NEW national rally champion Davite Giancarlo is at pains to claim a maiden Irushanwa-Des 1000 Collines rally diadem in a bid to finish the championship on a high.

Giancarlo, who claimed his maiden national championship title last month after winning Rallye de l’Est is teaming up with Sylvia Vindevogel in a Subaru Impreza at the three-day event which gets underway this afternoon with a super stage rally sprint at Gikondo’s Industrial area.

And even as the battle for supremacy threatens to go down to the wire following the return of two-time national champion Rudy Cantanhede and Uganda’s Jas Mangat, Giancarlo refuses to be rattled.

"I am going for an outright win because I want to finish the championship on a high. I have not won this race before so it will be good to do so,” Giancarlo, who has been a regular championship contender since 2001 said.

Much as the title is out of the question, Irushanwa with a coefficient of four is a significant outing in terms of Championship points so a big fight for second place is still high in the flames for Tony Saegerman, Olivier Costa, Elefter Mitraros, Claude Kwizera and Johnny Murengezi.

Saegerman is second on the championship with 175points, Costa has 165points, Mitraros 153 and Kwizera has 120 points while Murengezi has 117 points.

Kenyans are not racing after withdrawing at the last minute.
Carl Thundo, Azhar Anwar and Alfir Khan had all expressed interest.

In the team competition, the drivers have been drawn into seven teams; team Quickauto, team Fina bank, team Kobil, team Burn, Team Milles Collines, Team BK Visa and Team BK BW.

On top of counting in the general classification, today’s rally sprint will also determine who gets to be flagged off first tomorrow.

Irushanwa is the seventh and final round on this year’s national championship.

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