Kenya’s Karan Patel completed a commanding 2026 FIA African Rally Championship campaign by winning the Serengeti Rally of Tanzania and securing his third continental crown.
Patel and co-driver Tauseef Khan completed the season-ending rally in 2:02:37.8, beating Tanzania’s Manveer Birdi and Zubayr Piredina by 33.7 seconds.
Uganda’s Yasin Nasser and Ali Katumba who won the title in 2025 finished third in 2:10:28.6, 7:50.8 behind the winners.
Victory took Patel to 152 championship points, completing a perfect campaign in which he won all four rounds contested across Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania.
He finished an emphatic 67 points clear of compatriot Aakif Virani, who ended the championship second on 85 points.
Jasmeet Chana was third with 67 points, Samman Singh Vohra fourth on 66, while Nikhil Sachania completed an all-Kenyan top 5 with 56.
Patel had arrived in Tanzania firmly in control after accumulating 118 points from the opening three rounds.
He collected 49 points in Kenya before adding 34 at the Pearl of Africa Uganda Rally and another 35 in Rwanda.
Another 34 points from Tanzania completed one of the most dominant campaigns in recent African championship history.
The triumph also returned Patel to the continental summit after Uganda’s Nasser interrupted his reign in 2025.
Patel first became African champion in 2023, scoring 144 points to edge Uganda’s Jas Mangat, who finished just three points behind on 141.
He successfully defended the championship in 2024, winning all four rounds he contested to accumulate 140 points.
Patel was unable to complete a title hat-trick in 2025 after contesting a limited championship programme.
He nevertheless won the Uganda and Tanzania rounds and eventually finished fourth on 70 points.
Nasser took advantage to become African champion with 135 points, edging Kenya’s Samman Vohra by a single point.
Patel returned with a full championship assault this season and left little room for another close contest.
Winning all four rounds meant his championship advantage continued to grow, eventually leaving Virani more than two rally victories’ worth of points behind.
The latest crown gives Patel three African titles in the last four seasons, having been champion in 2023, 2024 and 2026.
His recent championship record now reads 1st, 1st, 4th and 1st across those 4 seasons.
From Kenya through Uganda and Rwanda before the final success in Tanzania, Patel and Khan went unbeaten to reclaim the African crown with 152 points and a 67-point winning margin.
For Uganda, Nasser ended his title defence with a podium finish in Tanzania, while Oscar Ntambi and Pius Luggya finished fifth overall and won the ARC2 classification.
Godfrey Nsereko and Musisi Bosco finished sixth overall and topped the ARC4 category.