Dream WRC rally coming up for Gill

Rally Finland is fast approaching for Aussie WRC Junior Taylor Gill, with his solid warm up at the Finnish Pohjanmaa Ralli to hopefully hold him in good stead for the super fast Baltic forest roads.  

Gill admits that the really fast and flowing conditions haven’t been his strongest point over his two seasons spent in Europe, but with his strong performance and separate testing in the lead up, he’s done all he possibly can to prepare for what he describes as a “bucket list” event. 

Currently Gill sits third in the WRC Junior championship in the lead up to the fourth round, having taken a podium at the second round in Croatia, as well as some fighting finishes under mechanical duress in both Sweden and Sardinia.

“It’s gonna be absolutely mega…it’s a huge bucket list event for any rally driver to do,” Gill said.

“I have to pinch myself for the fact that I get to do it, and also to compete on some really legendary stages in the event, including the full Ouninpohja (Stage) in its traditional direction.

“I’ve driven the stage when we first arrived in Finland last year as soon as the snow had melted just to see what it was like…but I think all the roads will be a massive challenge with all the crests and the jumps.

“Form the championship point of view we need a good result to keep our hopes alive, but at the moment we’re just focused on going there and doing the best job we can.”

Gill and Brkic finished second in class in their warmup for WRC Finland

In the warm up event at the recent national Finnish round, Gill managed to keep good pace with Rally3 class winner and national champion Henri Hokkala, finishing second in class and 10th overall behind eight Rally2 cars, which included an SS6 stage win.

“It was cool to get some experience on these Finnish roads. Before the rally we did some testing on the roads that are a bit closer to where the WRC round is however.

“Part of doing this rally is to close that gap on the faster surfaces, because in the arc round that will be really crucial.

“We finished second to the main main in Rally3, and it was good to be able to benchmark ourselves against that…we made some good steps forward.”

The WRC Rally Finland kicks off on August 1-4, with only one more round remaining in Greece after that for Gill and his co-driver Dan Brkic.

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