Rwanda Mountain Gorilla rally

Past winners

2000  Charles  Muhangi  (Subaru Impreza)

2001  Schalk   Burger    (Subaru Impreza)
 
2002  Johnny  Gemmel   (Subaru Impreza)
 
2003  Fernando  Rueda  (Mitsubishi Lan.Evo6)
 
2004  Rudy  Cantanhede (Mitsubishi Lan.Evo3)
 
2005  Riyaz  Kurji           (Subaru Impreza)

2006  Riyaz  Kurji           (Subaru Impreza)

2007  Conrad  Rautenbach (Subaru Impreza)

Local rally ace, Rudy Cantanhede has his eyes set on winning the 7th edition of the Rwanda Mountain Gorilla rally scheduled for May 30-June 1 in Kigali.

The reigning local champion returned to Kigali from Burundi to preparation for this year’s event, which gets underway today at La Palisse hotel, Nyandungu.

"I have taken long without winning the Mt. Gorilla rally but I want to change that trend by winning this year’s title.

"I will try my best though it’s a tough rally which has this tendency of exposing drivers to all sorts of challenges,” Rudy acknowledged.

The Belgian-born rally ace, who will be driving his yellow Subaru Impreza, noted that he wants to use the remaining two days to test his machine on the rally routes.

Cantanhede leads this year’s drivers’ points standing after winning the opening two races and he’s looks favorite to successfully defend his crown.

But he will certainly face still competition for this weekend’s Mt. Gorilla Rally from the some of the foreigner drivers (five) who have already confirmed their participation.

They include; Belgian pair of Marc Verdin and Baugnee, Uganda’s Jas Mangat, Burundi’s Valéry Bukera and Alain Dethise.

Mangat and Cantanhede are ranked 4th and 10th with eight points and two points respectively on the Africa Rally Championship points.

The pair last met in the Tanzania’s first leg of the African rally championship when the Rwandan flag bearer finished seventh while his Ugandan rival finished second.

Some of the top contenders, Muna Singh (Zambia), Hideaki Miyoshi (Japan) among others will not participate in this year’s edition after the rally was scrapped off the ARC calendar due to lack of sponsorship.

Cantanhede finished second behind Zimbabwe’s Rautenbach in the 2007 Rwanda Mountain Gorilla rally edition. The number of Rwandan drivers expected to take part in the rally stands at 14 but the local automobile club will only release their names tomorrow.

According to the organizers, this year’s event will cost an estimated Frw12 millions.

Rwanda Gorilla Rally points will only count for the national rally championship drivers only. The 192km event will be bank rolled by SN Brussels, East African Cargo, Sonafi, Hotel La Palisse Nyandugu, Rwanda Motors, Akagera Motors and Sonatube.

Ends