It was a bad day in office for Gaurav Gill on the second day of the 41st South India Rally here.
The Team Mahindra Adventure’s big fish, who is now back in his favourite stable (JK Tyres), was confident of punching out the rest with ease in the INRC opener. But, it came as a shocker to see him fall way behind the pack.
So, what went wrong. Is it the problem with the man or the machine (Mahindra Adventure XUV 300 R2 Petrol)? Blame it on the machine as Gill is currently in top form. Obviously, he was disappointed.
“My form is not the question but there are some minor issues. We are trying to understand what the car wants but there’s nothing wrong as well as it’s all a part of the development process,” said Gill.
“We thought we will use this rally as a test. We expected our results to be a little inconsistent but that’s okay as it is all about learning,” he added.
But should the test not have been done before the rally?
“Quite true, but we had some unfortunate incidents and circumstances that were beyond our reach. It does not matter as we still have five rounds to go,” he said.
N. Leelakrishnan, the man who is preparing the car, was still working hard on the machine.
“The sensor actually failed, which shut the engine down. It’s a small issue but unfortunately it cost us time,” said Leelakrishnan.
“Motorsports is where things like this can happen. Whenever you are running a new package these are bound to happen,” he added.
Confident
He further stated that the team will beat the opposition by atleast three miniutes in the next round at Coimbatore.
Hari Singh, Head of Operations, JK Tyre Motorsports, said: “I know things have not fallen in place but the XUV300 is a new car and the work is still going on.
“So nothing to worry as we got the best driver, tuner and the car.”
