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This year’s Puma Energy Zambia International Rally has attracted a fairly good field of 16 vehicles and among them will be a Subaru Impreza N10 from Zimbabwe that will be driven by the country’s veteran motor rallying driver Whyte who will have his fellow countryman Archenoul as his navigator.
In fact, Whyte (53) and Archenoul (56) are combining forces for the first time since they won back-to-back African motor rally titles in 2009 and 2010, and with a combined age of 109 years, the two Zimbabweans will be the oldest competitors at this year’s Puma Energy Zambia International Rally where they will be joined by the Rwandese pair of Giancarlo Davite and his female co-driver Sylvia Vindevogel who are the second foreign team that has entered for this tough motor racing event. Also competing in the Puma Energy Zambia International Rally will be Uganda’s top motor rallying driver Jas Mangat who will be having his fellow Ugandan Gihan de Silva as his co-driver.
However, Whyte and Archenoul are not the only Zimbabweans who will be involved in this year’s Puma Energy Zambia International Rally as they will be joined there by last year’s Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally champion Jess Watson and Greg Stead.
According to Temba Mazvimbakupa of the Zimbabwe Motorsport Federation, Watson left Harare for Lusaka yesterday after he was invited to join Davite’s technical crew for this weekend’s event in Zambia.
In fact, Davite spent the last couple of days here in Harare, making his final preparations for the Puma Energy Zambia International Rally at Donnybrook Raceway and he decided to rope in seasoned Zimbabwean motor racing driver Watson into his technical team.
While Davite will be getting some useful tips from Watson on how to conquer the 16-vehicle field in this weekend’s event in Lusaka, another Zimbabwean, Stead, will also be giving a helping hand to ace Zambian motor rallying driver Mohammed Essa during the same race.
Stead will once again be Essa’s co-driver in Zambia this weekend after the pair’s unfruitful campaign in their last outing this year in Nelspruit, South Africa, where they went out of the race on Day One of the Sasol Rally after their car caught fire.
The Sasol Rally, which was held on April 19 and 20 in Nelspruit, was the second round of this year’s FIA African Rally Championship series and Essa and his Zimbabwean navigator Stead went out of the rally on the first day after their car caught fire due to some fuel leak 7km into the first stage.
This left Essa and Stead, who are the ARC defending champions, without a single point in this year’s series after they failed to be part of the first round action in March’s Rally Bandama in Ivory Coast due to some logistical problems. And after experiencing two “false starts” in the opening two rounds of the 2013 ARC series, Essa and Stead will be out to redeem themselves when they compete in the third leg of this tough continental event – the Puma Energy Zambia International Rally — in Lusaka this weekend. Essa is among a strong team of 13 Zambian drivers who will be vying for the first podium place in this tough three-day event but they are all likely to have their work cut out by the two-time African motor rally champion Whyte of Zimbabwe who will be behind the wheel of his favourite Subaru Impreza N10.
Whyte and his navigator Archenoul left for Zambia yesterday morning accompanied by members of their technical crew — Lewis Bindu, Peter Whyte and Nicholas Maringahosi.
They are the only Zimbabwean team that will be competing in this weekend’s Puma Energy Zambia International Rally where they will once again be gunning for one of the top three podium places after they finished third in the same event last year.
In fact, in last year’s event, Whyte had fellow Zimbabwean Gareth Dawe as his navigator but he will be re-uniting with his tried and trusted lieutenant Archenoul in this year’s race.
The Zimbabwean team are having all their expenses paid for by the organisers of the Puma Energy Zambia International Rally during their stay in Lusaka. Whyte will also receive a US$500 appearance fee at this event.
The Puma Energy Zambia International Rally is the third round of the 2013 FIA ARC series and it will have its ceremonial start or ramp start on Friday afternoon at Lusaka InterContinental Hotel (which is also the rally headquarters) heading out to Lusaka Motor Club in the Lusaka Show
Grounds for a 1.54km Super Special Stage (each car will have two runs, slow cars starting first) then overnight halt back at InterContinental.
Saturday and Sunday stages will all be run on Graham Ray Farm in Chisamba on the outskirts of Lusaka. There will be 10 stages on Saturday (in sets of two stages then service) and six stages on Sunday (in sets of three stages then service). It is the same venue of last year’s Puma Energy Zambia International Rally but with different stages. Last year’s Puma Energy Zambia International Rally, which was won by Essa, had 15 entries. Fourteen started and seven, including Zimbabwe’s Whyte, finished while the other seven did not.
Puma Energy Zambia International Rally 2013 Entries
1. Mohammed Essa (Zambia)/Greg Stead (Zimbabwe) – Subaru N2010 R4
2. Giancarlo Davite (Rwanda)/Sylvia Vindevogel (Burundi) – Mitsubishi Evo X
3. Jassy Singh (Zambia)/Dave Sihoka (Zambia) – Subaru N10
4. Jas Mangat (Uganda)/Gihan de Silva (Uganda) – Subaru N12
5. Jamie Whyte (Zimbabwe)/Phil Archenoul (Zimbabwe) – Subaru N10
6. Paul Monge (Zambia)/Ray Thornicroft (Zambia) – Subaru N12B
7. Ashish Patel (Zambia)/Ajit Naik (Zambia) – Subaru GC8
8. Dani Beaini (Zambia)/Adrian Sutherland (Zambia) – Subaru N12
9. Farook Ticklay (Zambia)/Jasmeen Singh (Zambia) – Subaru N10
10. Ken Mukosa (Zambia)/Nash Chisenga (Zambia) – Subaru N8
11. Azim Ticklay (Zambia)/Osward Chibebe (Zambia) – Toyota Land Cruiser
12. Noel Masadza (Zambia)/Colin Gander (Zambia) – Mitsubishi Evo 5
13. Muna Singh Jnr (Zambia)/Balveen Singh (Zambia) – VW Golf 2
14. Walter Wasamunu (Zambia)/Dwayne Adolph (Zambia) – Subaru GC8
15. Yazdaan Ticklay (Zambia)/Afzal Essa (Zambia) – Subaru GC8
16. Toofail Dalal (Zambia)/Mali Chulu (Zambia) – Subaru GC8
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