‘i am ready’- Lumala shows he is in form for Pearl rally

Aug 12, 2002

MOSES Lumala set his eyes firmly on his first ARC title by winning the dfcu Bank rally yesterday.

By Douglas Mazune MOSES Lumala set his eyes firmly on his first ARC title by winning the dfcu Bank rally yesterday.The former national champion set the stage for what could be an exciting TOTAL Pearl of Africa rally race at the end of the month. The Caltex rally team driver also opened up the National Rally Championship (NRC) race.“The Pearl rally will be a two way battle. I will not only look at Charlie (Lubega) for the national championship but at all the contenders because I want to win that rally as well,” Lumala said. “I am determined to break the Pearl rally jinx. I pray I don’t get serious mechanical problems.”The Caltex Rally Team leader drove his Toyota Celica ST 185 to victory to come to within 53 points of NRC leader Lubega.With just two events left on the calendar the 2002 championship is most likely to be decided on the last day of the season.Lumala clocked one hour 49.25 minutes, a massive 11 minutes quicker than his team-mate Giovanni’ Italiano’ Storchi (Lancia Intergrale) in the dfcu rally where Lubega lost over 20 minutes when he suffered three punctures on the second section of day.Lubega, who was leading by three seconds slipped to fourth but won the rest of the sections to surge into third position, seven minutes behind Storchi. Lubega clocked 9.36 minutes to break the stage record for the 24-km Namaliri-Nakifuma section. Charles Muhangi, Lumala and Chipper Adams held the record at 9.47 minutes. Newcomer Godfrey Nkoyoyo in a Toyota Levin came fourth. Four out of nine cars finished. Prize-giving for the Uganda Motor Club organised event will be held today at 8.00pm at Joker’s Sports Bar.Dfcu finishers.Moses Lumala 1:49.25Giovanni Storchi 2:00.53Charlie Lubega 2:07.01Godfrey Nkoyoyo 2:58.24Leading NRC standings:Charlie Lubega 392Moses Lumala 339Charles Muhangi 243.

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