Karan Patel reported ARC champion again as Virani skips Serengeti finale

Kenyan driver Karan Patel has been reported as the 2026 FIA African Rally Championship (ARC) champion, his third continental title, after his only remaining rival, fellow Kenyan Aakif Virani, withdrew from the season finale in Tanzania. The Serengeti Rally, based in Morogoro, is still under way, and the final results are not yet published.

Patel and his navigator Tauseef Khan clinched the crown before the main competition, which starts on Saturday 3 October 2026, according to Capital FM and Mozzart Sport, both published on 2 October. On 2 October the FIA's 2026 African Rally Championship standings still showed Patel on 118 points and named no champion.

Before the finale, Patel led the standings with 118 points after three rounds, 33 ahead of Virani on 85. Virani's team, Arrow Racing Team, then said it would not contest the last round. Capital FM quotes the team's statement: "After a hard-fought season, Arrow Racing Team (Aakif Virani and Zahir Shah) has taken the strategic decision to consolidate 2nd position in the overall African Rally Championship standings. Congratulations to Karan Patel and Tauseef Khan on becoming the 2026 African Rally Champions." The withdrawal gave Patel an unassailable lead heading into the final two days of competition.

Mozzart Sport had earlier set out Virani's only route to the title: Patel would have to retire while Virani won the rally outright and took the five bonus points for winning the Power Stage. The Tanzania round is the fourth and final round of the 2026 series. The FIA calendar lists it as the Mkwawa Rally of Tanzania, 2 to 4 October.

Capital FM says Patel becomes only the fourth driver in the 45-year history of the championship to win three or more titles. The others it names are Satwant Singh of Zambia with eight, Alain Ambrosino of Ivory Coast with three, and Manvir Baryan of Kenya with three.

Patel's lead was built over the season, including a win at the Mountain Gorilla Rally in Rwanda in July. Rwanda's The New Times, carried by allAfrica, reported that he took the maximum 35 points there.

Patel and Khan, in a Skoda Fabia, won the Friday 2 October qualifying stage in 01:58.1, 0.6 seconds ahead of Tanzania's Ahmed Huwel. They compete for KCB Racing Team and chose to start fifth on the road on 3 October.

The Serengeti Rally runs from 2 to 4 October. The Citizen in Tanzania reported on 30 September that reconnaissance was set for 1 October and that the provisional entry list had 24 crews, nine of them in the ARC. Stages include Ruaha, Serengeti, Kilimanjaro and Ngorongoro.