. Essa

By SHAMAOMA MUSONDA –

MOHAMED Essa lost ground on his Africa Rally Championship (ARC) title chase after finishing second to his challenger Garry Chaynes of Ivory Coast during the Shell V-Power Pearl of Uganda International Rally held at the weekend.

The rally was won by Rajbir Rai of Kenya but he is not taking part in the ARC thus giving Essa a second place finish but agonisingly behind Chaynes, who increased his lead on the drivers’ chart to eight points with two legs of the rally remaining.  

Going into this rally, which is the sixth on the ARC circuit, Essa trailed Chaynes by a point but his second place finish in Kampala saw him move to 93 points while the Ivorian took his tally to 101 points.

Essa, who is navigated by Gareth Dawe, will now need to win the remaining races during the KCB Safari Rally in Kenya next month and the Madagascar International Rally in November to have a chance to reclaim the title he won in 2012.

 In this exciting Pearl of Africa Rally, Chaynes enjoyed leadership until the last stage when the 24-year-old Rai navigated by Tim Challen overtook him to finish with a time of three hours two minutes and 45 seconds in the 450km race, which was just two seconds ahead of the Ivorian. 

Actually, Rai, who is son of legendary two-time former Kenya champion Sarbi Rai, went in the final section trailing Chaynes by 26 seconds but pulled off a stunning performance to win the event by a margin of two seconds.

 Essa was not too far behind as he got to the finish line just less than 30 seconds later to pick up the 18 points.  

Another contestant in the ARC race, Jaspreet Chatthe navigated by Dave Sihoka, who were leading going into stage six, crashed out with broken intercooler to remain in distant third and can only win the African title by winning both remaining rallies but provided the two do not finish the races.

Zambia’s Jassy Singh is the reigning champion but is participating in the ARC due to school commitments.