Gill positive about JWRC debut

Despite the odd obstacle, Aussie young gun Taylor Gill was “really pleased” with his promising pace in the Swedish snow in his FIA Junior World Rally Championship debut.

Held alongside the second round of the FIA World Rally Championship, Taylor and Australian co-driver Daniel Brkic may had finished seventh, but they does not reveal the fast start as they made a big impression.

Despite the challenge of participating in his first snow-based rally, Gill flew out of the blocks by setting the second fastest time of the JWRC competitors.

Daniel Brkic and Taylor Gill ahead of taking on Rally Sweden.

Another second place in Stage 2 was enough to put him into the overall lead, which he held until Stage 4.

Despite being overcome by local driver Mille Johansson, the Aussie was still within striking distance after six competitive stages, in third, just 7.5s away from the lead.

Gill admitted he was quite surprised by his hot early pace.

“I was really happy with our performance early in the rally,” he said.

“To be in the top three from the get-go was something that surprised me, and I was really pleased with.

“We were able to drive to the conditions accordingly and the times were coming out nicely.”

Taylor Gill did not take long to adapt to the snow. Image: Supplied

But hopes of a special debut result came to an abrupt end on the seventh stage when the Aussie pairing were hit by tyre troubles.

In addition to suffering a double puncture, Gill also had nowhere to stop and had to endure a longer than preferred period of time on the defeated rubber and lost the best part of 10 minutes on Stage 7.

Gill said a “very small impact” on a snow bank which also caught out the likes of Kalle Rovanpera and Ott Tanak had a “incredibly frustrating” impact on his campaign.

“We had a very small impact with a snow bank, and while it seemed like nothing, there must have been something in there because it was immediately two flats,” he explained.

“Normally we would’ve pulled over straight away, but due to how the roads are plowed of snow, there’s nowhere safe to pull over in a lot of spots, so we had to wait until a junction to have enough room to change it.

Taylor Gill flying through a winter wonderland. Image: Supplied

“It was incredibly frustrating. To be in such a good position and then to have it all over from such a small mistake was tough, but that’s the way it goes.”

As a result Gill dropped from third to 13th in the overall standings in one stage.

After experiencing a couple of over shoots early on the Saturday, it was not until Stage 12 when Gill reclaimed some of his earlier pace, being fifth fastest and returning to the top 10 of the JWRC leaderboard.

“Saturday was a tricky day as we were more focussed on doing the kilometres and gaining the experience,” he said.

“Of course, we needed to get back some lost time as there was still championship points on offer for stage wins, as well as moving up the leaderboard.

“We had a couple of overshoots as well as a pretty sizeable moment that we were lucky to get away with, so we were happy to be ninth at the end of the day.”

Taylor Gill on JWRC debut. image: Supplied

On the final day showed top four pace in the first two stages before dropping to 11th in a competitive finale to end up seventh overall.

Despite wondering about what could have been possible without the punctures, Gill is still walking away from Sweden upbeat from the experiencing his first JWRC round.

“It ended up being a weekend of what could’ve been – we began so well and were very comfortable in the car at that pace, so it’s a shame we made a small mistake which put us out of contention,” he said.

“Realistically though, I’m happy with what we proved to ourselves and our competitors, in that we are here to give it a real shot for the rest of the year.”

Gill now gets to race on the more familiar tarmac in round 2 at Croatia on April 18-22.

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