{"id":2306,"date":"2026-07-13T09:55:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T09:55:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/?p=2306"},"modified":"2026-07-13T09:55:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T09:55:51","slug":"kenyas-karan-patel-wins-rwanda-mountain-gorilla-rally-2026-as-kanangire-claims-arc2-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/13\/kenyas-karan-patel-wins-rwanda-mountain-gorilla-rally-2026-as-kanangire-claims-arc2-title\/sports\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenya\u2019s Karan Patel wins Rwanda Mountain Gorilla Rally 2026 as Kanangire claims ARC2 title"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Kenyan driver Karan Patel and co-driver Tauseef Khan won the Rwanda Mountain Gorilla Rally 2026, while Rwanda\u2019s Kanangire Christian became the only home driver to finish the race and take victory in the African Rally Championship\u2019s second-tier category (ARC2).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rwanda Mountain Gorilla Rally 2026 ended on Sunday, July 12, 2026, after three days of competition on roads in Kigali and Bugesera District.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event was organised by the Rwanda Automobile Club (RAC) in partnership with the F\u00e9d\u00e9ration Internationale de l\u2019Automobile (FIA), the global governing body for motorsport, and formed part of the African Rally Championship calendar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A total of 30 cars competed in the rally, with 12 reaching the final day across different championship categories. The final stage featured six sections covering 94.2 kilometres through Kamabuye, Gako and Ruhuha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Patel and Khan, driving a Skoda Fabia R5, secured the overall victory after completing the rally in two hours, 13 minutes and 18 seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They finished seven minutes and 29 seconds ahead of Huwel Ahmed and Solanki Roheet, who competed in a Toyota Yaris GR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The win was Patel\u2019s fourth Rwanda Mountain Gorilla Rally title, following previous victories in 2022, 2023 and 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In ARC2, Kanangire Christian and co-driver Kevin Mujiji, driving a Subaru Impreza, were the only Rwandan crew to complete the event. They won the category with a time of two hours, 37 minutes and 39 seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Rwandan pair finished ahead of Uganda\u2019s Oscar Ntambi and Pius Luggya, who placed second, 19 minutes and 49 seconds behind. Susan Muwonge and Musa Nsubuga finished third, trailing the winners by 23 minutes and 22 seconds. Muwonge was also named the best female driver in the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rwandan driver Queen Kalimpinya and co-driver Olivier Ngabo failed to finish the rally after their car developed mechanical problems during the first two days of competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kanangire finished seventh overall in the African Rally Championship standings, with competitors completing 18 stages during the championship event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final day of the rally took place in Bugesera District, in the Nemba and Ruhuha sectors, and attracted several government and sports officials, including State Minister in the Ministry of Sports Rwego Ngarambe, Bugesera District Mayor Richard Mutabazi, Rwanda National Olympic and Sports Committee Vice President Salama Umutoni, and RAC President Christian Gakwaya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rwanda Mountain Gorilla Rally is one of East Africa\u2019s leading motorsport events, bringing together drivers from across the region and contributing to the development of rallying in Rwanda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organisers said the next edition is expected in 2027, when the event will mark 25 years since it was first introduced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kenyan driver Karan Patel and co-driver Tauseef Khan won the Rwanda Mountain Gorilla Rally 2026, while Rwanda\u2019s Kanangire Christian became the only home driver to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,35,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa-news","category-regional","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2306"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2310,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2306\/revisions\/2310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}