Jas Mangat and Joseph Kamya were more than grateful to see the final finish after a difficult Equator Rally; the second round of the Africa Rally Championship over the weekend in Kenya.
The Pilipili Rally Team was tipped as one of the top drivers billed to challenge the top cars in Voi. However, a series of mechanical mishaps on day one saw the Ugandan crew struggle through the event.
Despite all, a fourth position overall was a good taking for the team.
“The event was tough. We started it on the wrong note when we broke the suspension in the qualifying stage on Friday, something we didn’t expect.
“On Saturday we tried to push on, only to get a puncture right at the start into stage five. This cost us a lot of time. So a finish is something. We would be demoralized with a no finish,” said Joseph Kamya.
The team was also third in the Africa Rally Championship category; securing valuable points for the title chase.
“We were glad to have reached the end. The objective of the event was to score points and we got them which is good for the championship,” said Mangat in an interview with Hapasport.
As they head into the home ARC event; the Pearl of Africa Uganda Rally in May, the PiliPili crew could be in new wheels as a Hyundai i20 is on the cards. The arrival of the car is yet to be confirmed by the team.
Meanwhile, Karan Patel won the Equator Rally with Yasin Nasser in second and Jasmeet Chana rounding off the podium in third.