•Nevertheless, the Ugandan said it’s only a matter of time before he perfects his driving lines in the six-leg FIA African Rally Championship (ARC) season.
•Defending Africa champion Karan won his 10th career FIA African Rally Championship in a Skoda Fabia R5 to clinch an early lead in the continental series.
Image: HANDOUT
Uganda’s leading driver Jas Mangat was full of praise for his Kenyan race adversary Karan Patel who registered his maiden Pearl of Africa Rally win in Jinja over the weekend.
Mangat, who settled for second place in a Hyundai i20 Rally2, admitted that Karan is still faster in his Skoda Fabia R5 after the season-opener.
Nevertheless, the Ugandan said it’s only a matter of time before he perfects his driving lines in the six-leg FIA African Rally Championship (ARC) season which will traverse Zambia in July, Tanzania (August), Rwanda, Kenya (Equator Rally) and Burundi.
In an interview after the season opener, Mangat said: “Pearl Rally sets the pace for a good season. I mean, it is evident Karan (Patel) is still a bit quicker than us and there is no doubt about that. We need to try to find some pace somewhere."
He added: "My partner (Laurent Magat) was a new navigator and temporary just for this event. So there were a lot of adjustments and it took a few kilometres to get into the swing. We will have to see what to do as the ARC season progresses.”
Defending Africa champion Karan won his 10th career FIA African Rally Championship in a Skoda Fabia R5 to clinch an early lead in the continental series.
Karan won eight out of the possible nine stages to end the iconic Ugandan fixture by over a minute ahead of local Mangat.
Following the cancellation of the SS1 Macarena test on Saturday morning, Mangat set the pace by clinching the preceding SS2 Tadooba stage.
But Karan bounced back to win the rest of the stages through to the last flying finish at SS11 Sura Maya speed test, whose third run served as the event’s Power Stage. Power stages are being introduced in the ARC for the first time this season.
Mangat continued: “We had a bit of a battle with Karan on Saturday morning, and then in the afternoon, we lost a lot of time due to the dust and this set us back.
"We corrected our time which was fine and Karan had a good lead on Sunday morning. In the first stage, we had issues with the brakes and after that, the gap was too big.
"It was not that stressful to try to catch up with Karan. I mean, it is what it is, in rallying. Sometimes, it’s your day and sometimes it's not your day. We put in a good effort so we are pretty amazed with the podium.”
Asked about his title defence, Karan explained: “It was important for us to win the power stage and collect some points. And thankfully, there is a power stage this season."
He continued: " For now, I’m just excited to go back to work because I love what I do. It's the end of the rally and I love my job. The next rally is in July when we head to Zambia. So till then, we have quite a lot of time. We have two months to just let the car and the crew rest. Maybe we will do some testing in June.”