Charlie is king again

By Douglas Mazune A loose bull cost title chasing Moses Lumala over 20 minutes, handing championship leader Charlie Lubega the crucial win he needed to clinch the 2001 National Rally Championship (NRC) on Sunday. Lubega who amassed 430 points with the DFCU Jimmy Dean Memorial win, clinched the championship with the TOTAL Quartz and Castrol Independence rallies to spare. Lumala’s seventh placing killed the contest. Even if the CALTEX sponsored Lumala wins the remaining events, he will still fall 10 points short. Lumala’s Toyota Celica ST 185 ‘Tiger 2’ had the power, but not the luck to take the championship battle to the wire. A stray bull crossed his way, and he could not avoid it in the opening section of the second leg while driving flat-out in a bid to build on his 13 seconds lead. Lubega, third on day one took full advantage of the situation. Giovanni Storchi and Kuku Ranjit posed no real threat to Lubega who had six minutes in hand after Lumala’s exit. A lorry that stalled in the middle of the road and affected many cars in the fifth section, just made matters worse. “The car had been repaired and I was flying like never before, I felt like crying when I found the truck on the road. In that section I was going recover about six minutes,” Lumala said. “Anyway that’s rallying such things happen,” he said. Kuku, Dipu Ruparelia and Godfrey Katende who also got stuck in the section, and had to push the truck off the road. The four who did not also do the last were given the slowest time in the two sections and a five minutes penalty. Toplex Makanga, Ben Koyesiga and Issa Numba dropped out of the 7th NRC round on the FMU calendar. Ends