Kenya’s Manvir Baryan and co-driver Drew Sturrock from Scotland clinched their third consecutive Africa Rally Championship title with another impressive victory in the Pearl of Africa Uganda Rally on Saturday.
Baryan and Sturrock easily cruised to a third consecutive Pearl Rally win in what was a dominant performance.
In a Skoda Fabia R5, Baryan took command of the lead from the start to the end posting the fastest times of the two-day event.
He was 14 minutes and 23 seconds ahead of second-placed Yasin Nasser.
“We are happy for our third victory in Uganda in front of the amazing fans.
“We have not faced major challenges in the event. We managed to lead from the start to the end with our focus on sealing our third ARC title which we have gladly won,” said Baryan.
Baryan seals the third ARC title with 201 points with two events remaining on the calendar.
He further asserted his position among ARC multiple winners including Satwabt Singh, Muna Singh and Alain Ambrosino.
Yasin Nasser and Ali Katumba were equally impressive in the local contenders. He was, however, in the battle for the national championship win with Arthur Blick Jr.
Nasser and Blick were neck and neck in the final two stages with only 18seconds separating the two.
Blick lost the fight with a puncture in the ultimate stage. That allowed Nasser nip the win by just two seconds and with it every reason to celebrate his best national finish this year’s rally.
Christakis Fitidis endured the challenging day to secure a convincing fourth position overall and third on ARC.
Fred Busulwa and Dr Ashiraf Ahmed all survived the woes of the rally to finish in fifth and sixth respectively.
Isaac Ssozi and Timothy Gawaya registered their best Pearl finishes in seventh and eighth position respectively.
Peter Kalule settled for ninth with Abbas Mayinja completing the top ten.
Meanwhile, the rally ended up a misery for several crews who dropped out of the event in the early stages.
Jas Mangat, Ronald Sebuguzi, Ponsiano Lwakataka all made an early exit with mechanical issues.
Tanzania’s Dharam Pandya did not get a chance to experience Uganda stages after an off in the morning stage ended his rally.
Omar Mayanja, Kepher Walubi, Hassan Alwi, Adam Rauf Essa were among the casualties of the event.