Uganda multiple national champion Jas Mangat is looking forward to kick start another Africa rally title chase on a high with the weekend’s Pearl of Africa rally.
The Pearl rally will be the opening round of this year’s ARC season opener. The rally starts this Saturday in Jinja, Eastern Uganda.
Mangat will be commencing his third attempt on the coveted rally title.
Mangat’s first attempt at the ARC was in 2013. He lost the title in the season finale in Madagascar then. Last year, Mangat had a shot again only to come short and finish second in the championship.
“It is going to be a close race in ARC. But we are in to compete,” said Mangat.
“This season, our priority is ARC. So we need to keep it their and after a few rounds and see where we stand,” he added.
The Pilipili rally crew driver kicked off the Pearl rally posting the third fastest time in the qualifying stage. 4.7seconds behind leader karan Patel.
In the shakedown, Mangat was 0.6seconds ahead of Karan Patel.
The narrow differences in time posted during qualifying and shakedown could ignite a tight race between the two crews with Hamza Anwar in the mix.
Rally starts tomorrow with seven stages and later three stages on Sunday to cover a total competitive distance of 209.45 kilometers.
Mangat will start third on the road on the opening leg.