakedown’ and the Super Special Stage.
Organisers canceled the latter after WRC, WRC2 and WRC3 cars had passed due to crowd trouble. Only cars participating in the KNRC category were shown on live TV. They only shared the Service Park with the Ogier class and got the same trophies, branded with the WRC logo.
