Thread: Rally of Tanzania - ARC Round 1

Whyte wins Kobil Rally of Tanzania

Reigning FIA African Rally Champions Jamie Whyte and Phil Archenoul got their championship defence off to the perfect start with victory on the opening round of the 2010 Championship, the Kobil Rally of Tanzania.

Whyte and Archenoul, both from Zimbabwe, experienced a misfire for the whole of Saturday morning but once this was diagnosed and resolved the pair were immediately the class of the field, ending the opening day 24 seconds ahead of the current Rwandan Rally Champion Giancarlo Davite. This lead was then extended further on Sunday with the 2009 Champions returning to Mlimani City victorious for the second year in a row.

Jamie Whyte: this is the perfect way to start our title defence. We had a misfire for the whole of Saturday morning which cost us a lot of time so we had to push quite hard in the afternoon but the car was brilliant and we look forward to carrying on our strong run in Kenya.

This years Kobil Rally of Tanzania saw a heavy rate of attrition with only four cars reaching the finish of the 670 kilometre long rally, all of them manufactured by Subaru! Whilst a number of the crews suffered from mechanical gremlins Burundi based Valery Bukera and Nital Khetia suffered a massive crash in their Subaru Impreza, but are both reported to be ok. Zambia hopeful Mohammed Essa, a finalist in the 2009 African Pirelli Star Drive, was also an early retirement with a broken engine on his Subaru.

This was the first ARC rally run to the new regulations allowing 33mm restrictors. Whilst a number of competitors reported a marked increase in performance there were also issues with a number of engine failures attributed to incorrect engine mapping ahead of the rally.

The next round of the African Rally Championship is the KCB Safari Rally. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, this is also the second round of the Kenyan National Championship and as such attracts a very strong entry. The rally runs from 2-4 April 2010.

Final results
1. James Whyte/Philip Archenoul (Zimbabwe) 2:01:30
2. Giancarlo Davite/Sylvia Vindevogel (Rwanda) 2:01:57
3. Fitidis Christakis/Dekelver Guy (Belgium/Rwanda) 2:07:57
For more on the championship please visit www.africanrallychampionship.com