Gaurav Gill gears up for Rally of Turkey with JK Tyre Motorsport
Gaurav Gill geared up for WRC2 outing with JK Tyre
Six days to go for the Turkish Rally, the 11th round on the World Rally Championship calendar and JK Tyre Motorsport backed Gaurav Gill is set for his first outing as a registered driver in the WRC 2. For the multiple time INRC and APRC champ the Turkish rally will be his first WRC outing after switching teams.
“I am excited about my first stint with a renowned team and a new support system in formidable JK Tyre Motorsport,” said Gill
It was only recently that Gaurav Gill was conferred the prestigious Arjuna Award by the President of India for his performance and dedication to motorsport. It was a proud moment for the whole Indian motorsport fraternity as Gill is the only motorsport athlete to ever be honoured with the award. As for the Indian National Rally Championship 2019, Gill is currently competing in a Mahindra Super XUV300 for team Mahindra Adventure. His car is tuned by Coimbatore’s Arka Motorsport.
All-new rally car for WRC
At the World Rally Championship, Gill will pilot the all-new M-Sport prepared Ford Fiesta 1.6 Turbo R5 MK2 rally car which recently made its competitive debut. The rally car makes 290bhp and 475Nm of torque, both at 4000rpm. The 1.6-litre turbo powerplant is mated to a Sadev 5-speed sequential gearbox sending power to the front and rear differential units. Gill also said that they will carefully pick and choose rallies to compete in this year keeping in mind, the car, the terrain and his strengths.
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The 2019 Rally of Turkey will see the drivers cover a total distance of over 988.50 km with 310.10 km spread over 17 special stages. Most of the stages will be gravel with few of the stages running on concrete tiles and tarmac.
“JK Tyre is the pioneer in promoting motorsport in India. 90% of the kids racing abroad have come from JK’s programmes. Our association with Gaurav Gill has also started yielding results in developing our tyres, with the last two domestic rallies leading to the development of three variants of rally tyres. With top performances in international events, our victories with Gaurav will only add to our excitement and result in strengthening our programmes that will benefit Gen Next,” quoted Vikram Malhotra, Marketing Director, JK Tyre & Industries Ltd.
“I have worked with Gaurav briefly last year and it’s great to be able to continue that collaboration with him again this year. As a three-time Asia Pacific Rally Champion, Gaurav is a talented driver with a lot of potential and we’re all looking forward to seeing how he progresses in the FIA World Rally Championship’s WRC 2 series,” commented his team principal, Richard Millener.
