Australians Gill and Brkic Sixth in Tough Rally Italia Sardegna

Round 3 of the Junior World Rally Championship saw Australians Taylor Gill and Dan Brkic secure sixth place in an enduring Rally Italia Sardegna.

Gill and co-driver Brkic showed Australian fighting spirit, dragging the #56 Rally3 Fiesta to an encouraging finish on Saturday, before finishing the event sixth in class and 29th overall on Sunday.

It was a difficult start on Friday for the pair, with power steering issues forcing them to wrestle the car through the tough Sardinian conditions, leaving them seven-minutes off the pace of leader and championship rival, Romet Jurgenson.

“The first stage of the rally was positive.” Said Gill.

“We were fast out of the blocks, set a good time… Then on SS2 we were feeling really good and were leading on the split times until the power steering broke.

“We were starting to find a rhythm, so it came at a really bad time.

“The Sardinian stages are difficult enough normally, so to have to complete them without power steering was one of the toughest things I’ve done in a rally car.”

Saturday appeared more promising with Gill claiming two top-two stage times, clawing back some of lost time from Friday.

Unfortunately, his Fiesta’s wheel bearing collapsed causing damage to the brake disc in the middle of SS8, forcing him to compete in the following three stages with three working brakes.

“To finish the day a position up from where we were when we had the issue was quite surprising – we just kept it on the road and watched others fall from around us.

“We did an okay job on managing the pace with a damaged car.”

Despite multiple mechanical gremlins on Friday and Saturday, Sunday was a case of bringing the car home safely to claim sixth position in the rally and harvest crucial points for the 2024 JWRC standings.

“We leveled up our pace, particularly in the high-speed sections, and our commitment was really positive, especially on Sunday going toe-to-toe with Championship leader Romet [Jurgenson] and trying to get the stage wins”. 

Heading into Round 4, Rally Finland, Gill sits third in the championship hunt behind Diego Dominguez by a solitary point.

Rally Finland takes place August 1 - 4. If you want to relive the action of Rally Italia Sardegna you can find all the stages on demand via Rally TV and Stan Sport.