The time has come
Oh praise the lord. Gaurav Gill is finally going to the WRC. Thank god his sponsors have woken up to his potential before it is too late. I have been following Gaurav’s career for years now, ever since he came back into rallying with JK tyre and then moved to MRF tyres, and I firmly believe he is the only hope our generation has of seeing an Indian do well in the international rally circuit. Nobody else is close. He has proved himself against some of the best up and coming drivers from Europe – rightly as you said, beating them without any testing or practice – and if lady luck is on his side he could even pull a rabbit out of his hat this year. I wish him all the very best, and I hope he is considered for the Arjuna award this year.
I’m sure this is no secret but Gaurav is the reason that there is no big competition in Indian rallying today. He is so much superior to everybody else that teams with budgets do not want to rally because there is no driver who can beat Gaurav in a straight fight. Is it any secret that VW’s R2 Polo is quicker than Mahindra’s big XUV? Many years ago I you guys had got Karamjit Singh to drive one of your Slideways Polo rally cars and that was the only time Gaurav had some competition. Today if JK wants to come back who is going to drive their car and beat Gaurav? And perverse as it might sound I think, for the betterment of Indian rallying, Gaurav needs to do the hat of a mentor and not compete and whup everybody’s back side. That’s the only way there will be a level playing field and we can hope for some teams to come back.
A hint – get him to read your Rallycross story and tell him to become the promoter for an Indian RX series. That’ll fund one more season in the WRC 2 for him.
Ravi Sathe