Van Pee awed by Team Uganda

I lead, others follow: Isabella Blick (4) in charge of the MX50 category at Busiika race track on Sunday. PHOTO BY JB SSENKUBUGE

KAMPALA.

It is nearly eight months away but Team Uganda captain Maxime van Pee is looking forward to the second leg of the 2017 FIM Africa Central Africa Motocross Championship (CAC) against perennial rivals Kenya. The event is scheduled for December 8-10 in Nairobi later this year.

This follows what Maxime described as a ‘perfect’ performance over the weekend when Uganda took a big advantage of retaining the regional title. Uganda collected Uganda 1,587 pts to Kenya’s 532.

“It was a great team performance and I’m pleased with the team progress but we could have done better in MX2 and MX125. Fathu (Kiggundu) in MX2 had issues with the bike and Alestair (Blick) in MX125 crashed thus losing out on some points,” Maxime, who was carried shoulder high by fans after the event, said.

“But we showed in classes MX50- 65 how far we have developed as a team. A lead of over 1,000 points is big and we shall build on that.”

Sweeps in MX50-65
Indeed the domination of Uganda from MX50-65cc was evident as all the top three places in those classes went to the home team. The competition also served as the third round of the national MX championship and points were at stake.

In MX50 peewee, William Blick and Miguel Katende were separated by one point while Isabella Blick remains on top in MX50 Snr after she beat Gift Ssebuguzi by five points.

However, rally ace Ronald Ssebuguzi, a father to Gift, was delighted with the performance and progress of his son.

“Isabella has been around for some time while Gift is less than three years in the sport. Beating Isabella on Saturday was a big achievement,” Ssebuguzi observed. “We are in search of sponsorship, which we believe would boost his performance further.”

Van Pee (MX1), Arthur Blick Jr (Veterans), Nyachae (MX125), Stav Orland (MX85) and Alon Orland (MX65) were the only riders to win all their three heats over the two days. The next event is the fourth round of the national MX championship to be held at the Victoria Race Track Garuga on the weekend of May 12-14.

Top three
MX50 Peewee
William Blick 55 pts
Miguel Katende 51
Pascal Kasozi 47

MX50 Snr
Isabella Blick 57
Gift Ssebuguzi 52
Malcolm Omoding 45

MX65
Alon Orland 55
Malcolm Lubega 51
Milton Akaki 43

MX85
Stav Orland 60
Fortune Ssentamu 51
Wazir Omar 39

MX125
E. Nyachae (Ken) 60
K. Kiplagat (Ken) 47
Alestair Blick 44

MX2
E. Sharman (Ken) 60
Fathu Kiggundu 47
Yasin Kasirye 41

MX1
Maxime van Pee 60
N. Waweru (Ken) 49
Olivier van Pee 41

MX Veterans
Arthur Blick Jr 60
Barak Orland 51
Ashi Young 41

Overall points
Uganda 1587
Kenya 532