Kenya’s Manvir Baryan and Drew Sturrock from Scotland are the first none South African crew to win the Africa Rally Championship round down south.
The crew dominated the event from day one to the final stage posting the fastest time of 2hors, 47minutes and 43seconds in their Skoda. That was coupled with twelve stage wins.
“This has been the most challenging event of all the ARC rounds we have covered. The roads were so technical, tricky and wet.
“Winning this rally has been our main highlight of the event. The competition was so tight but we managed to keep our focus till the end,” said Baryan.
The York Rally victory puts Baryan level on points with Ivory Coast’s Gary Chaynes and compatriot Carl Tundo on the ARC leaderboard with 25 points.
“The points puts us in a great position to think about defending our title. It might be early to say we stand a chance, but we shall see what comes next,” added Baryan.
South Africa’s Guy Botterril took advantage of his fellow countryman Theuns Joubert’s misfortunes to move up to second position overall.
Botterrill and co-driver Simon Vancy Lyle in their Toyota Etious were 3 minutes and 14 seconds behind Manvir.
“We started in fifth position on day one. We decided to take it slow not to damage the car.
“The strategy changed in day two. It’s unfortunate that other crews got issues in the final stages which pushed us in second overall and first on the national championship,” explained Botterill.
Matthew Vancy Lyle sealed the podium position in third place.
Zambia’s Leroy Gomes was equally impressive over the two days settling for fourth position overall followed by AC Potgieter in fifth and JJ Potgieter in sixth respectively.
Only 17 of the 26 crews endured the York Rally competition.
Despite keeping the competition tight for the top position, South Africa’s Theuns Joubert saw his contention restricted in stage 13 with mechanical problems to his Toyota Auris.
ARC contender Peirro Cannobio, Richard Leeke, Ismail Shermohamed were among the crews that registered Did Not Complete the rally.