Gill takes lead of Production Cup in SA
- 27th October 2022, 6:52am
-
by Supplied
- Photos by Luke Whitten
In a far from ideal weekend for Newcastle’s Taylor Gill, the teenager overcame many obstacles to place third in the Production Cup at the Adelaide Hills Rally.
His result, while less than what he’d hoped for, gained him enough points to regain the lead of the series, which has him now sitting eight points ahead of Ronnie Bustard.
“Considering how our weekend played out, we were actually pretty happy to end up in third,” Gill said.
Gill finished Friday night in first place, just 1.4 seconds ahead of rival Max Mcrae, but his luck ran out on Saturday morning.
“It seemed like we had issue after issue. Some were my fault and others were not.
“It started when I came in too hot to a right-hander, went wide and hit a tree, breaking the windscreen.”
The impact also broke the bonnet pin, which later on would cause further issues.
“The bonnet pin ended up coming loose and getting caught in the power steering belt, which broke it and gave me a fair workout for the following stage until we could fix it.
“Compound this with a broken driveshaft, as well as being down on power due to a faulty coil, it was an interesting day.”
Despite all these issues, Gill was able to finish the day in third, and still within striking distance of second place.
However it wasn’t to be, and Sunday’s competition was also not running in his favour.
The rain came on Sunday, and with it, a foggy windscreen, made worse by the shattered glass from the day before.
Further, the running on Sunday’s schedule had multiple changes and cancellations, forgoing any chance Gill had to chase down Zayne Admiraal in second place.
Third position was enough to regain the lead in the championship, but Gill wanted more.
“With a full day on Sunday it would’ve been nice to have a push to see if we could chase down Zayne and get that extra buffer in the championship heading to the final round, but it wasn’t to be.
“Overall we were happy to get to where we did, especially with the adversity we had over the weekend.”
Gill’s focus now moves to the final round on the Coffs Coast, where he needs a good result himself, and rely on specific results from others to hold onto his lead and win the Production Cup.
The final round in Coffs Harbour is bound to be an interesting event.
