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Australia APRC: Gills cruises to win in rain-affected final day

Team MRF's Gaurav Gill took his second victory of the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship season in Rally Queensland after the final leg was shortened due to heavy rain.

Gaurav Gill, Glenn Macneall, winner of Australia APRC

Gaurav Gill, Glenn Macneall, winner of Australia APRC

APRC

After a clean sweep on Saturday, Gill (co-driver Glenn Macneall) enjoyed further success in Leg 2, adding three further stage wins to his name.

Teammate Fabian Kreim (co-driver Malcolm Read) tried to fight back with victories in stage nine and 20, but ended up over 1m59.6 seconds behind Gill’s overall time of 1hr43m45.3.

"It was quite a challenging rally, quite difficult with the conditions changing all the time," reflected Gill after the win.

"But yeah, we got a good setup in the morning on Sat, and pushed a little bit [to build up the lead]. The MRF team did exceptionally well.

"It was really difficult for everyone as the conditions were so harsh but we were lucky to have no dramas,” he added.

Subaru’s Mike Young finished 2m45.7s behind the Indian driver in third place, but ahead of the Mitsubishis of Nathan Quinn (co-driver David Calder) and Atsushi Masumura (co-driver Akiko Nakagawa)

Fuyuhiko Takahashi (co-driver Mitsuo Nakamura), who trailed in last place after Leg 1, fought back to finish sixth overall, gaining two spots after SS10, finishing a minute ahead of Australia’s Mike Beard (co-driver Nigel Walters).

Sanjay Takle (co-driver Noriko Takeshita) finished a further two minutes adrift in eighth place, driving a Subaru Imprezza WRZ STi.

With rain falling hard, the organisers cancelled SS15 and SS16 straightaway from the afternoon running but more showers meant, they were forced to cancel SS13 and SS14 as well.

The organisers then added a short stage (SS20) in the end for points purposes. Earlier in the day, SS0 and SS11 were also run at a shortened distance. 

ARC: Smart holds on to win

Meanwhile, Ryan Smart (co-driver John Allen) held on to the top spot in the Australian Rally Championship, despite not winning a single stage in Leg 2.

Tom Wilde (co-driver Sam Hill) and Simon Evans (co-driver Ben Searcy) both took two stages win apiece, but with no persistent challenge from either of the two drivers, Smart went on to take the overall victory.

Harry Bates (co-driver Ben Searcy) finished in second place, 59s behind Smart, with the aforementioned Subaru driver Wilde completing the podium.

Molly Taylor progressed from seventh in Leg 1 to finish fourth, ahead of APRC-runner Quinn.

Rally Queensland Results:

PosDriverCarGap
1
 Gaurav Gill
 Glenn Macneall
Skoda 1hr43m45.3s
2
 Fabian Kreim
 Frank Christian
Skoda 01:59.6
3
 Mike Young
 Malcom Read
Subaru 02:45.7
4
 Nathan Quinn
 David Calder
Mitsubishi 08:47.0
5
 Atsushi Masumura
 Akiko Nakagawa
Mitsubishi 14:09.6
6
 Fuyuhiko Takahashi
 Mitsuo Nakamura
Subaru 22:22.1
7
 Mark Beard
 Nigel Walters
Subaru 23:35.4
8
 Sanjay Takale
 Noriko Takeshita
Subaru 25:20.0

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