BY ADRIAN MWANZA –
ZAMBIAN rally champion Muna Singh junior says he is ready for next weekend’s Tanzanian leg of the Africa Rally Championship (ARC) which should push him up the ladder.
The Oryx Energies Tanzania rally championship, the fifth on the African calendar, revs-off next week on August 4 in Bagamoyo.
The crews that will be fighting for the ARC driver’s points include ManvirBaryan, Jaspreet Chatthe and PierroCanobbio from Kenya, Leroy Gomes, Kleevan Gomes and Muna junior from Zambia.
Others are Dharam Pandya, Gurpal Sandhu and Randeep Singh from Tanzania as well as Christakis Fitidis from Uganda
According to the ARC website, Baryan navigated by Drew Sturrock from Scotland is leading the ARC standings with 40points with the Rally of Tanzania being his third ARC event this year and will be in their Skoda Fabia R5.
Zambia’s Leroy Gomes in a Mitsubishi Evo X is trailing in second,  two points off the leader but with his wife co-driver Urshlla Gomes is leading the ARC co-driver championship with 41 points.
Kleevan Gomes is in fourth with 26 points while Muna junior will be getting back to the ARC chase after missing the previous two events in South Africa and Uganda and is in distant 11th with just 10 points.
Muna junior, who finished second in the Pembe Rally hosted at the weekend in Chisamba, said he was alive to the challenge in Tanzania and that he would put in his best.
He is among the three Zambian drivers who will take part in the event with the others being Leroy Gomes who crushed out of the Pembe Rally and his brother Kleevan.
“This one is going to be a different rally but I’m going to ensure that I give it my best shot so get back into contention for the African title,” he said.
He expressed optimism that the Zambian team would perform well at the event which will see a number of top class drivers from across the continent take part.
“The Zambian drivers have what it takes to go far and I’m sure we are going to use this event to perfect our skills because this one has a different terrain all together,” he said.
Muna junior added that finishing second in the Pembe rally had bolstered his confidence and that he would use it to his advantage in Tanzania.
The Pembe rally was won by his elder brother Jassy, a former African champion who is not taking part in this year’s competition