Preposterous it may seem, but TSI Racing, India’s first WRC team, think they have reasons to believe they can pull it off. The team continue their association with four-time world champion Tommi Makinen’s TMR and will employ a Subaru Impreza car, but it’s India’s top rally driver they are pinning their hopes on.

‘Impressed’
“We tested Gaurav in October last year and everyone including Tommi Makinen was surprised at his level of adaptation and speed. He has been rallying only for the past two years and has already created history in 2008 by becoming the first Indian to win a round of the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship in Indonesia. We are confident that he will bring laurels to the country,” said TSI Racing chairman Mohan Nagarajan.

For his part, Gill knows the level of competition at P-WRC will be much tougher than in APRC. “In APRC, where I won last year, there were only four-five good drivers, here we’ll have at least 28 world-class, express fast drivers. Then there is the terrain — I will be racing in hot and rugged Cyprus as well as in cold and wet Wales. But I have trained very extensively for this and hope to win and make India proud,” he said.