Kenya’s Ngugi Waweru made the talking points at the first round of FIM Africa Central Africa Motocross Championship (CAC) at the Motorsport Arena in Busiika.
The 17-year-old captained Team Kenya and staged a tight battle against Uganda’s captain Maxime Van Pee.
Ngugi had earlier lost to Van Pee in the first two heats finishing in third and second respectively.
“Well, I had a bad day in the first heat of the event. I bent my bike and also hit my head so hard and somehow lost the battle. In the second heat I tried to push a bit harder and finished second,” explained Ngugi.
However, the Kenyan had only one heat to prove himself against Van Pee.
Ngugi was off the gates fastest in the final heat. But was involved in a heart in mouth moment towards the end. A collision with Van Pee dropped him to second place.
“It was really a good race for me. And a good battle with Maxime. I don’t know how Maxime fell down but I remember he slightly touched my bike and went down.”
“But it was easy for him to catch up on me after a few mistakes. And we touched again the second time we all went down, but his bike was on top of mine and couldn’t go before him.”
“I know his bike is much stronger than mine, but it’s good to gauge myself with the best,” said Ngugi.
Kenya only had Ethan Nyachae and Elias Sherman top in the MX125 and MX2 respectively.
The team captain was however proud of his team’s performance.
“Our team showed a lot of heart in this race. Elias went down twice but managed to carry and catch up winning all heats.”
“For Ethan Nyanchae, he rode his own race comfortably leading from the start to the finish of the race.”
Team Kenyan collected 532points while Uganda leads with 1587points.
“Its good we have collected good points from here. So it makes the second leg a bit easier for us. Am sure we shall overturn the results back home,” he asserted.