Cars Can Fly (Photo Credit: Innocent Mutaawe)
Yasin Nasser: The Runaway National Rally Champion
The National Rally Championship (NRC) to be concluded in the 7th round scheduled to take place in Fort portal seems to have come to an early finish with Team Moil, their driver Yasin Nasser l and co-driver Ali Katumba securing it for the second time. They won it previously in 2019 and now 2023. The team’s victory in the Bam Petroleum SMC Challenge rally in Masaka follows their victories at the first MCRC Mbarara rally in February, the CMC Hoima race in June, the EMC Jinja rally in July, and now the Masaka rally. This was their fourth victory of the season. The rally had a competitive distance of 134.53 km, the team completed the race in a time of 1:27:02:53 in a Ford Fiesta R5.
Day two saw Nasser/Katumba start 14.28 seconds behind Ponsiano Lwakataka and co-driver Paul Musaazi, but they quickly took control of the second day, winning four of the five stages that were held. In the event that Team Moil wins both the Tanzania National Rally Championship and the African Rally Championship (ARC), they will become the first team in history to win three championships in a single year. The squad is immediately moving to participate in the Africa Rally Championship’s fourth round scheduled to take place in Burundi.
With a cumulative time of 1:27:16:81, Ponsiano Lwakataka and co-driver Paul Mussazi finished second overall in their Subaru Impreza N12B; their gap over Nasser/Katumba was 0:00:14:28. Day one of the competition was won by Lwakataka, who dazzled the crowd with a thrilling performance in which he faced off against a Ford Fiesta R5 and ultimately finished ahead of a Ford Fiesta Proto.
With a total time of 1:30:25:94, Ronald Ssebuguzi and co-driver Anthony Mugambwa came in third with a time differential of 0:03:09:13 from Lwakataka. Ssebuguzi is climbing the NRC rankings after holding third place from the start.
Peter Kalule, and co-driver David Mwesigwa in their Subaru Impreza, finished in fourth place. This season, Kalule has performed well. Umar Dauda, driven by Steven Bunya in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6, rounded out the top five.
The crew of Ibrahim Lubega and Mustapha Kanakulya, who are leading the 2WD category and have had a consistent season, and still drove to victory in the 2WD class in their Toyota Corolla FX.
Joshua Muwanguzi, with co-driver Mariam Nambasa in their Subaru Impreza N12, won the Clubman Rally Championship (CRC). Ahmed Mohammed Ali, with the brother Ahmed Mohammed Anees, came in second, and Yasser Ali Omar with co-driver Yusuf Babu Jr., finished third. With their enthusiasm and speed, these young drivers are definitely some of the ones to watch.
Out of the twenty-three competitors that began the event, only nine emerged victorious.
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