Gill battles in Italy

Aussies Taylor Gill and Dan Brkic had a battle on the Italian gravel roads of Rally Sardegna in the latest round of the FIA Junior World Rally Championship.

In an event where there was drama across all comers including WRC, Gill had to nurse a damaged Ford to sixth place in JWRC.

His campaign was highlighted by two stage wins and importantly claimed enough points to be third in the championship with leader Romet Jurgenson having a tough tally.

Gill started strong, setting the second fastest time in the opening stage, but power steering issues struck on stage 2.

Without the aid of a service point to fix the problem, the Aussie had to fight for the remainder of the day with unassisted steering and dropped to 13th.

Gill said it was as hard as he had ever experienced behind the wheel.

“The first stage of the rally was positive; we were fast out of the blocks, and set a good time,” Gill said.

“Then on SS2 we were feeling really good and were leading on the split times until the power steering broke.

“It was frustrating. We were starting to find a rhythm so it came at a really bad time.

“The Sardinian stages are difficult enough normally, so to have to complete them without power steering was one of the toughest things I’ve done in a rally car.”

Things looked brighter on Day 2 as Gill pushed five spots up the leaderboard boosted by a stage win.

But once again bad luck struck when a collapsed wheel bearing and broken brake disc occurred on SS8.

“We did an okay job on managing the pace with a damaged car,” Gill said.

“To finish the day a position up from where we were when we had the issue was quite surprising – we just kept it on the road and watched others fall from around us.”

Sunday was trouble free as Gill set about making up as much ground as possible.

He enjoyed a back and forth battle with Jurgenson and won SS14 to cement sixth in the rally.

“We levelled up our pace, particularly in the high-speed sections, and our commitment was really positive, especially on Sunday going toe-to-toe with Romet and trying to get the stage wins,” he said.

“That was really fun and really encouraging to see the sort of speed we’ve got.”

Gill will be keen to bounce back at Rally Finland on August 1-4.

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