Perfect start for Costa

Provisional results 1. James Whyte (Subaru N10) 03:06:252. Emma Katto (Subaru N14) 03:07:003. Olivier Costa (Subaru N10) 03:16:144. Lola Verlaque (VW 2000s) 03:18:405. Randeep Birdi (Mitsubishi) 03:20:48 2009 ARC Standings Whyte (ZW) 10 ptsKatto (UG) 8Costa (RWA) 6 AFTER recording his first ever podium finish on the African Rally Championship charts, Rwanda’s Olivier Costa will now head to Kenya for the KCB Safari rally (April 3-5) beaming with plenty of confidence.Costa, who was one of the unknowns at the just ended Kobil rally of Tanzania which also doubles as the opening round of the 2009 ARC set the event alight after beating more prominent drivers like Lola Verlaque and Randeep Birdi.Navigated by Jean Ruhashyankiko in a Subaru N11, Costa who started in 18th spot made his intentions clear after finishing 5th on day one.Driving on the slippery roads of Dar es Salaam, the Rwandan driver kept his cool to finish with an impressive time of 3 hours, 16 minutes and 14 seconds.Last year’s ARC runner-up Jamie Whyte from Zimbabwe beat Uganda’s Emma Katto by 35 seconds to win his first ARC race this year. The Zimbabwean rally ace miraculously drove two sections on the final day with a blown engine.South Africa’s Verlaque and Tanzania’s Randeep Birdi also finished inside the top five after clocking 3:18:40 and 3:20:48 respectively.Meanwhile, Rwanda’s national champion Davite Giancarlo and two-time ARC champion Muna Singh of Zambia were some of the major casualties of the event despite their excellent starts.Singh, a strong contender for this year’s ARC title crushed out on day one while Davite also dented his hopes after damaging his Subaru suspension on the second competitive section of the final day.Whyte now leads the ARC charts with 10 points while Katto and Costa follow closely in second and third spots with eight and six points respectively. Ends

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Perfect start for Costa