Mangat to switch to Hyundai i20 R5 ahead of Pearl

Jas Mangat has announced his intention to take the fight for the Africa Rally Championship up a notch, after finishing in the top three of the Africa Rally Championship (ARC) Equator Rally in Nairobi, Kenya.

As Mangat prepares for his home ARC event, the Pili Pili Rally Team driver is looking to upgrade to a new, more powerful Hyundai i20 R5 car.

According to various reports, the three-time Uganda national champion has already inspected the car at its assembly point, although the exact arrival of the car has not yet been confirmed by the team.

The anticipated switch to the Hyundai brings an end to an era full of memories with his Mitsubishi Evo X, that has seen various victories and helped re-shape that rallying sphere in Uganda.

Mangat won the FIA 2022 Shell V-Power Pearl of Africa Rally, where he beat 48 other riders including 11 foreigners, by clocking 1:53:06.12 around the 426.50km course.

However, this weekend Mangat finished third on the African calendar, with a time of 2:29:10, behind fellow Ugandan Yassin Nasser who finished second (2:27:19.6) and Karan Patel who won it (2:20:59.3) for the second time in the series.

Mangat and co-driver Joseph Kamya were expected to challenge the top cars in Voi, but a series of mechanical mishaps on day one saw the Ugandan crew struggle through the event.

Despite the setbacks, the team managed to secure fourth place overall and third in the Africa Rally Championship category, earning valuable points for the title chase.

“The event was tough. We started it on the wrong note when we broke the suspension in the qualifying stage on Friday, something we didn’t expect,” Kamya exclaimed after the race.

“On Saturday we tried to push on, only to get a puncture right at the start into stage five. This cost us a lot of time. So, a finish is something. We would be demoralized with a no finish.”

The Pearl of Africa Uganda Rally is the next race to be held in Uganda, between May 5-7, 2023.

The African title is currently led by Karan Patel and Gary Chaynes who are locked on 30 points, followed by Yassin Nasser (24), Jas Mangat (21), Asad Anwar (19) and Jerome Wahome (17).