Manvir crushes field in Pearl

Kampala.

Kenyan driver Manvir Baryan has added his name to Zimbabwe- born Conrad Rautenbach (2007) and Mohammed Essa from Zambia (2012), all of whom who came and outclassed local drives in the Shell V-Power Pearl of Africa Uganda Rally.

Manvir alongside British co-driver Drew Sturrock in a Skoda Fabia 1600 R5 won eight out 10 competitive sections during the two-day event which ended on Saturday.

For the record Ugandan Alwi Hassan and Omar Mayanja are the only drivers to have beaten him in the competitive sections. Alwi won CS5-1 of Shekhar Mehta (24.40km) while Mayanja came out on top in CS7-2 of Kitimbwa (11.41km) but both did not finish the event.

Five days before the event, in an exclusive interview with the Daily Monitor, the 35-year old, a member of Multiple Racing Team (MRT) was confident of a podium finish. “I have not come here for a holiday, I am here to better my fourth place finish I achieved in the 2014,” he remarked then.

Five days later he was on the podium as the winner of the 19th edition of the event and going on top of Africa Rally Championship (ARC) title race with 40 points. He remains cagey about competing in the remaining three rounds of ARC events in Tanzania, Rwanda and Zambia.

“I need to sit down and evaluate the situation with my team. My main focus is winning the Kenya title and I am currently second behind Duncan (Ian),” he told this reporter.
“The ARC is so demanding and need to do my other work as well. I just flew in from Dubai for this event.”

The next Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC) event is in two weeks in Nanyuki. Manvir beat the second-placed crew of Christakis Fitidis and Eric Nzamwita in an Evo X by over 10 minutes. The event had a total of 496.99km ,of which 203.30 was competitive. Twenty cars out of 49 finished the event.
Vivo Energy with Sh100m, Hima Cement Sh70m, Lato Milk, Fero Mobile Silver Springs Hotel, Fire and safety Appliances Ltd, ICEA, World Wide Movers, Tramigo car tracking and Scoul were the sponsors.

Final classification
Manvir Baryan/Drew Sturrock 02: 09:13
Christakis Fitidis/Eric Nzamwita 02:19:10
Giancarlo Davite/Slyvia VIndevogel 02:19:51
Leroy Gomes/Urshlla Gomes 02:21:17
Kuku Ranjit/Musa Nsubuga 02:24:55
Kleevan Gomes/Riyaz Latife 02:28:57
Dr Ashraf Muhameed/R. Muhammed 02:39:10
Duncan Mubiru/George Ssemakula 02:40:50
Jean Claude Gakwaya/Claude Mugabo 02:42:48
Musa Kizito/David Woshale 02:52:59
Alex Wakabi /Muhamad Ssebina 02:56:49
Abasi/ Mayinja /Frank Serugo 02:57:26
Fred Senkumba /Hamza Lwanga 02:57:35
Edson Mungyereza /Sirajih Kyambadde 03:03:56
Peter Kalule /Mariam Nambasa 03:04:03
Godfrey Kayizi /Urban Mulindwa 03:10:13
Abdul Katete /Lawrence Mwambazi 03:11:29
Charles Ssansa /Asuman Muhammad 03:15:39
Gilberto Balondemu /Stephen Bunya 03:16:06
Ismael Lule /Ronald Bukenya 03:20:35

ARC standings after four events

Manvir Baryan/Drew Sturrock
(Kenya) 40pts
Leroy Gomes/Urshlla Gomes
(Zambia) 38
Japsreet Chatthi
(Kenya) 30