Not the end of the world for Gaurav Gill

Despite losing out in a close battle to retain his FIA APRC crown there’s plenty on the horizon for Gaurav Gill to look forward to.

Prior to the Japanese round of the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship there was very little to choose between defending European rally champion Jan Kopecky and defending APRC champion Gaurav Gill.

They had the same number of wins, podiums and retirements although Gill was a mere eight points behind the Czech who is partnering him at Team MRF Skoda piloting Super 2000-spec Fabias.

As he has on many occasions this season Gill took the lead and was setting the pace comfortably. Seven stages into the first leg, however, Gill’s name suddenly disappeared from the overall classifications.

To the dismay of rally fans in India he had been forced to retire after a high speed crash on the treacherous Hokkaido stages.

Kopecky had a clear run to the finish and duly took the win that wrapped up the APRC title for him as well as the combination of Team MRF and Skoda, who have been unbeaten since the partnership started in 2012.

KEEPING HIS HEAD
In the past one might have expected Gill to be in a state of extreme frustration at losing out on a title battle in a championship that he still sees very much as a launching pad to bigger aspirations in rallying.

But that was before a creditable showing against a super competitive APRC field in 2012 and winning the title over highly rated Finn Esapekka Lappi a year later.

“It’s obviously disappointing to lose out on the title through some bad luck and a few driving mistakes of my own,” Gill told autoX. “But I know I gave it my best and thanks to the way data logging is done in rallying these days it is very easy for the team to see all aspects of my driving. They can even tell if I sneeze while driving!”

The run of form from 2012 till this year means that Skoda have been more than a little impressed with Gill’s driving and have things in the pipeline for the 32-year-old Delhi native.

“I have been invited by Skoda to test their new R5 Fabia (an evolution of their current S2000 machine),” said Gill. “I am also pretty confident of being able to compete in three rounds of the FIA European Rally Championship next year.”

But the push to get Gill racing in a far more competitive rally arena is not a unilateral effort by Skoda. Gill admits that he was able to convince MRF to take a shot at the ERC in a limited capacity with the support of Skoda who are currently pleased with the partnership.

ON THE HOME FRONT
On the domestic front, Gill is in prime position to wrap up the title in the Indian Rally Championship with Mahindra and their XUV 500.

It was believed that Mahindra was also considering an attempt at the Dakar Rally, possibly spurred to do so after seeing China’s Great Wall enjoy some success there.

Although given Mahindra Racing ending their factory team involvement in Moto3 and pushing hard to compete in the all-new Formula E Championship, an assault on the Dakar with Gill is unlikely to go anywhere beyond the speculative stage.

Not that Gill is too concerned with that at the moment. Experience and success have taught him to come to terms with not being able to do everything he wants.

“I am above all really happy that I got to win the APRC title and show my speed against some of the best in the world,” said Gill. “You can’t win them all I guess but never hurts to keep trying.”