Motorsport: NEMO wins on return to action

Final classification

1.Y.Nasser/Katumba 1:35:21

2.H.Deere/Piredina 1:43:16

3.S.Nahdi/Maisam 1:43:20

4.M.Birdi/Ravi 1:45:39

5.V.Patel/Rumeet 1:55:27

TWO-TIME Ugandan National Rally Champion Yasin Nasser has won the Mkwawa Rally of Morogoro in Tanzanian, on his return from a six-month sabbatical.

Nasser, together with co-driver Ali Katumba, went on a sabbatical after their popular Rally2 car Ford Fiesta ‘NEMO’ rolled to scrap during the 2024 WRC Safari Rally of Kenya.

They returned in action this weekend with high spirits in their M-Sport newly rebuilt Fiesta R5, with Big Bug winning six of eight stages of the third Tanzanian National Championship round.

The moil-sponsored crew picked an early rally lead of one minute, 44 seconds from the day’s two stages ( Mosi1 and Kiagi1)on Saturday.

They built on the same lead to win four more stages on Sunday with best overall fastest time of one hour, 35 minutes 21 seconds, to sail through as winners for the two-day Rally run in the Forest areas of Morogoro.

Local favorite Ahmed Huwel, who had put up competition against Nasser, had his dreams shattered when his Ford Proto developed a Fuel pump problem.

This happened after completing the 13 km SS4(Kiagi2), but it could not leave the service park when it failed to start.

Another top driver, Gurpal Birdi, navigated by Dave Sihoka, had their Mitsubishi Evo X experience a Fuel Pump Relay issue and struggled to get it sorted in the stage, but were time-barred.

Surviving the gruesome Rally, Harider Deere, co-driven by Zubayr Piredina in Subaru N12, picked it up from where Huwel and Gurpal had left to push to a P2 finish, as Samir Nahdi driving with Maisam Fazal in a Ford Proto, formerly for Huwel managed a P3 after winning SS6 and SS8 to seal the podium slots.