Young-gun Taylor Gill experienced all the highs and lows of rallying last weekend, as he continued his FIA Rally Star campaign at the Rally Nova Gorica.
The FIA European Rally Trophy round saw competitors tackle 15 highly competitive stages across two thrilling days on the Slovenian roads, with challenging conditions providing the ultimate test for what many describe as the future talent pool of world rally competition.
Entering the rally as the top seeded FIA Rally Star entrant, Gill featured alongside fellow Australian co-driver Daniel Brkic in the Ford Fiesta Rally3. The pair ultimately finished the weekend in 14th place, after a series of issues plaguing their rally.
A fast start in the opening stages saw the Novacastrian comfortably in the outright top five and second in Rally3 – with a particularly good performance on the fifth Morsko stage where he went fourth fastest in the 10-kilometre run.
The results were impressive considering the wet and slippery tarmac, but as the surface began to dry, the results unfortunately started to drop off.
A power steering failure on the all-important Renče run on Stage 10 lost the Australian duo a considerable amount of time, dropping from fourth outright to outside of the top 10.
From there, the same issue would hamper the 19-year-old’s chances of re-entering the top 10 with only a handful of stages to play out.
The M-Sport Poland team would eventually rectify the issue, but some unexpected rain would then further dampen the team’s chances and would ultimately have to bring the car home in 14th place.
“All things considered we can be happy with what we achieved this weekend and the progress we’ve made since Austria,” Gill said on social media post-event.
“We set some competitive times and really levelled up the commitment on tarmac, but only two weeks until we are back on the gravel for Saaremaa Rally in Estonia.”
Taylor Gill will next feature as part of the FIA Rally Star program at the Saaremaa Rally in Estonia on 6-7 October.
