Sports / Motor Racing |
Japanese duo win Dar es Salaam Motor Rally(Xinhua)Updated: 2007-02-13 09:51 Overnight leaders Hideaki Miyoshi and Hakaru Ichino from Japan kept their gap more than safe to take on Sunday the Rally of Tanzania, with a total time of three hours three minutes seven seconds.
The Japanese duo on Sunday proved that they were not just fluke drivers in the 20-car pack as they clocked the fastest time for a second consecutive day over the 316-kilometer competitive sections.
Driver Miyoshi said that his team had prepared for the African rallies because they planned to compete not only in Tanzania, but also in Kenya and Mozambique as well.
Muna Singa, several-time African champion from Zambia, improved his overnight fifth position by clocking Sunday's second fastest time to finish runner-up.
Co-piloted by Nick Patel, the Zambian rallyist totaled 3:13:52 for the two-day total of competitive distance of 632 kilometers.
The South Africn all-women team, Lola and Megan Verlaque who surprised local rally masters and hobbyists alike by finishing the first day with a third place, kept their form on Sunday when they clocked the day's fourth fastest time to secure a final third-place finish.
The Verlaque sisters, behind the wheels of a Subaru Impreza known as the Rally Chicks, clocked 3:15:14 for the third position out of 20 cars.
Defending champion Patrick Emontspool from Belgium, with Benoit Daubie as his navigator, improved his overnight sixth place to land at the fourth overall position with a clocking of 3:25:56.
Gamdust Haji and Bashir Suleman were the fastest Tanzanians in the Dar es Salaam rally as they finished sixth overall with a time of 3:36:55, five minutes five seconds behind Conrad Rautenbach and Peter Marsh from Zimbabwe who were just four minutes one second behind the overnight leaders on Saturday.
The Zimbabweans, driving a Subaru Impreza, came out of the two-day competition with a fifth-place finish on 3:31:50.
The Dar es Salaam race, the first leg of the eight-leg 2007 African Rally
Championship, negotiates a hilly course of 666 kilometers, of which 316
kilometers are competitive sections. The rallyists drive through the same course
twice on Saturday and Sunday. |
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