Taylor Gill and Daniel Brkic enjoyed a strong outing in the latest round of the Junior World Rally Championship (WRC) season, securing a second place in the weekend’s Croatia Rally.
Having finished eighth in the season opener earlier this year, Gill and Brkic found much more rhythm in Zagreb, producing multiple stage wins and several top five finishes over the 20 stages.
Despite a slow start to the rally on Friday, it didn’t take long for Gill to find his groove as he ended up picking up consecutive wins on stages five and six – eventually ending the day with a trio of top-three finishes on top of his two stage wins.
Starting Saturday’s action in third place behind fellow FIA Rally Star participant Romet Jurgenson and Belgian Tom Rensonnet, Gill was elevated to second place after Rensonnet suffered mechanical issues on the day’s third stage – forcing him to sit out of the remaining stages.
Another stage win and a pair of runner-up finishes saw Gill end the day comfortably in second place with a buffer of more than a minute, but just over two minutes off Jurgenson.
The New South Welshman managed to reduce the gap to the Estonian by 10 seconds in the day’s opening stage before a run of challenging results saw him eventually finish two and half minutes off the winner.
Although he missed out on the win to Jurgenson, Gill and Brkic enjoyed a big gap over the other FIA Rally Star participants, with Peruvian Jose Caparo almost 10 minutes off in sixth and South African Max Smart a further three minutes off in seventh.
View the full results from the Croatia Rally here.
Gill’s podium sees him move up to third on the overall standings ahead of the Championship’s third round of the season, Rally Italia Sardegna, on 30 May – 2 June.
