Dakar Rally foray on Gaurav Gill's radar

Gaurav Gill is headed to next month's Dakar Rally for an exploratory tour that the recently crowned three-time FIA APRC champion says is in preparation for a potential foray to the fabled cross-country that he claims is close to fruition. 

Despite efforts to do so, Gaurav Gill's aspirations to move up to the WRC-2 category of the FIA World Rally Championship have not had yielded the desired results. Despite the confidence placed in him by the Racetorque team that runs the Skoda MRF effort in the APRC and his own bolstered confidence after achieving success, WRC-2 participation (the category runs cars with the same FIA R5 regulations that he currently runs in the APRC) is unlikely to happen without manufacturer backing or much increased sponsorship. 

Speaking to autoX after winning the India Rally round of the APRC (that won him the title), Gill admitted that he is not losing much sleep over WRC-2 anymore and that his focus has shifted elsewhere.

"If it happens, it happens," said Gill. "A lot has also changed in my life since I first started to pursue a WRC-2 drive as well.

"I am a father as well as a business owner now so there is a lot more on my mind than just rallying and I am happy to be proving myself against the best young rally talent in the world in some challenging rallies in the APRC.

"But I have given very serious thought to the Dakar Rally and I will be going to do a 'recce' for the 2018 event to see how everything runs over there. There is definitely something in the pipeline and you (the media) will hear about it soon."

AutoX had become privy to Mahindra - for whom Gill drives in the Indian National Rally Championship - evaluating a Dakar Rally attempt. Part of the evaluation included getting in touch with the makers of the prototype rally cars that run at the gruelling event and a rendering of how such a vehicle would look with a body shell shaped like an XUV 500 had been made too.

It is not beyond the realm of possibility that Mahindra, who recently ended their participation in the Moto3 category of MotoGP, have seen the marketing benefits enjoyed by bike manufacturers Hero MotoCorp and TVS on account of their Dakar Rally campaigns. 

Gill has a very eager supporter for a Dakar Rally foray in CS Santosh, India's first participant and finisher at the event. "I've always told him that he (Gill) needs to get out there," Santosh told autoX at a press conference in New Delhi yesterday. "I hope to see him line up as a competitor soon."