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