Overland crew set sights on ARC after Mkwawa Rally conquest

MOROGORO: CO-MANNED by Marey Kithir and Awadh Bafadhil, Overland Rally team now focuses on the fourth and final round of this year’s African Rally Championship (ARC) to be staged in Morogoro early next month.

Overland Rally team’s driver, Kithir announced his next move after finishing third overall  behind two former champions; Ahmed Huwel and Manvir Birdi.

“We have to prove my doubters wrong  after our stellar performance in the Mkwawa Leaf Rally. We have to prove it next month when Morogoro hosts the Tanzanian round of African Rally Championship where will race against Africa’s top drivers,” explained Kithir.

Finishing third overall position, Kithir who clocked 1 hour, 20 minutes and 37 seconds, hailed his experienced navigator, Awadh Bafadhil for his brilliant performance.

“ I strictly followed his instructions in every section and his perfection in route notes spoke volumes,” he noted.

He went on to say that motorsports in Morogoro didn’t believes their eyes when he finished third beating well established names like former NRC champion, Tufail Amin, Gurpal Sandhu and Harinder Deere when 04 minutes and 28 seconds, the third best time  during the Super Special Stage.

He proved his doubters wrong when he held on to claim a similar position at the end of the event.

Out of the twelve cars that attended the flag off, only eight managed to finish the two-day rally whose most stages were held at TFS Mkundi Forest in Morogoro.

Though the event remained a fierce chase for the diadem between the defending champion, Ahmed Huwel and his top challenger, Manvir Birdi, youthful Kithir most of the time breathed fire too close behind the two.

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Besides the good guidelines from his navigator,  Kithir has expressed deep thanks to his sponsor Edha Awadh of Overland Transporters.

“Without him I wouldn’t be anywhere today. I thank him and I promise I won’t let him down,” he remarked.