Mohammed Essa Crashes Out Of Dave Gordon Rally But Retains National Title
 
By Ignatius Mazeko
 
TEAM Madison Racing driver, Mohammed on Saturday retained the national rally championship title despite failing to finish the 300-kilometre Dave Gordon Rally that started on Friday with five cars and ended up with only two at the podium finish.
 
Joseph Felemenga and Ernest Zulu, on board a Subaru Impreza N8, scooped the rally after finishing ahead of Dani Beanie and Adrian Sutherland in a Poncho Toyota Landcruiser.
 
Essa was guaranteed of the title after his closest challenger Ashish Patel, navigated by Mark Terken in a Heineken Subaru Impreza N6, retired with electronics problems on the opening stage of Saturday.
 
The Heineken crew encountered similar problems at the super special stage on Friday at the Lusaka Motor Club (LMC) in the Showgrounds hence their retirement on Saturday morning did not come as a surprise.
 
Paul Monge and Mtumbi Goma in a Poncho Subaru N12B followed suit retiring in the subsequent stage after the Heineken pair leaving the laurels for the Dave Gordon Rally to just two crews.
 
Essa and his Zimbabwean navigator, Greg Stead were time barred when their Madison Subaru N11 failed to arrive in Parc Ferme on time on Friday after winning the Super Special Stage.
 
The Madison crew suffered turbo problems that took them nearly an hour to rectify in whilst in Service Park after their Super Special Stage triumph.
 
Essa and Stead were hoping for an outright win to supplant Zim-Zam Challenge leaders Jamie Whyte and Philip Archenoul who could not make it for the Dave Gordon Rally which counts as the penultimate round of the six-event regional rally.
 
Whyte and Archenoul will start the Zim-Zam final round, the TT Rally on home soil in two weeks time, each with eight point leads over Essa and Stead. ©ZMSA