Jamie Whyte for Zambia

The Zambia International Rally, which is the third round of the 2012 FIA African Rally Championship series, will be staged in and around Lusaka from this Fri­day to Sunday.

And according to the official entry list of the 2012 Zambia International Rally, which was released in Lusaka yesterday, only 13 cars have been entered for this event in which Whyte’s Subaru Impreza is the only car from Zimbabwe.
Whyte, who won the African rally championship twice in succession in 2009 and 2010, confirmed yesterday that he has entered for this year’s Zam­bia International Rally and will be having fellow Zimbabwean Gareth Dawe as his navigator.

He (Whyte) and his crew are expected to leave Harare for Lusaka tomorrow.
Although the final entry list for this weekend’s Zambia International Rally has Whyte as the only Zimbabwean entry, his fellow countryman Richard “Mahobho” Robinson is reported to have also entered to race in this event.
And this will see the two veteran Zimbabwean motor rally competitors joining a host of top Zambian drivers, who will be led by the talented Mohammed Essa, in this tough three-day race.

A number of other top African motor rally drivers will also be in action in Zambia this weekend and they include Rwanda’s Giancarlo Davite and Jas Mangat of Uganda.

Davite and Mangat were last month in Zimbabwe where they both com­peted in the opening round of the 2012 FIA ARC series — the Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally.

Of the two drivers, Davite managed to last the distance in the Zimbabwe Challenge Rally, finishing fourth behind Jess Watson, Craig Green (both from Zimbabwe) and Zambia’s Essa.
Mangat retired when his car did not start in the morning of Day 2 and this was frustrating traced to a small fuse link that had blown.
After competing in the Zimbabwe Challenge Rally, Davite and Essa headed out to South Africa to compete in the second round of the 2012 ARC series – the Sasol Rally – which was held from April 19 to 21 in Nelspruit.

All the top Zimbabwean drivers “boycotted” the Sasol Rally, leaving Davite and Essa to battle it out with the cream of South African motor rally drivers at this event.
The Sasol Rally, which ran in con­junction with the second round of the South African championship, was won by Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton of South Africa from Jan Habig and Robert Paisley with Jon Williams and Cobus Vrey third over­all.

The leading visiting crew of Essa of Zambia and Greg Stead of Zimbabwe (Subaru Impreza WRX) finished fourth ahead of fellow visitors Davite and Sylvia Vindevogel, also in a Sub­aru Impreza.
Essa was 13th overall in the SA championship event, one place ahead of Davite.
And this saw Essa taking over the leadership in the 2012 ARC series Dri­vers’ Standings with 27 points after the opening two rounds of action.

The young Zambian driver will now be looking at extending his lead in the championship race by winning on his home turf when he competes in this weekend’s Zambia International Rally.
Last year’s Zambia International Rally was won by Zimbabwe’s Conrad Rautenbach on his way to winning the African championship.

About 50 percent of the stages have been retained from last year’s rally that was won by Rautenbach.
The rally’s title sponsor is Puma Energy Zambia (formerly BP Zam­bia).
The rally will be flagged off on Fri­day afternoon at the rally headquar­ters at Hotel InterContinental in Lusaka.
There will be a 1.54km Super Spe­cial stage which will be run twice on Friday at the Lusaka Motor Club in the Showgrounds.

After that, there will be 10 more stages on Saturday in Chisamba, north of Lusaka, and six other stages on Sun­day in Silverest, east of Lusaka near the Kenneth Kaunda International Air­port (formerly Lusaka International Airport).
The rally’s total distance is 590km (253km competitive and 337km liai­son).

Recce for foreign crews is tomorrow and Thursday.
Zambian crews, with the exception of Muna Singh’s son Jassy Singh and Essa, had their recce on Saturday and on Sunday.
Puma Energy Zambia International Rally official Entry List (in alphabeti­cal order)
1 Ashish Patel (Zambia) Subaru Impreza GC6
2 Azim Ticklay (Zambia) Toyota Landcruiser
3 Dani Beaini (Zambia) Toyota Landcruiser
4 Giancarlo Davite (Rwanda) Sub­aru Impreza WRX
5 Imran Ticklay (Zambia) Subaru Impreza WRX
6 Jamie Whyte (Zimbabwe) Subaru Impreza WXR
7 Jas Mangat (Uganda) Subaru Impreza WRX
8 Jassy Singh (Zambia) Subaru Impreza WRX
9 Massimo Sellicato (Zambia) Toy­ota Landcruiser
10 Mohammed Essa (Zambia) Sub­aru Impreza WRX
11 Muna Singh jr. (Zambia) VW Golf 3
12 Paul Monge (Zambia) Subaru Impreza WRX
13 Salim Mohammed (Zambia) Subaru Impreza WRX.