In an Ashes summer Australian sport invariably finds itself under the microscope. While his nation’s cricketing heroes did battle with England, Taylor Gill went in to bat for rallying in San Marino on Saturday.
The 19-year-old’s maiden outing couldn’t have gone better. Ducking any further cricketing metaphors, Gill led his FIA Rally Star team-mates from start to finish. By the close of play, he was four minutes clear of the next quickest driver – Peruvian Jose Caparó, who endured turbo issues aboard his Ford Fiesta Rally3.
Gill was peerless, but not perfect. Romet Jürgenson was quickest on stages two and three before the Estonian was forced out with rear suspension damage in the afternoon.
Gill, who was also an outstanding 10th overall, said: “My first rally in Europe was a big learning curve and it was quite a challenge to do three passes of the same stage because the surface was changing on each run.
“Everyone in the team was super supportive of each other and it was a relief to get to the finish with no major problems. The Fiesta Rally3 was really cool to drive, with a base set-up that’s easy to get into and it handled both the smooth and rough terrain really well.
“I had a ball, to be honest, but now we’ll be learning on the run during the next event – I’ve never done a Tarmac rally before.”
That next outing takes the crews to Austria for Rallye Weiz (July 13-15).
FIA Rally Star project leader Jérôme Roussel found positives across the board, despite half the cars not making the finish.
He said: “We can take many positives from the first FIA Rally Star Training Season event as can all the drivers, and this is the most important aspect of the weekend. It was not an easy rally by any means and that was reflected in the rate of retirements among many experienced drivers.
“The target was to get all six cars to the finish and while that was not possible for all, the lessons learned will be shared between the entire group. They are young people from different cultures and backgrounds, but they work very well together.
“We are already working with them to highlight what was good and what can be improved in terms of how they performed both inside and outside the car. There is work to do, but there was so much potential on show.”
Max Smart was the third finisher behind Gill and Caparó. The South African won’t forget his first ever rally, rolling his Fiesta at shakedown.
“The start was hectic,” said Smart. “It did damage my confidence a bit, but I was back in the zone by the end of the rally and it was good to be at the finish. I learned a lot about pace management and how much of a head game rallying is.
“But I feel like a rally driver, 100%.”
Annia Cilloniz was forced to retire after damaging a front wheel on a rock. The Peruvian worked on the Fiesta, but couldn’t get the Ford out of the stage. Abdullah Al-Tawqi was running third of the Rally Star cars when he went off the road after misinterpreting a pacenote.
