Three days, 225.25 kms of dirt tracks, 450 pages of pace-notes and with at least 10 calls per page later, Gaurav Gill finally laid hands on his second FIA-Asia Pacific Rally Championship title here on Monday evening in emphatic style. He had won it in 2013.
The 35-year-old Indian, part of Team MRF and driving a Skoda Fabia R5, swept to his sixth-successive APRC rally win when 11 minutes 32.4seconds separated him from the second-placed Michael Young in the Coffee Day India Rally, organised by the Motor Sports Club of Chikkamagaluru.
Monday’s win ensured that Gill is the first ever rallyist to win all the events in a year in the APRC.
While there was speculation as to whether Gill was the first ever to perform the same in any FIA-sanctioned event worldwide, there was no official statement from FIA till the time of going to press.
Gill himself was non-committal about it, though he did touch upon the year that has passed when he interacted with the media later in the day.
“It’s amazing. I actually never thought about it,” he said referring to the APRC winning run. “It was a very difficult championship. It’s incredibly tough as the cars are so fast and the slightest mistake can result in a crash. I always thought Malaysia was tough but this turned out to be even tougher.”
Title journey
2016’s title-journey started in April with the win in the Rally of Whangarei in New Zealand. But Gill seemed most happy to have won in front of home fans.
“Even though I won the championship, the Chikkamagaluru rally was the most important event for me and for my team. Now it is weight off my shoulder.
“I hope the six out of six wins this season does something good for the sport.”
Winning everything in sight can leave one exhausted and may even lead to a drop in motivation in future. But not for Gill. “I love what I am doing and preparations have already started for the next year.”
Gill even gave a teaser of his plans when he said, “I have plans to drive in Europe.” He, however, refused to divulge any further details.
Gill’s long-time partner Glenn Macneall also clinched the co-driver’s title while MRF took the team championship and Skoda pouched the manufacturer’s crown.
Meanwhile, mechanical issues put paid to Mahindra Adventure’s overnight leader Amittrajit Ghosh’s title aspirations in the MRF FMSCI Indian Rally Championship. Taking advantage was Karna Kadur of Team Yokohama 2K who finished ahead of Bikku Babu and Rahul Kanthraj.
Kadur also topped the INRC 2000 category for the second time this season while Sanjay Takale won the IRC class.
Jacob K.J. (Manoj Mohanan) chalked up his fourth consecutive win in the FMSCI Cup to bag the championship with a round to spare.
The results (provisional, after Leg-2): APRC: 1. Gaurav Gill/Glenn Macneall (Team MRF) (3hrs, 39mins, 37.9secs); 2. Mike Young/Malcolm Read (Cusco Racing) (3:51:10.3); 3. Sanjay Takale/Noriko Takeshita (Cusco Racing) (4:03:51.0).
IRC: 1. Takale/Takeshita (1:48:59.2); 2. Ritesh M. Guttedar/Sheeraz Ahmed (2:01:12.3); 3. Byram Godrej/Ninad Mirajgaonkar (2:02:47.5).
INRC Overall and INRC 2000: 1. Karna Kadur/Nikhil Pai (Team Yokohama 2K) (1:52:15.9); 2. Bikku Babu/Milen George (1:53:31.4); 3. Rahul Kantharaj/Vivek Bhatt (Team Yokohama 2K) (1:55:27.6).
FMSCI Cup: 1. Jacob K.J./Manoj Mohanan (2:01:14.8); 2. Michu Ganapathy/Venu Ramesh Kumar (2:01:25.8); 3. Fabid Ahmer/Arjun Dheerendra (2:06:06.7).
