Entertaining Rally driver Duncan Mubiru popularly known among fans as Kikankane emerged as the 2020 National Rally Championship season opener over the weekend in Mbarara that saw only 10 finishes of the 27 crews that participated.
The victory together with his co-driver Musa Nsubuga in the Mitsubishi Evo X came as the first in two years since his last win of an NRC event back in 2017 during the Kabale rally.
Kikankane put out a good performance during day one where he secured the third podium finish, entering into the final day with an advantage.
In a Volkswagen Proto, Rajiv Ruparelia and Enock Olinga were the fastest drivers on day one, winning two of the three stages, Ponsiano Lwakataka second, Ronald Sebuguzi fourth and Omar Mayanja fifth but unfortunately all these except Mayanja dropped out in the penultimate stages of day 2 to hand Duncan the win.
According to him, his target is to finish every rally this season and the winnings will be coming as a bonus.
“My target this season is to finish every rally. Our target was to finish but we got lucky and finished with a victory. It will be the same in all other events we go for a finish,” Duncan Mubiru said.
Fred Busulwa, navigated by Joseph Bongole, registered his career-best finish with a second position with 10 minutes late. 2017 Mbarara Rally winner Omar Mayanja and Hussein Mukuye sealed the podium in third position before Ashraf Ahmed settling for fourth position overall and Jackson Sserwanga completing the top five positions that also assured him victory in the Two-Wheel Drive category.
Ibrahim Lubega settled for sixth overall as well as second in the 2WD class and In the Clubman Rally Championship (CRC), Mustafa Mukasa claimed victory followed by Peter Assimwe.
The second round of NRC is scheduled for March 6-8 in Jinja.