Kenya’s Karan Patel and Taussef Khan survived the final day drama to reclaim the Pearl of Africa Uganda Rally victory on Saturday in Mbarara.
The two-time Africa rally champion started day two a minute down on his Kenyan counterpart Samman Vohra, who had been the star of day one with an exceptional drive.
It all seemed impossible for Karan to close in on the time after Samman extended his lead by winning the morning stage on Saturday.
However, all of Samman’s hard work was washed down the drain when, in stage six, he broke the front right-hand side control arm after landing off a jump. That ended his rally, and Karan was handed the lead.
The Kenyan Airways sponsored crew stayed out of trouble for the rest of the rally to seal his second Pearl rally victory. And with that, he also picked his first ARC points for 2025.
Yasin Nasser and Ali Katumba in the Ford Fiesta Rally2 had a share of the day’s drama after suffering a gearbox issue in the penultimate stage, losing over eight minutes.
The Ugandan crew was, however, placed well to secure to maintain a second position on ARC and a third position overall.
Kenya’s Nikhil Sachania survived whatever the rally threw at him to finish third on ARC and on top of the ARC3 category.
Aine Sodo Kaguta completed the ARC crews finishers list in fourth position.
There was plenty of drama that unfolded in the National category as crews fell by the wayside. But it was Duncan Mubiru in the Ford Fiesta Proto who defied the odds to top the NRC pack.
The ARC now heads to Rwanda on 4-6 July for the third round.