Gaurav Gill to lead Indian challenge at Sumatera Utara Rally

Medan (Indonesia), Aug 7 (PTI) The three-time champion Gaurav Gill will spearhead India's challenge at the Sumatera Utara Rally, third round of the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship's (APRC) Asia Cup section, here from August 8 to 10.

Gill will start as hot favourite as a combination of Team JK Tyre and Vamcy Merla Motorsports has fielded a five-car challenge from India at the rally.

The qualifiers from Asia Cup and Pacific Cup will fight for the APRC title in the final round in Japan later.

Gill, an Arjuna awardee, is the only driver in APRC history to win all rounds of a season in 2016. But as he aims to reclaim his dominance in Indonesia’s treacherous terrain, he is likely to face fierce competition from local heroes and rising stars, more so when it rains.

The campaign marks India’s largest-ever factory-backed entry in APRC history with support from Vamcy Merla and Lokesh Gowda, promoter of Indian National Autocross Championship.

The squad will thus look to make its mark in the 12-stage and 200.6 kilometres battle across jungle tracks and volcanic gravel.

Vamcy Merla, also the promoter of APRC, has imported two top-tier international rally-spec cars for India’s campaign.

“Nothing makes me happier than seeing so many cars from India and a strong grid of 15 cars which augurs well for APRC,” said Vicky Chandhok, president of the APRC Working Group.

Gill will have Florian Barral as his co-driver while Goa’s first rallyist and state government entry, Vaibhav Marathe will team up with the experienced Ashwin Naik as JK Tyre entries.

The other three VM Motorsports teams are M Bopaiah (Kodagu) and PV Srinivasa (Bengaluru), Abin Rai (Kodagu) and the experienced Srikanth Gowda (Chikkamagaluru), and Nikeeta Takkale (Pune) with Sudheendra BG as her navigator.

Nikeeta will take part in a two-wheel drive car in the Ladies, Junior and RC4 category of the APRC.

After the ceremonial start on Friday, the APRC rally, which is run concurrently with the Indonesian Rally championship round, will have six competitive special stages each on Saturday and Sunday.

The special stages distance is 154.14 kilometres and along with 46.46 kilometres of transport section, the total distance is around 200 kilometres. The next round of APRC is in China.

"This five-car effort shows our commitment to developing all rally talent. From Gill's title hunt to Nikeetaa's Ladies Cup campaign, each driver gets world-class support,” said Merla.

"Providing competitive international machinery like the Skoda Fabia R2 evo and Ford Fiesta Rally3 Evo to Team JK Tyre is about giving our top Indian drivers the tools they need to shine globally,” it added.

Sanjay Sharma, head of motorsport, JK Tyre added: "This five-car assault, particularly with the international-spec Skoda and Ford acquired through our partnership with Vamcy Merla Motorsports, marks a bold new chapter for Team JK Tyre." PTI SSC DDV