Ronald Sebuguzi survived troubles on Saturday’s opening leg of the EMC Moil Jinja rally to land a podium finish over the weekend.
Sebuguzi and co-driver Anthony Mugambwa in the Ford Fiesta Proto had their impressive start to the Jinja rally interrupted in stage two of the event.
With the second fastest time in stage one, the crew suffered double punctures in the following stage costing them over two minutes.
“Sebuguzi was in a good mood starting the event. We anticipated a good competition given the format of the event having to compete on two stages only.
“We pushed from the start, but the punctures really messed us up. But we kept the hopes up going forward,” said Anthony Mugambwa; Sebuguzi’s co-driver.
The Shell-sponsored crew eventually put up a spirited fight in the Super Special Stage making the highlights of the day with a sublime run edging rally leader Yasin Nasser in the two runs. They would finish day one in third position.
“Our runs at the super special proved our earlier motives, we wanted to secure some good times before the second day. It is unfortunate, the crews ahead of us retired early on the second day, but we were ready to send the competition to them,” he added.
The crew continued to fight on; posting the second fastest times in Sunday’s four stages. That at least assured them of a second-place finish behind Yasin Nasser.
“Despite the lost time on day two. We really tried to catch up on Yasin. We knew we could not do so much but we wanted to keep closer in time in the remaining stages and we achieved that,” said Mugambwa.
Sebuguzi now moved third on the NRC leaderboard with 190 points.