Uganda’s top driver Jas Mangat had words of admiration for his Kenyan counterpart Karan Patel, who secured his first-ever victory in the Pearl of Africa Rally held in Jinja over the weekend.
Despite finishing in second place driving a Hyundai i20 Rally2, Mangat openly acknowledged that Karan, driving a Skoda Fabia R5, was still quicker on the track. However, Mangat expressed confidence that he would refine his driving lines as the six-leg FIA African Rally Championship (ARC) season progresses.
The upcoming legs of the championship will take place in Zambia in July, Tanzania in August, followed by events in Rwanda, Kenya (Equator Rally), and Burundi. Mangat remains optimistic about his chances as the season unfolds.
Speaking in Jinja, Mangat said, “The Pearl sets the pace for a good season, I mean, it shows that Karan (Patel) is still a bit quicker than us and there is no doubt about that, so we need to try to find some pace somewhere. My partner (Laurent Magat) was a new navigator and temporary just for this event, so there are a lot of adjustments and it took a few kilometers to get into the swing, we will have to see what to do as the ARC season progresses.”
Karan, the defending African Champion, secured his 10th career win in the FIA African Rally Championship (ARC) driving a Skoda Fabia R5, giving him an early lead in the continental series. He dominated the Ugandan rally, winning 8 out of the 9 stages and finishing over a minute ahead of local competitor Mangat.
The rally faced a setback with the cancellation of SS1 Macarena test on Saturday morning. However, Mangat took the lead in the preceding SS2 Tadooba stage. Despite this, Karan bounced back strongly, winning all the remaining stages, including the event’s Power Stage, SS11 Sura Maya, which served as the final stage.
This season marks the introduction of power stages in the ARC, adding a new dimension to the competition.
Mangat continued, “We had a bit of a battle with Karan on Saturday morning, and then in the afternoon we lost a lot of time with dust, so it set us back. We corrected our time which was fine, and Karan had a good lead on Sunday morning and in the first stage we had issues with brakes and after that the gap was too big. It was not that stressful to try to catch up with Karan. I mean, it is what it is, in rallying sometimes it’s your day, not your day, but we put in a good effort so we are pretty amazed with the podium.”
Asked about his title defense, Karan explained, “It was important for us to win the power stage and collect some points. And thankfully there is a power stage this season. For now, I’m just excited to go back to work, I love what I do. It’s the end of the rally and I love my job. The next rally is far away, it’s in July, we are heading to Zambia, so till then we have quite a lot of time, two months, time to just let the car and the crew rest, maybe we will do some testing in June.”
