BY THE ARUSHA NEWS REPORTER
Arusha rally driver Gurpal Sandhu finished fourth in the National Rally Championship (NRC) round held in Morogoro, last weekend, saying centre differential problems in the closing stages cost his crew a chance of a higher finish.
Sandhu said they enjoyed the competition despite the mechanical setback and praised the organisers for delivering a well-organised rally.
“It was a great rally and we could have done better had it not been for the mechanical problems we faced in the last stages,” he told The Arusha News.
The centre differential, commonly called the centre diff, is a component in a four-wheel-drive system that distributes power between the front and rear wheels while allowing them to rotate at different speeds when needed, particularly during turns. A fault can affect how effectively the car delivers power to the wheels, compromising traction and handling.
Manveer Birdi of Dar es Salaam won the NRC round, with Ahmed Huwel of Iringa finishing second and Morogoro-based Kithin Marey taking third ahead of Sandhu. Birdi, driving a Skoda Fabia Evo alongside navigator Zubayr Piredina, recorded a time of two hours, three minutes and 11.5 seconds.
The Serengeti Rally of Tanzania also hosted the final round of the African Rally Championship (ARC), which ran alongside the national competition.
Kenya’s Karan Patel and navigator Tauseef Khan won the ARC event in two hours, two minutes and 37.8 seconds. Birdi finished second, 33.7 seconds behind, while Uganda’s Yasin Nasser completed the podium.
Patel ended the season with his third African championship title, adding to his successes in 2022 and 2023. The rally concluded on October 4 in Morogoro.
