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Team Shell duo and former National rally champions Ronald Ssebuguzi and Arthur Blick Jr have expressed readiness to win the 2022 Shell V-Power Pearl of Africa Uganda Rally that starts off this weekend in areas of Mukono and Lugazi.
The Pearl of Africa is returning after two years due to the Covid pandemic that struck the whole globe. Kenyan Manvir Singh Baryan won the 2019 edition and went on to win the African title
The race scrutineering was done on Thursday in Namave and afterwards the two drivers sponsored by Shell, Blick and Ssebuguzi rallied out fans to come and see them win the championship. This is was during their joint press briefing at Shell Petro Station, Lugogo.
“The last series which was in 2019, we managed to get a third overall finish and this time round, I with rallying with my son Arthur Alisteir Blick, the young navigator at the Pearl” Said Blick Jr. before adding.
“Alister is doing really well and this is going to be a third event for him so we are targeting a podium finish this time round”
Blick Jr and his son Alestair have done three events together which were the Kabalega, Mbarara and Kaliro Rallies.
Blick Jr, driving a Mitsubishi Evo X Finished third overall in 2019 behind Yasin Nasser and Manvir.
Ssebuguzi also noted his preparedness ahead the prestigious championship
“Am very prepared for this year’s event since it has been almost two years since Uganda last hosted such a prestigious African event” Ssebuguzi said before adding;
” We are super excited with the coming of foreign drivers. I think in the last several years, this series has hosted the biggest number of foreign competitors. This shows us that sport is going and it also helps us the local drivers gauge ourselves against Big guns on the continent, so we are prepared for that to see where we stand”
The 23rd Shell V-Power Pearl of Africa Uganda Rally is the third round of the Africa Rally Championship (ARC) and has attracted to foreign drivers around the continent that includes Giancarlo Davite, Karan Patel and Leroy Gomes.
Gomes tops the leaderboard with 54 points while second-placed Patel has 30 points.
The rally will cover a total distance of 513kms of which 212 kms is competitive with nine Competitive Sections (CS) over two days while 197 kilometres as the liaison distance.
