Dharam Pandya in Subaru Impreza

Dharam Pandya has opened a 25-point gap over his father Kirit in the race towards the Automobile Association of Tanzania’s national championship for the ongoing season.

Driving Subaru Impreza and navigated by his uncle Sanjeev Pandya, the young driver is at the top of the standings table so far with three more events left to wind up the season.

The young driver has posted two outright wins in four appearances this year to accumulate 50 points before adding ten more at the end of the Saba Saba rally held in Arusha last month.

Pandya looks steady this season with accumulation of the massive points that has kept him on pole position should he post another win in the remaining three events.
 Second placed Kirit Pandya is on 35 points and has an uphill task to post title retention as he needs to fill the 25-point gap and add more to stay in the lead.

 Kirit, who won the previous season best performance award without pulling a win in a single event, has been accumulating points in three of the four previous events staged in the ongoing season.

Kirit, perhaps the oldest among the competitors, is likely to make use of his vast experience to trouble the rest of the field towards the AAT title race.

Navigated by Tanga-based Awadh Bafadhil, winner of the best navigation award for the past two seasons in a row has been troubled by mechanical breakdown twice this season.

Third placed in the standings is Marco Ferreira who has steadily gained points in exponential increasing function during three of the past four events.

Ferreira, who also uses Subaru, was third placed in the SabaSaba rally, his best performance for the ongoing season that placed him just four points adrift of Kirit Pandya.
 A tie for fourth in the overall standings are Arusha driving duo of Rishi Lodhia and Safin Khan who share a 25-point mark and use Mitsubishi Evolution brand of cars.
 Former national champion Ahmed Huwel whose appearance in the rallies has been highly infrequent has tied with Eric Cormack, Louis Bonzon and Sander vid Wal at 18 points.

Huwel, whose competence is well documented in Tanzanian routes, chalked 18 points in a rally staged in Dar es Salaam, his only appearance for the season.

The standings are expected to be tilted during the African rally Championship expected to be staged in Dare s salaam early next month.

The rally is also counting towards the national championship. A total of 25 drivers have so far earned some points in the AT title race but less than half of them have an opportunity to seal off the championship.

Meanwhile, the date for the ARC rally scheduled for next month is yet to be confirmed with competitors still left at crossroads.

The AAT officials have been tight-lipped to confirm its existence as time is running out.