Rally Rewind - EMC Kabale Rally 2016 : Part 7 - Wrap up and Stats

The top 5 finishers were Jas Mangat, Duncan Mubiru, Arthur Blick, Hassan Alwi and Ronald Sebuguzi. Sodo Aine brough his Pajero home in 7^th ahead of Musa Kabega in 8^th.  The leading 2WD of Otega finished in 9^th overall with Katungi (Subaru Impreza GC8) rounding off the top 10.  Leila Mayanja finished 11th overall and behind Otega in 2WD but would be consoled with collecting 6 out of 10 stage wins.  All 3 subarus from Burundi had retired starting with Sultan Kalula who was on Saturday, unfortunately taken out on transport by a speeding Police car.  Zamin Mwananteba with her Ugandan co driver Suzanne Kalema brought his celica home in 14^th while Nadir Jawed finished 16^th of the 16 cars that finished the rally.

Jas had spent 2014 and 2015 rallying outside Uganda and the quality of the experience he had gathered showed.  Nothing says perfect execution like doing a stage in 7:22 and repeating it in 7:21, doing another in 20:05 and repeating it in 20:05, and doing a stage when you are tired on Saturday afternoon in 19:31 and repeating it in the morning on Sunday in 19:34.  It is typical not just here but even in the WRC for drivers to shed massive time on the repeat of a stage.  Jas showed that he could get it right on the first hack.

Hassan was the revelation of the season and he had done it very early in the year.  By sharing stage wins with Mr. Perfect Execution he showed that bigger things were to come.  Duncan also showed class in his first time with the Evo X posting consistently second fastest times and was never challenged for the second step of the podium.  If Mangat had seemed untouchable in 2012 and 2013, perhaps in these two young stars we had the talent and equipment to shake him.

Stage winners

NRC: Jas 7, Hassan 3, Desh 1 (tied with Jas on CS2)

2WD: Leila 6, Otega 4

Rally Rewind - EMC Kabale Rally 2016 : Part 6 - CS 7-10

After regroup and the second service stop crews descended on Katuna border post for the last stage of the day.  Apart from Omar and the retirements in the leading 10, the start order remained the same.  Katuna which is slightly longer than Kitagata would claim more casualties but this time in the middle of the field.  Musa Kabega suffered intermittent fuel pressure problem that had him stop in the stage for a long time but managed to crawl out.  Leila Mayanja went off on a tricky bend and got stuck for a long time until Kiga power rescued her.  

It was Jas who rounded off a good day at the office with a fastest time of 19:31 followed by Duncan almost a minute off the pace with a fistful of drivers led by Hassan Alwi, Arthur Blick, Ssebuguzi, Omar, Nsamba posting within the 21 minute mark.  The day had ended, the scores had been settled and there were now respectable gaps between the  drivers at the top. Jas had a massive lead of 3m09s followed by Duncan, Arthur led Hassan by a minute and a half while Pole Pole was in distant 5^th a further 9 minutes behind Hassan.  Encouragingly Ssebuguzi had overcome his brake issues and had started his recovery up the leader board but now stood in 7th more than 4 minutes behind Nsamba who was trailing Pole Pole by a minute and a half.  Omar too had started his recovery but would need others to retire and even then only if he could find a new windscreen for his left hand drive car in town.  He was now in 18th.

Sunday morning.  After the controversy surrounding Ssebuguzi’s stage time on Bunyonyi1 was settled by the tracking system, the rally would restart with Jas leading the way but without Omar who had had a windscreen brought in only to find that the seller who had imagined that an N10 windscreen would fit an Evo10.  In sharp contrast to the recce, the weather had remained clear on Saturday and thru the night and even now on Sunday morning there was no sign of rain.  This was some good news for the crews that were about to tackle the suicidal Heisesero stage that rises 200m above the lake.  

 

If anyone doubted the rookie’s performance on Saturday due to the shortness of the super special stage, Hassan who had earned a lateness penalty out of service left no one sitting down when he set the fastest time on the Heisesero killer stage.  Jas trailed him in second +3s, with Duncan, Kabega and Arthur in that order with Arthur losing 2 minutes in this stage alone due to a puncture.

Call it fair play if you want, because Hassan had lost 3rd place to Arthur in cs5 due to a puncture and now Arthur's puncture had given Hassan a fighting chance to take it back. Ssebuguzi was back to health but was not making an impression on the times.  However, he had charmed lady luck as first, Pole Pole would slide off the road in front of the cameras and remain there until he was time barred and Nsamba would retire in the same stage.  Ssebuguzi  was up to 6^th overall behind Byona.

On the third pass thru Kitagata Jas would raise the bar this time completing the stage 9s faster than his two passes on Saturday. Duncan and Hassan would be separated by 4s but almost 1 minute adrift of the leader. Arthur and Sebuguzi rounded off the top 5.  There would be no movement in the top 4 places overall but Sebuguzi was on the move – taking 3 minutes from Byona but with a deficit of 2 min if he was to take 5^th on the last stage.

The second pass over Katuna was the final showdown but places had been settled.  Or had they?! Hassan had taken 2 mins from Arthur in 3^rd and another 20s in Kitagata and now the gap in the fight for the final podium spot – between defending champion and rookie – was just 16s.  Arthur would however hold on and by the end of the stage and the rally, he had kept his place and ego by a miserly 4s.  Jas would win the stage and the rally in an almost identical time to his performance the day before.  The last minute shocker would come from Sebuguzi who posted second fastest time beating Ambrose by 3 min and taking 5^th place from the DRT driver.

Continues to Part 7: Wrap up and Stats

Rally Rewind - EMC Kabale Rally 2016 : Part 5 - Action CS 4-6

After service, the drivers would go back for more of the same stages however following a preview of the section times, for some drivers the driving would not be the same.  Bunyonyi was pretty straight forward. Jas went 1s faster as did Hassan.  Duncan had shaved 10s pulling further away from Hassan.  Arthur had gone 12s faster than his morning hack but more importantly Omar had gone 6s even faster reducing the gap between the in-laws to just 3s.  Sebuguzi who had been struggling outside the top 5 would get into trouble losing 3 minutes on this stage due to brake issues.  The following long kitagata stage would be the scene of epic battles where the patient would take territory and the brave would fall.

Fitidis would be the first casualty as he would retire on the transport section to Kitagata following fuel pressure loss.  400m into the stage Desh would miss a fast left and dive straight into the trees and into retirement.  4kms up the hill, Omar would sweep wide through  a medium left, slide off the road and tumble 50m down the embankment where he would remain for almost 30 minutes until Kitakuri power lifted him back onto the road.  Hassan Alwi would suffer a puncture but drive with it till the end losing about 4 minutes while Ssebuguzi would continue to suffer brake problems and be overtaken by Arthur Blick who was running 6 minutes behind.  At the end of the stage, Jas would set an identical time to his first hack followed by Duncan Mubiru, Arthur Blick, Geoffrey Nsamba and Musa Kabega.   

Hassan Alwi then went ahead to stamp his authority on the second pass of the super special by breaking the 2 minute barrier with 01:54 followed by Jas +2s, Arthur + 8s and Omar and Kabega tied +10s.  The grass  track was drier but it was clear that drivers had taken a much cleaner and less aggressive approach this time around with the exception of Duncan who was almost a minute off the pace.  When it was done, the overall standings would have Jas leading by 2m16s from Duncan while Arthur had now taken 3^rd place from Hassan.  Meanwhile, Geoffrey Nsamba had replaced Fitidis in Pole Pole’s fight to keep 5^th and Ambrose Byona was tussling for 7^th against Kabega in 8th.  Ssebuguzi ‘s problems left him in hanging onto the top 10 while Omar’s roll had him drop to 27^th and last of the surviving cars, his very second-hand looking new car notwithstanding.  Leila Mayanja/Wamala were leading the 2WD from Ismail Otega.

Continues in Part 6: CS 7-10

Rally Rewind - EMC Kabale Rally 2016 : Part 3 Entry List

Despite being the furthest event for most competitors who are based in Kampala and despite the hardship it promised, most of the regular competitors made entries and those that didn’t, it was for reasons beyond their control.  Notable absentees included Kuku Ranjit who had sold his Evo IX to Ambrose Byona but whose new car had not yet arrived.  Ponsiano Lwakataka although he had done the Mbarara rally and showed he had lost none of his natural speed, his absence due to business commitments wasn't entirely unexpected.  The same applied to the Juba-based Wycliffe Bukenya.  

Apart from Ambrose Byona’s new Evo IX which was liveried in Hima Cement Green, Omar Mayanja had also returned from his sabbatical in 2015 with a new Evo X christened Edna, the mud Viper this time with support from Vivo Energy (Shell) as well as Guvnor and Nippon Parts.  Duncan Mubiru was also smarting with a new Evo X that had shipped with Nasser Mutebi’s car of the same model but which had not made the entry.

Visitors

The entry had been boosted by the fact that this rally would be round 1 of the East Africa rally championship, which for 2016 took in 2 rallies from each of Uganda and Rwanda/Burundi.

The Burundi contingent was led by Mohammed Roshanali/Ali Hassan in a Subaru Impreza N10, Sultan Kalula/Fahad Masoud Subaru Impreza N12, Zamin Mwananteba/Suzanne Kalema Toyota Celica ST202, Arif Karmali Subaru Impreza GC8 and Nadir Jawed/Amer Mohamed Peugeot 205 GTi.

The entry list was 42-strong despite the logistics challenges and without any incentive from the organiser, it proved commitment and resolve of the current generation of competitors and augured good things for the whole season ahead.

Continues in Part 4 : How the action Unfolded