Ashraf finishes rally season in style

Oct 19, 2008

NATIONAL rally champion Ahmed Ashraf had a flawless display winning four of the six sections in the second leg to win the JMC Independence Rally in Jinja yesterday. Ashraf, who had a bad day in the super special stage on Saturday, recovered on the final day racing to victory in one hour 36.28 second

JMC Independence rally
A. Ashraf 1:36:28
S. Fatzinda 1:46:52
A. Sandhu 1:48:11
M. Sanya 1:49:52
B. Magezi 1:50:29
A. Ssempebwa 1:50:42
L. Mayanja 1:55:49
S. Jagi 1:56:58
A. Ssemujju 1:57:16
A. Kaweesi 1:59:34
E. Mungereza 2:11:44
R. Oluga 2:13:43
M. Niwabine 2:22:30
I. Ortega 3:17:29


By Douglas Mazune

NATIONAL rally champion Ahmed Ashraf had a flawless display winning four of the six sections in the second leg to win the JMC Independence Rally in Jinja yesterday. Ashraf, who had a bad day in the super special stage on Saturday, recovered on the final day racing to victory in one hour 36.28 seconds.

The champion displayed superb skills as he marshalled his machine in a tail ender only undermined by a full crowd.
The rally will go down in the motor sport annals as one of the events that attracted the least spectators in recent years.

With the national title already in his grasp, a confident Ashraf easily beat off all the opposition in Jinja by finishing ten minutes ahead of Sunday's runner-up Fatzinda Singh.

Rookie Sandhu Singh snatched the third podium position after finishing 12 minutes off the pace in a rally highlighted by dazzling speed due to the smooth roads.

Jinja's Mansoor Sanya came fourth with just a minute behind Sandhu in one of the day’s stiffest battles. The female crew of Laila Mayanja and Noela Blick consoled itself with a top ten finish.

Mayanja navigated by Blick in a Jomayi Property Consultants sponsored Mitsubishi Evo 4 suffered multiple mechanical problems enroute but still braved on. Bobby Robertson, who led at the super special stage, was sidelined by a broken shock absorber in the third section.

“We had a puncture and then the shock absorber also broke yet we were far away from the flying finish. There was no way we were going to survive because we even had another section to do before going back to the service pack so we had to drop out,” Robertson’s navigator Justin Muwema said.

The rally organised by Jinja Motor Club was the last event on the 2008 National Rally Championship calendar.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});