Yasin Nasser and Ali Katumba remain hopeful towards claiming this year’s Africa Rally Championship title.
The Ugandan crew has seen their lead gradually gnawed as only three and six points separate them from second-placed Karen Patel and third-placed Jas Mangat.
It could have been a slightly bigger lead but an off in the Mountain Gorilla Rally in Rwanda last weekend saw their title chase go to the wire.
The Moil rally team overshot a corner causing their Ford Fiesta to get stuck in the hay grass. Attempts to pull the car back on the road caused a slight fire.
That would cause mechanical damage to their car leading to the early retirement of the crew in the morning loop on Saturday.
“Oh! that moment!,” exclaimed Nasser.
“Katumba can explain better the situation before that, but what I know I was really pushing and before I knew it, we were off into the grass,” he said.
“A lot happened after that but most important thing all of us plus Nemo were fine. And the rest of the crews ensured our safety and we cannot thank them enough for that,” he said.
The crew fixed their Ford and resumed the event under super rally rules; eventually rescuing some points towards the title chase.
“After the incident on Saturday, we knew it would cost us a lot towards the title. But we remained positive and luckily the car was fixed to move again.”
“Rally is unpredictable, we cannot say it is all over until it is actually over. We remain hopeful until the last event and we shall accept whatever comes out,” said Nasser.
The ARC title is now wide open for anyone’s taking among the three crews.
Yasin Nasser needs to finish ahead of Karan Patel and Jas Mangat in the next events to guarantee the title.
The next ARC event heads to Zambia on 20-22 October.