Gaurav Gill held off a late charge from Karna Kadur to win the Rally of Coimbatore, Round 2 of the 2022 Indian National Rally Championship (INRC). After a spate of recent reliability woes, the seven-time national champion took a more calculated approach in the rally and it paid off.
- Gill holds off Kadur to win Rally of Coimbatore
- Next WRC2 outing in Rally Finland
Gill adopts more measured approach
Driving a rally-spec Mahindra XUV300 for JK Tyre, Gill and co-driver Musa Sherif took the lead at the end of the opening day of running.
He’d suffered a series of retirements lately – two in the 2021 INRC season and another one in the 2022 season opener. Despite his love for hitting top speeds, Gill played the long game and took it easy throughout the stages, with an average speed of just 70kph. Explaining the logic, he said, “For a World Rally Championship [WRC] driver like me, it is bad. I always touch speeds of 100kph and above. That’s where you show your skill, but this time around I wanted to bring the car safely home.”
Gill fends off Kadur to win Rally of Coimbatore
Gill held a lead of 1 min 31 secs at the end of Day 1, and stuck to his original plan of taking it safe and steady the next day too. 2022 South India Rally winner Karna Kadur and co-driver took advantage of this and started chipping away into Gill’s lead.
Kadur gained nearly 19 seconds after the morning stages, and doubled down his efforts to make up a further 30 seconds later on. But Gill played it smart when it mattered most to take victory.
“I always love to be right up there, but it’s okay as I know the situation and condition that we are in. There’s no point risking it as we have had a terrible last few rallies. I don’t want to go back into that scenario for myself and the team because there’s so much hard work that has gone into it,” he explained.
JK Tyre had more reason to celebrate after a 1-2 finish in the INRC 3 category as well. Nineteen-year-old rookie Jahaan Singh Gill took a dominant victory ahead of experienced rally driver Syed Salman.
Gill to compete in Rally Finland WRC2
Gill is now gearing up for his next WRC2 outing in Rally Finland on August 4-7. He made his WRC2 return after over two years in Kenya’s Safari Rally earlier this year.
Driving a Skoda Fabia R5, he had shown promising pace and even won two stages but had to retire after his engine fell victim to fine dust the rally is infamous for.
