Drivers chase Tanga Rally gong

Dar es Salaam. The fourth leg of the Automobile Association of Tanzania (AAT) National Rally Championship (NRC) takes place in Tanga today with 19 drivers set to battle it out for supremacy.

This is a record number of drivers to have competed at the NRC race organised by Tanga Motor Club.

The host club has four drivers with the rest of the entries coming from other clubs across the country.

Yusuf Zavery and Awadh Juma are among the drivers representing Tanga Motorsport Club.

While Kilimanjaro Motor Sports Club has no entry, Arusha has fielded two drivers in former national champion Gurpal Sandhu and Jamil Shabhai. The rest of the entries are from Dar es Salaam with Randeep Birdi and Dharam Pandya leading the pack.

Zachariah Rally Team’s driving duo of Naheem and Nadir Daud who also featured in Bagamoyo are among entrants from Dar es Salaam joining the fray.

Wonder boy Sameer Nahdi ‘Shanto’ who is the most experienced of all drivers featuring in the rally today with the exception of Larry Horn, is racing in Tanga to redeem his otherwise lost glory.

Shanto, who has been out of action for a long time, is a member of the famous Stado Team who will now miss Ahmed Huwel, one of their brilliant drivers with a national championship title to his name.

Surprise package in today’s event is none other than Larry Horn who drives Porsche.

The 300-kilometre day-long rally flags off at the Mpinga suburb this morning and is expected to finish at the same place later in the evening.

Of the pack in Tanga today, only Birdi has posted an outright victory in the ongoing season when he dominated proceedings in the third leg staged in Bagamoyo in May.

However, Shanto who trailed Birdi and edged Pandya in Bagamoyo, is one of the drivers to watch. He has the ability to upset the order.

Rallying enthusiasts will, however, not see action from Arusha daredevil and NRC leader Gerald Miller and Dar es Salaam’s Jamil Khan.

Most of the drivers with the exception of Horn and several individuals are using Mitsubishi or Subaru brand of rallying cars.

Mitsubishi has been a dominant brand in winning domestic rally events this season as Miller and Birdi have been superbly behind the wheels.

The two brands are obliviously in tussle for motorsport supremacy as the season reaches its half-way mark at the end of today’s event.

Though pacemaker Miller is rest assured of his lead in terms of collected points, still Birdi and Pandya have wide open opportunities to cut down his margin ahead of next month’s Africa Rally Championship (ARC) to be staged in Dar es Salaam.

The points collected NRC rounds determine the overall winner of the crown at the end of the season.