Gaurav Gill returns to JK Tyres with eye on World Rally

By Rohit Mundayur

New Delhi, June 21 (IANS) Ace rally car driver Gaurav Gill said that a return to the World Rally Championships-2 is part of the reason for his decision to switch to JK Tyres from MRF. Gill has been associated with Team MRF for a better part of his professional career and on Friday, it was announced that he was returning to JK Tyres, with whom he had started his decorated career.

"I have been very grateful to MRF for what they have done. But a sportsman should never be sitting idle and especially this sort of sport where you need to be on it all the time. So I've chosen JK to partner with me to go back into the world championships this year," Gill told IANS on the sidelines of his unveiling in New Delhi.

Gill won the Asia Pacific Rally Championship three times with MRF and made his WRC 2 debut with the tyre manufacturer in 2018. However, MRF decided to skip the 2019 season which prompted Gill to switch to JK Tyre

Gill's role with his new team is however not limited to WRC2. The 37-year-old will also be spearheading JK Tyre's newly-launched factory team in the Indian National Rally Championship. "It's chapter two of my life -- I had started with JK. I am here also to see the Indian rally championship, the cross car programmes and my academy programmes. So, it is both building my own personal brand and working with JK to nurture talent and take their brand to the world stage."

Gill also said that he and JK Tyre Head-Motorsports Sanjay Sharma will be pooling their resources to ensure that rally car drivers get more assistance from the government for components. "Me and Sanjay are trying to make sure that we can take this to the ministry level and try and get whatever exemptions we can for motorsports," he said.

(Rohit Mundayur can be contacted on rohit.m@ians.in)