Blow by Blow - 2019 SMC Masaka Rally - Part Two - Pili Pili drops lead, Mafu Mafu grabs it from Sebuguzi

Previously on Blow by Blow “…At the end of the day, Sebuguzi trailed Mangat by 35s as Fitidis placed third ahead of Hassan Alwi Jr in fourth and Ponsiano Lwakataka in fifth.  In sixth was Kepher Walubi followed by Duncan Mubiru who had brought his Subaru Impreza GVB back “

The first proper and longest stage of the rally, and the season so far, was supposed to start at 6:38 am but it was still dark.  Under the start order rotation system, last year’s championships 3^rd overall Jas would take pole in this years third round.  After getting assurance of safety which was provided by 5 route openers including two-time champion Moses Lumala, Jas hit the stage at exactly 7 am followed by Hassan Alwi Jr, Christakis Fitidis and Kepher Walubi.  Susan and Sebuguzi followed in 5^th and 6^th on the road respectively.  The reigning national champion Susan Muwonge’s Impreza N12B had undergone extensive repair and testing following a dismal showing in Mbarara and retirement in Mukono.  However, in this stage it became quickly clear that not all the problems had been resolved.  She completed the stage in 23m51s a full 3 minutes slower than the stage winner, the gap big enough to drop her out of the top ten and promote Omar Mayanja who was also suffering broken steering which had lost him almost 2 minutes in the 42 km stage.  

A morning stage that makes up more than one third of the total competitive mileage is not one to take slow but sure, such a stage arrangement does not lend itself to a wait and see approach.  This approach saw Yasin Nasser drop from 8^th to 9^th as Christakis Fitidis lost 5 positions from his provisional podium to go into 8^th behind Kepher walubi who was now occupying 7^th. Arthur Blick Jr had posted a third fastest time in stage and leapt into 6^th but only 9 tenths of a second behind Duncan Mubiru in fifth.  Hassan Alwi Jr’s fifth fastest in stage left him safely in 4^th however, the N14 driver had been lobbed by Ponsiano Lwakataka who had gone second fastest on stage to move from 5^th into 3^rd and 2.8s behind Sebuguzi who remained second overall after posting the 4^th fastest time in stage. 

The pilipili Evo X had not been at it’s fire-cracking best in stage but still made it to the end of the stage after 20m53.8s, winning the stage, and extending Jas Mangat’s advantage to Sebuguzi to 50.8s at the top of the provisional classification.  From the stage, the cars went to Kasasa for a break and refresh ahead of taking on shorter but more technical stages that made up the rest of the race weekend itinerary. In service, it took the Clean Lines Racing mechanics 32 minutes, 2 longer than the time allowed to repair and refresh without penalties, to replace a bent steering arm, damaged lower control arm, and make sure the front wheels were aligned well for precise turning and handling.  This attracted a 20s penalty.  It took the pilipili team a lot longer – 29 extra minutes which resulted in a 240s penalty, to find the source and fix the misfire on their Evo X.  

Jas Mangat also lost his pole position on the road to Ronald Sebuguzi who, arriving at the stage start sans Jas, smelled opportunity.  He had just been handed the rally lead on a platter while the former leader parachuted to the bottom of the top ten.  Mangat was now just ahead of a hapless Susan Muwonge who had replaced a drive shaft in service even if it did not explain the handling issues she was experiencing on the gravel stages.  Everybody in the top ten moved up a position and suddenly the gaps between them gave everyone in the top 8 a chance at the win of this event.   

In the 2wd category, former champion Ismail Waliggo co driven by R Bukenya had thrown down the gauntlet, beating his closest and toughest competitor Sam watendwa by more than 2 minutes.  Day one category leaders Umar Kakyama and their Shell V-power Ford Fiesta lost more than 4 minutes and their lead to the Runx drivers.

After delaying in service Jas rejoined the rally in 8^th on the road ahead of previous stage’s challenger Ponsiano Lwakataka.  The extra time in service had not been for nothing as the car returned to win this shorter 20 km stage by a much bigger margin of 23s to start his journey back up the ladder with one small step into 9^th, and pushing Omar Mayanja back into 10^th overall.  However, Omar was not hanging about either,  he had clocked in the second fastest time after Jas and while he dropped to tenth and in the remaining competitive kilometres it was not possible to fight for a podium, he could still hunt places in the bottom of the top ten.   Yasin Nasser stayed put in 8^th overall but 7^th fastest on stage was good enough for Christakis Fitidis to hike back up into 6^th ahead of Kepher Walubi in 7^th. Susan Muwonge continued to suffer poor handling and dropped to 12^th behind Godfrey Lubega who drives a similar car. 

 

Further up the leader board, it was getting tighter.  Subaru drivers Duncan Mubiru and Hassan Alwi Jr had been separated by just 7 tenths of a second in stage, Duncan being the faster and marginally reducing the gap to Hassan in 3^rd to 36.7 seconds.  At the very top, Ponsiano Lwakataka who was 2s slower than Omar Mayanja on stage had also taken 16s from Ronald Ssebuguzi taking the overall lead from the latter to sit up top with an advantage of 13.2 seconds.   More importantly he was now also 2m42s up from the one person who could likely win more stages later in the day to deny him. The rally had now reached the half way point, and there was  only a little over 60 competitive kms left to scrap over.  Was it time to consolidate or keep fighting??

 

Next on Blow by Blow “…The next stage, named after General Kayanja (Kalunnumu) was used in 2016 but not in 2017, it was all the same familiar to all top contenders.  However, it was one of two stages that we considered the trickiest for surprise elements of rough, kicker-drops and step-ups, as well as rock slabs.  This was a stage on which the brave could take positions or lose everything”