Mangat to grace Toyota Zim Challenge

The Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally will, for the second year running, act as the opening round of the eight-legged 2012 FIA African Rally Championship series.
The ARC series attracts the cream of the continent’s motor rally drivers and veteran Ugandan driver Mangat, a regular campaigner in this event, will be coming down here to make his first appearance in the Totoya Zimbabwe Challenge Rally.
Mike Exton, a member of the organising committee of the Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally, confirmed yesterday that Mangat will be among a host of foreign drivers who are expected to grace this year’s event.
“Jas Mangat has sent in his entry form for this year’s Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally and is the fourth foreign driver to have officially done so at the moment,” Exton said.
Apart from Mangat, Exton said, Zambia’s Mohammed Essa and two South Africans have also confirmed their participation in this year’s event.
“Mohammed Essa has also entered this year’s event and rumour has it that he’s got an S2000 car, which is just like the one that (the reigning African champion) Conrad Rautenbach used during last year’s campaign, and he will be the man to watch this year.
“We’ve also received two entries from South Africa and one of them is from Robson Maganezi, a Zimbabwean who is based in that country.
“Rwanda’s Giancarlo Davite has also indicated that he will once again be coming down here to compete in the Zimbabwe Challenge Rally. In fact, he’s already sorting out his papers including those for his technical crew and I can safely say that he is in for this year’s race,” Exton said.
Davite was among four foreign drivers who took part in last year’s Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally and he came third behind Zimbabwe’s Conrad Rautenbach and Jamie Whyte.
The Rwandese was in a Subaru Impreza and had a female navigator, Sylvia Vindevogel, as his co-pilot.
Maganezi, on the other hand, last competed in the Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally in 2009 where he failed to last the distance due to some engine problems.
But the 34-year-old Bindura-born driver, who is based at Kempton Park just outside Johannesburg, South Africa, recently indicated that he was in the process of acquiring a Subaru Impreza which he would like to use in this year’s Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally.
Preparations for the staging of this year’s Toyota Challenge Rally are already underway and Exton said yesterday that they will be having a “demonstration event” at Donnybrook this Saturday.
Meanwhile, a new format has been introduced for the FIA ARC series.
Exton said there have been some regulation changes for the ARC series and the drivers and their navigators were no longer required to register to compete in this event.
“Drivers and co-drivers don’t have to register anymore to compete in this event and for one to score points in this competition, you have to compete in at least two rallies in each of the two regions that were created by the FIA.
“The first region is made up of countries in the southern half of Africa, that is Zimbabwe, South Africa, Zambia and Madagascar. The other region will be made up of four other countries in the East and Central African region — Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania.
“So, what one needs to do is to take part in a minimum of two rallies in each region in order to qualify for the ARC series’ scoring system,” Exton said.
2012 FIA African Rally Championship Calendar
March 16-18 — Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally
April 19-21 — Sasol Rally South Africa
May 11-13 — Zambia International Rally
June 8-10 — Safari Rally Kenya
July 13-15 — KCB Pearl of Africa Rally Uganda
August 24-26 — Kobil Rally of Tanzania
September 13-15 — KCB Rwanda Mountain Gorilla Rally
November 16-18 — Rally International Madagascar