Fort Portal: Ronald Sebuguzi/Leon Senyange continued where they left it on Saturday to win the UMC Fort Portal Challenge rally over the weekend.
It took the crew a total of 1:43:47 hours to overcome their 4 year jinx of the Fort portal challenge rally. An excited Sebuguzi could not hide his delight. “Make way for the champion, make way for VIVO Energy” he said as he took his car for the prize giving ceremony.
With a winners smile, Leon Senyange said he had to consult his ancestors before sitting in the navigator’s seat.
“I asked them to bless us, yesterday I said we would finish this one, but to come out as the winners was more than what we hoped for
“It was the fight with VIVO Energy teammate Omar Mayanja that made this a very exciting win,” he said.
Sebuguzi had to overcome a stiff onslaught from Omar Mayanja /Hussein Mukuye in an EVO X nicknamed “the MUD VIPER” who had dominated the pace from the very first stage.
By the time he rolled in the last stage, he was leading Sebuguzi by close to 40 seconds.
“I had taken that very corner in 4th gear very smoothly in the first loop, this time I thought I would play safe and take it in 3rd gear but instead this added more force that caused us to clip a bank and roll,” said a rather disappointed Omar.
In the 2WD category, Edwin Kalule/Micheal Kizito emerged winners beating 2nd placed Charles Sansa by over 18 minutes after top contender’s Timothy Gawaya and Musa Mulimila failed to complete the test.
Up in flames
Meanwhile, every competitor’s nightmare came to pass for the crew of Yusuf “Dusty” Bukenya /Frank Serugo when their EVO IX caught fire and burnt to ashes.
The crew escaped but was treated for minor injuries.
“We sensed the fire peeping from the back on a stretch of about 400 meters at top speed and as we tried to stop we hit a jump that flipped us onto the bank and that flamed the fire,” said Frank Serugo.
“By the time we took the jump, our focus was on the fire,” he added as he explained circumstance that led to the fire.
Earlier control Marshals had to quickly put out a flame on Adam Rauf front tyres when the car arrived at the FF with both front tyre disks red hot and flaming. Of the 34 starters, only 17 managed to complete the race.
