Karan Patel and Tauseef Khan clinched victory in Rwanda to send the Africa Rally Championship (ARC) title chase to the wire.
Now six points separate first from third and it could be anyone’s for the taking in the remaining two rounds.
The Mountain Gorilla Rally though was clearly dominated by Kenya’s Karen Patel.
The Kenyan crew were sighted out as the favourite crew and they went on to stamp that with approval by dominating the two-day event from the start to the end.
A momental scare with mechanical issues threatened the crew in Stage 10 losing over 20 seconds. However, they were lucky to overcome and later salvage more time to protect the lead.
Patel cruised his Ford Fiesta rally2 to claim victory; beating Uganda’s Jas Mangat by 16 seconds. It was the Kenyan’s third ARC victory this season.
Kenya’s Hamza Anwar kept himself close to the rally2 cars to settle for a solid third position overall to open his chances for another Junior title as well as an ARC2 title shot.
Prince Charles Nyerere finished fourth followed by Innocent Bwamiki to complete the top five ARC category.
Yasin Nasser who retired on day one and rejoined through super rally is grateful to have finished the event claiming important points to keep him in contention.
Nasser remains top on the ARC leaderboard but with only three points ahead of Patel.
Patel and Khan secured maximum points to close in on the title with 90 points.
Jas Mangat who debuted his Hyundai i20 rally2 is third in the standings; only six points from the leader and three from second-placed Patel.
Under the overall classification, Giancarlo Davite was fourth overall followed by Philbert Faida and Jean Claude Gakwaya who made fifth and sixth in that order.
The next ARC event heads to Zambia on October 20-22.
ARC Drivers standings
- Yasin Nasser – 93points
- Karan Patel – 90
- Jas Mangat – 87