Jas Mangat believes his second position from the Africa Rally Championship season opener, the Pearl of Africa Uganda Rally, has laid down grounds from which the crew can better approach the title chase.
The three-time Ugandan champion was the first to take the lead with the first stage win of the event. He was 8.2 seconds ahead of Karan in the morning stage on Saturday.
However, Mangat fell behind for the rest of the event to finish 1 minute and 42.7 seconds behind eventual winner Karan Patel.
“By day two, Karan had a good lead. We could not do much after having issues with our brakes in the morning stage on Sunday. There is no way we could catch up with him. And the fact that I had a different co-driver also had some little impact,” explained Mangat.
“It was not a stressful performance at all. It is what it is with rally. Sometimes it is your day naturally. We put in the effort and we are pleased,” he added.
Mangat is having a third attempt at the Africa Rally title chase.
Basing on the weekend results, Mangat knows too well it is going to be a tight race for the rest of the season.
“Our performance sets the pace, and shows Karan is still quicker than us, there is no doubt.”
“So we need to find the pace somewhere. We are left to see what to do, but we need to work hard,” he asserted.
In preparation for the ARC, Mangat flew in Grégoire Munster, a WRC driver, to help him acquit himself with the Hyundai i20.
Meanwhile, Hamza Anwar completed the ARC podium followed by Uganda’s Micheal Mukula with Kuku Ranjit in fifth position.
The next ARC event heads south to Zambia on 26-28th July.