Racing with KAPS Transmissions dogkit in the African Rally Championship, Giancarlo Davite put in a super performance at the KCB Rwanda Mountain Gorilla Rally. We talk to him about his time in the car over the race weekend. 

Congratulations on taking 2nd place overall and 1st place in the African Rally Championship standings at your home race in Rwanda. Was it a tough race?

Thank you. It was not a tough race because the roads were very nice but it was very hard because it was very fast (average speed of the winner is 125 km/h) and the pressure was very big all the weekend because we fought against the first 3 drivers on all the stages second by second.
At the end, we finish 2nd only 6 sec behind the winner and 13 sec only ahead of the 3rd !

Was there any point during the race that you thought you had Jamie Whyte beaten?

We won the ARC (African Rally Championship) standing 13 sec ahead of Jamie Whyte and it was very tricky to keep him behind. But we could control his pressure all the rally and keep him behind. After every stage, we were always taking his times and so we were always aware of the results and control his race.

Its been a battle all year between yourself, Jamie Whyte and Christakis Fitidis. Can you use this momentum into the next round of the ARC?

By winning the ARC standing, we have reduced our gap from 55 to 44 points in the overall championship standing. With only 2 races remaining our chances to win this championship are not so big but since the mathematic give us a chance to win, we will try to go ahead

How did the car feel throughout the race? Any issues?

We didn’t have any problem during this rally. The car was going very nice

Good support from the people of Rwanda?

Definitely yes, many spectators on the roads all the week end. Unfortunately a car went off the road in the penultimate stage and killed 2 peoples among spectators. The rally was then stopped immediatly and the last stage cancelled. This is a sad end we had and brought mourning between all competitors.

Favourite rally?

Best rally we did this year was Tanzania Rally in february. Here in Rwanda, it is the Mountain Gorialla Rally definitely.

How does the new KAPS Transmissions dogbox feel?

That’s a fantastic dogbox. It was my second rally with the KAPS dogbox and the feeling increased and I was very comfortable with the changing gears. Very quick and easy changes for a dogbox definitely. I did a very good choice with this KAPS dogbox.
Now I need to learn to brake with the left foot ...