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Patel led from start to finish completing the 205.23 kilometer event with a time of 2hrs 20mins and 59seconds, to make an impressive start to his Africa Rally Championship campaign.
Karan Patel and co-driver Tauseef Khan produced a dominant performance to win the 2023 Equator Rally in Voi, Kenya over the weekend.
Patel led from start to finish completing the 205.23 kilometer event with a time of 2hrs 20mins and 59seconds, to make an impressive start to his Africa Rally Championship campaign.
The Kenyan national rally champion who wished to have chicken after arriving at the final stop expressed his delight with the victory, saying, "We are happy and proud of the victory.”
“We worked hard for it and we got the results. We are now looking forward to the next event."
Uganda’s Yasin Nasser and Ali Katumba clinched second position overall, thanks to their event strategy that paid off.
Nasser's safe and clean drive secured an advantage, first inheriting third place following Hamza Anwar’s retirement on day one, and then getting promoted to second place after Jerome Wahome retired in the penultimate stage.
Nasser stated, "It was an enjoyable race despite this morning when we panicked when our steering developed some issues. It was quite an issue but luckily we managed to finish the event."
Kenya’s Jasmeet Chana and Ravindar Chana rounded off the podium in third position overall, but Jas Mangat - who finished fourth overall - replaced him on the podium as Chana was not partaking in the ARC.
Third place in the ARC category was consolation for Mangat and co-driver Joseph Kamya who were plagued with mechanical problems throughout the rally.
Izhar Mirza finished fifth, while Asad Anwar impressed, completing the event in sixth overall.
The young rally star crew of Hamza Anwar and Jeremiah Wahome made a statement with a sublime pace, but mechanical issues knocked them out of the event.
The Africa Rally Championship moves across the border to Uganda for the Pearl of Africa Rally on the weekend of May 5-7.
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