Egide Ngendandumwe

Egide Ngendandumwe (born 22nd August 1996 in Gitara, Makamba Province, Burundi) is a Burundian racing driver and mechanic. His international racing career consists of taking part in the Rejects World Motorcycle Trophy and African Racing League.

Early life and career

As the fifth child of a farmer family settled in a remote region of one of the poorest countries in Africa, reaching the international motorsport scene seemed like a far-fetched dream for Ngendandumwe. Indeed, almost as soon as he learned to walk he was forced to help out at the farm to make sure he and his family had at least something to eat. However, he quickly showed a natural talent of being able to repair what limited tools the family had, using whatever materials he could get his hands on. By the age of 15 he was well known in and around his village for his repair skills, and this soon caught the attention of a charity worker who was delivering new agricultural equipment to the impoverished community. After monitoring Ngendandumwe's actions for a while, the charity worker eventually offered him a unique opportunity: a journey to the nation's capital, Bujumbura, where he could receive formal education to develop his innate skills. After initially hesitating due to uncertainty over how his family could cope without his help, Ngendandumwe agreed and left the village where had lived for all his life.

With the help of the charity worker he was able to study mechanical engineering and French, which, combined with a startup fund also provided by a charity, allowed him to start a small repair shop in the suburbs of Bujumbura after graduation. It didn't take long for his reputation as an excellent mechanic to spread throughout the suburbs, and with his business doing well (on Burundian scale) Ngendandumwe was soon able to buy an old moped which allowed him to move around the city to look for further job opportunities. Living in a major city also allowed him to learn about news from the rest of the world, and when Marcel Agyemang-Badu's championship title in the 2015 Rejects of LFS season became major news all across Africa, Ngendandumwe instantly became interested in motor racing. Soon enough he started to spend all his spare time tuning and racing his old moped, dreaming about repeating the efforts of Agyemang-Badu some day. After a few months luck would come his way once again, as on one his daily rounds in the city he encountered the broken down car of none other than the CEO of Interbank Burundi, the second largest commercial bank in the country. While repairing the car Ngendandumwe talked about his motorsport dream, and as the swift service provided by him allowed the CEO to get to an important meeting in time, it didn't take long for Ngendandumwe to be called to the bank's headquarters to discuss a business proposition. A proposition which would see him travel all the way to Europe.

2016: Karting and F1RDS test

The proposition was that Interbank Burundi would sponsor Egide Ngendandumwe as he travelled to Europe to take his first steps in international motor racing. In exchange for this Ngendandumwe was required to do his best to promote Burundi and especially the bank, with hopes that the added visibility would attract more foreign companies to invest in the country. As motorsport was hugely popular at the time, it was deemed a very cost-effective form of promotion by the bank's board of directors. Overjoyed, Ngendandumwe immediatedly agreed to the proposition, sold his repair shop and was soon on his way to France, with the French Karting Championship being the most logical choice for his first European series due to his limited language skills.

However, by the time he had cleared all formalities with the relevant authorities and purchased himself a kart, the season was already well underway and Ngendandumwe had to jump straight into racing with very little testing. This was far from optimal as he had never driven a four-wheeled vehicle before, and due to already being almost 20 years old he was forced to take part in the most competitive classes instead of being able to slowly work his way up through the ranks. As if this wasn't enough, Ngendandumwe had to spend most of the small budget provided by Interbank Burundi on hiring transport for each race as he had no driving license, let alone a car. With no money to hire anyone for his help, Ngendandumwe was forced to do everything by himself which disrupted his concentration on the racing itself. Despite these hardships he was able to score points occasionally, but by the end of the season it was clear his efforts were not enough to impress any team boss or promote the cause of Burundi.

With his budget almost used up Ngendandumwe considered returning home, but after hearing some of the other kart drivers talking about the upcoming F1RDS end-of-season test in Japan he decided to gamble and use all of his remaining money to travel there with no guarantee that any team would be interested in him. Eventually he managed to contact Nurminen Racing Engineering, who agreed to give him a test drive but only in exchange for cold hard cash, as by this time of the season the team's budget was already quite exhausted. As he had no money left at all Ngendandumwe had to contact Interbank Burundi, and by claiming that he was in fact invited to Japan to do testing he was able to persuade his sponsor to wire him enough money to buy one afternoon of testing and a plane ticket back to Europe. Despite the car being far more powerful than anything he had driven before, he wasn't massively off the pace although he was the second-slowest of all drivers who set a time in the session. While this didn't result in any F1RDS teams showing interest in him, Ngendandumwe was now far more experienced than at the start of the year and could return to Europe with the intention of seeking a full-time drive next season.