Alwi to gatecrash, Singh Jr aims to protect legacy
What you need to know:
UNDERDOG. If Alwi finishes ahead of the three-time national winner and the rest of the local drivers, he will add 140 points to his tally.
KAMPALA.
It helps to be an underdog. You would rather be a Leicester City than be a Barcelona or Manchester United. Your achievements are not only accidental but also monumental.
That kind of success, like Leicester’s 2015/16 English Premier League, is like a tectonic force that makes everyone believe that they can achieve way beyond their expectations.
Rally driver Hassan Alwi is a Leicester in his own right even if he is yet to get any significant glittering metal into his cabinet.
Stephen Kiprotich’s Olympic marathon Gold medal pulled the rag under everyone’s feet as did James ‘Buster’ Douglas victory over boxing legend Mike Tyson in Tokyo, Japan back in 1990.
Pick your own underdog story and Alwi is on the brink of marching it. No one would have mentioned his name at the start of the year.
The bound of Uganda’s National Rally Championship (NRC) was destined to be two-way battle between Ronald Ssebuguzi and Jas Mangat, who share five titles between them.
Alwi was only graduating from the Two-Wheel Drive (2WD). Heading into the penultimate event of the NRC calendar, he is on the brink of something special.
Mangat took a huge gamble to try and score points in Tanzania only to fail to finish as Alwi emerged with a major addition to his scoreboard in Kigali, Rwanda. Two-time champion Mangat has 400 points, 71 more than Alwi. Ssebuguzi is third on 215.
The NRC leader is not driving in this weekend’s Shell V-Power Pearl of Uganda Rally that started yesterday with a Super Special Stage at the Motorsport Arena in Busiika.
Cars head to Mubende for the final leg today. This is the final round of the Africa Rally Championship after Madagascar opted out. Ssebuguzi needs to beat all NRC-registered drivers to force a competitive finish to the local season.
If Alwi finishes ahead of the three-time national winner and the rest of the local drivers, he will add 140 points to his tally to accumulate 469. It will be kind of sucker punch that not even Douglas delivered in that 10th round knockout victory over Tyson. Alwi can even go a step further by adding to Ugandan winners of the event, the last of whom was Ponsiano Lwakataka in 2011.
This NRC race will be one of the many slideshows in what is clearly an ARC race where Zambian Muna Singh Jr will try to catch Kenyan Don Smith.
The latter, who flew in by private jet on Wednesday, leads the standings with 79 points, 29 more than Singh Jnr. There is 25 for the winner and seven less for the second-placed driver. Singh Jnr is chasing more than Smith. Those two Subaru Impreza N16s will be involved in their own race.
Whatever happens in Singh Jr’s cockpit will mirror what his family has done over the past 40 years. His brother, Jassy Singh, is a 2013 African champion. That should be enough for a family, not so?
Their father Muna Singh is well known to Ugandans as a two-time continental winner.
Satwant Singh, Muna Singh’s father and by deduction Muna Singh Jr’s grandfather has lifted the African trophy on no less than eight occasions. The grand total is 11.
At some point, it must weigh heavily on Muna Singh Jr as he protects his family legacy. His family expects to finish in first place always while Alwi’s is only learning how to win.
However, Alwi shares something in common with the ‘Singhs’, none has won the Pearl Rally.
CAST OF FORMER WINNERS
1996: Karim Hirji (Uganda)
1997: Chipper Adams (Uganda)
1998: Charles Muhangi (Uganda)
1999: Muhangi (Uganda)
2000: Charlie Lubega (Uganda)
2001: Did Not Take Place
2002: John Gemmel (South Africa)
2003: Lubega (Uganda)
2004: Lubega (Uganda)
2005: Riyaz Kurji (East Africa Uganda)
2006: Kurji (East Africa Kenya)
2007: Conrad Rautenbach (Zimbabwe)
2008: Jamie Whyte (Zimbabwe)
2009: Kurji (East Africa Kenya)
2010: Whyte (Zimbabwe)
2011: Ponsiano Lwakataka (Uganda)
2012: Mohammed Essa (Zambia)
2013: Jas Mangat (Uganda)
2014: Rajbir Rai (Kenya)
2015: Jaspreet Chatthe (Kenya)
2016: ???
NRC LOG
*Jas Mangat (Evo X) 400 points
*Hassan Alwi (Subaru N14) 329
*Ronald Ssebuguzi (Evo X) 215
SINGH TITLES
*Satwant: 1988, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000
* Muna Singh Snr. 2004 and 2005
* Jassy Singh 2013
CURRENT ARC STANDINGS
*Don Smith (Kenya, Subaru N16) 79 pts
* Muna Singh Jr (Zambia, Subaru N16) 50
* Gary Chaynes (Ivory Coast, Mitsubishi Evo. IX) 25
* Ismail Shermohammed (Zambia, Toyota RunX) 15
