Duncan ‘Kikankane’ Mubiru has kicked off the season on a high after securing victory in the season-opening event in Mbarara on Sunday.
The victory ended Mubiru’s two-year wait for a win. His last was in the 2017 Kabale rally.
With Musa Nsubuga in the Mitsubishi Evo X, Mubiru who was third going into the final day maintained a steady pace to keep within the podium positions.
His strategy paid off when his event rivals; Rajiv Ruparelia and Ponsiano Lwakataka dropped out in the penultimate stages to hand him the win.
“My target this season is to finish every rally. Our target was to finish but we got lucky and finished with a victory.
“It will be the same in all other events we go for a finish,” said Mubiru.
Fred Busulwa, navigated by Joseph Bongole, registered his career-best finish with a second position and were 10 minutes behind Mubiru.
2017 Mbarara Rally winner Omar Mayanja and Hussein Mukuye survived mechanical problems to seal the podium in third position.
Ashraf Ahmed settled for fourth position overall.
Jackson Sserwanga completed the top five positions that assured him victory in the Two-Wheel Drive category.
Ibrahim Lubega settled for sixth overall as well as second in the 2WD class.
In the Clubman Rally Championship, Mustafa Mukasa claimed victory followed by Peter Assimwe.
The event had only ten finishers out of the 27 crews that started on Saturday.
Day one leader Rajiv Ruparelia had a broken suspension with two stages left that ended his impressive performance on the weekend.
Ronald Sebuguzi, Hassan Alwi, Godfrey Lubega were among the non-finishers in the event.
The second round of NRC is scheduled for March 6-8 in Jinja.