Karan Patel lives up to expectations at Pearl of Africa Rally in Uganda
Reading Time: 2min | Sun. 10.05.26. | 10:56
Victory leaves the Kenyan rally star top of the ARC log after two events as he looks to reclaim the title he lost to Uganda's Yasin Nasser last season
Karan Patel stormed to a third straight Pearl of Africa Uganda Rally victory on Saturday, 9 May, becoming only the second driver in history to claim three back-to-back wins at the iconic event after countryman Manvir Baryan.
Patel had his campaign effectively sewn up when longtime leader Samman Vohra blew a pro shaft towards the end of SS10.
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Patel, with Tauseef Khan on the notes, won in Jinja in 2024 and in Mbarara in 2025 and 2026 to equal Baryan’s run of 2017, 2018 and 2019.
The result came after a late twist on SS10 Kaguta 3, where longtime leader Vohra stopped with mechanical gremlins and lost over 10 minutes.
The Africa Rally Championship (ARC) Junior Champion Vohra had dominated the weekend, beating Patel by 1:58.3 in SS1 and 2:31.1 in SS2, and led by 5:49 minutes after Friday’s Leg 1.
However, he was left to rue what turned out to be a second heartbreak in Uganda despite setting the pace: "We were going really well, I think, by the time we had a mechanical failure, we had a lead of 8 minutes and 2 seconds and 2 kilometres to the end of SS10, and the prop shaft just blew. Freak failure, we had to stop and then drove the car on the front wheel drive . It's rallying; an 8 minute lead reduced to nothing."
Patel’s own rally nearly unraveled on Friday when power steering issues dropped his time, but savoured some stage wins on Saturday to stay in touch. When Vohra hit trouble in SS10 , Patel assumed the lead and held it to the finish.
For Vohra, it is another cruel chapter in Uganda. He retired here last year and has yet to conquer the Ugandan terrain despite setting the pace across the last two editions.
Vohra nevertheless bounced back to claim maximum bonus points on on the Shell V Power Stage where he beat Patel to second.
The former ARC champion, Patel, now clings to the top of the ARC log after a weekend of survival.
Meanwhile, reigning ARC champion and home driver Yasin Nasser finished third overall followed by Aakif Virani and Jasmeet Chana
Chana was all smiles.on his Uganda debut :
“The essence this weekend was to drive with our head, not to take too many risks. We would be better off but had power steering issues on Friday,” he offered.
Charlie Lubega of Uganda has won this event three times though not consecutively.