After a few weeks of a break in the FIA African Rally Championship rally action, this year’s third annual event the Mountain Gorilla Rally is set to take place from July 4-6 in Bugesera District.
On a rally as demanding as the Mountain Gorilla, drama is all grantanteed when the 25 crews from Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi will battle it out for point and top positions on the unkind roads in Rwanda.
That means Kenyan crew of Karen Patel, the Pearl of African Rally winner of last year’s event in Rwanda will headline the entry, having won the second edition of the FIA annual event, the Pearl of African Rally in Mbarara, Uganda a few days ago.
Navigated by Tauseef Khan in a Škoda Fabia R5, Karan, who is going for his third straight continental title, savored his first win of the 2025 ARC season in the Western district of Uganda. Karan had kissed the season-opening WRC Safari goodbye in Naivasha, much to his chagrin.
Uganda champion Yasin Nasser and his compatriot Ali Katumba settled for second position behind the wheel of a Ford Fiesta Rally2.
After two ARC rounds, Yasin Nasser are leading the table with 63 points, followed by Nikhil Sachania with 50 points, Carl Tundo has 50, Jeremiah Wahome has 42 points, Samman Vohra is followed with 36 points. Patel has 35 points in sixth place.
After racing in Rwanda, the drivers will also have to compete in Burundi on August, 15-17 before competing in the final and last race in September 19-21 in Tanzania.
The first edition of the Pearl of Africa Rally was held in 1997 as an African Rally Championship candidate event. This followed the successful organization of Burundi’s Great Lakes Rally in Uganda in 1996.
The Great Lakes Rally was moved to Uganda due to political instability in Burundi. Inspired by the success of the Great Lakes Rally, Uganda decided to apply for its own African Rally Championship event in 1997.
