Victorious Baryan extends lead at African Rally series

On form Manvir Baryan won the Tanzanian Rally on Sunday to register his second successive African Rally Championship victory this season.

The Kenyan Skoda Fabia driver, who earlier won the Uganda Rally, has now extended his lead in the overall standings of the ARC to 65 points with two rounds of the events remaining in Rwanda and Zambia respectively.

The reigning African champion, Jassi Chatthe, who started Day Two as a leader, collapsed in the opening stage of the day after his Mitsubishi Lancer stopped with a damaged front left after hitting a rock.

Day Two also proved disastrous for Zambia’s Muna Singh, whose Subaru Impreza stopped with engine failure.

That promoted Ahmed Howel to score the second overall place, thus becoming the top Tanzanian finisher at the wheels of the Ford Proto.

With 50 points to score from the remaining two rounds of the ARC, and with 19 points lead over the nearest rival, Baryan has to tread well in Kigali to try and win the African Title for the first time in his short rallying career.

With a late decision to tackle the remaining rounds of the ARC after winning the Uganda Rally, Baryan stands a good chance of doing well in Rwanda next month.

Leroy Gomes and his wife Urshilla Gomes of Zambia maintained their second place behind Brayan after finishing fourth overall in Dar es salaam in their Mitsubishi Lancer.

They are now 15 points behind the leader. The battle is now left to the two drivers with two events remaining.

The battle between Tanzania’s two top drivers ended up with Gerard Miller out-placing Dharam Pandya by finishing in the third place with Pandya in the fifth place.

The penultimate round of the series will take place in Kigali on August 8 to 10.