Gill shows his class again

Gaurav Gill was daring and raring to have a go in the second round of the Indian National Rally Championship held in Itanagar, Arunachal, over the weekend.

In the end, the man who has become synonymous with rally driving in India, sealed the title with a flourish. Driving in new terrain which was very different from the traditional rally stages which sees mud and dust flying, the Rally of Arunachal was fast and furious.

Behind the wheels of a slightly under-tuned Mahindra XUV 300, on JK Tyres specially developed for the sharp and fast twisty roads in the mountain, Gill was on fire. The Arjuna Awardee and his navigator Musa Sherif enjoyed the conditions.

Speaking to this writer on Wednesday, Gill spoke about how the rally in Arunachal was held in the best possible way. “So many new things for me and my navigator. It was thrilling and I learnt so much over the weekend. It was fast and flowing for me. The adrenaline was racing and to hold an event like this in Arunachal was superb,” said Gill. He thanked the state government for all their help.

He said it was a bit new to be rallying late in the evening.”It gets dark there by 5pm, so to be behind the wheels till 1am was new. Then, again, we would start at 1030 in the morning. The stages we competed on were challenging and I still managed an average of around 115kmph,” added Gill.

Gill’s teammates too emerged with flying colours. Amittrajit Ghosh (co-driver Ashwin Naik) following him home in the overall INRC class while Dean Mascarenhas claimed the INRC 2 title.

Fabid Ahmer and Maninder Singh Prince finished second and third in INRC 3 to make it a near sweep. “It feels good to be rallying again. With the COVID 19 situation and then Mahindra pulling out, it was a tricky situation for us. But with JK Tyre’s support and Mahindra offering us their XUV300, things soon fell in place for us,” Amittrajit said.

 “It was a great round for me because after a long time I made it to the podium,” he pointed out.

At a time when much of the sporting activity at home has been wrecked because of Covid-19, motorsports has nosed ahead. It started with the twpo-wheeler action in Chennai run by MRF and then the JK events in Coimbatore.

The INRC season has been compressed but still worth it, says Gaurav Gill. He has been working on tyre development for JK Tyre and said the one used in the Arunachal rally was “really good.”