xBhp catches up with Gaurav Gill, the first Indian to win the Asia Pacific Rally Championship. He walks us through his career which started on two wheels in Motocross before he moved on to rally driving.
xBhp: Did you follow motorsports in your youth?
Gaurav Gill: I started my career with riding bikes way back in 1997-98 when I was 17. I started with motocross, since I was not yet 18 and so a driving licence wasn’t accessible. Back then and even now you don’t need a driving licence for motocross because it is on a closed circuit. So that was the obvious choice then.
xBhp: Who was the biggest inspiration behind you wanting to join motorsports?
Gaurav Gill: Well, my uncle was a professional rally driver and he was driving for some of the top teams in the national championship. So it was a natural progression in the family, since I would see rally cars, bikes, superbikes and my own family getting prepared to go out and drive. So it was natural that I got into this. Ever since I was a kid I always wanted something to do with speed, so motorsport was the obvious choice.
xBhp: When you first took up motorcycle racing what was your biggest hurdle?
Gaurav Gill: Motorsport in India is very complex; it was not a sport which you could choose as a career in the late 90s. There were a lot of hurdles that I faced along with all my competitors and friends. Mainly the lack of sponsorship, gear and equipment. Now it is a different scenario, it is 2015 and you can get what you want. We had very limited resources and we had to fight to convince our parents to get any money. I was lucky to get some sponsors with me; and get a ride with factory teams then. But I also endured lots of crashes and struggles to be here today in 2015.
xBhp: Do you have any kind of ritual/routine before the start of a race?
Gaurav Gill: Well, there is no actual ritual that I go through. But yes I follow a routine to get my physical fitness right up there and check my diet, and the most important thing is to get sufficient sleep and rest to concentrate on race day, since we end up driving 12-16 hours in a day or so. It is very important to be mentally and physically fit.
xBhp: How do you stay physically and mentally fit for racing at this level?
Gaurav Gill: Well I have different programs for my fitness. Unlike the usual bodybuilding where you hit the gym and start pumping weights. Somewhat like the crossfit and marine type training. Crossfit is one of the main exercise regimens and a lot of body-function training because you need to keep the endurance really high. And at the same time you need to concentrate while working out.
A lot of the mental fitness comes from the video training that we guys do. We try to concentrate and understand from the in-car footage from our own previous rallies. Concentration is the most important key to our sport. Function training is a very important aspect and also we use our in-car footage to assess how and where we are going wrong and where we can do better for future rounds.
xBhp: Did you face family pressure to give up a dangerous sport or were they supportive?
Gaurav Gill: That is a good question. My family is awesome. They have supported me right through since I was a kid and wanted to go racing on bikes. My mom bought me a bike when I was 15 or 16 years old. I had a Yamaha 125 which I used to park right here inside my house and go race motocross. It is an awesome family that I have and am lucky and thank them for all the support they have given. Even today before I go for a race my mother tells me ‘either come first or don’t come home’. Of course she doesn’t mean my ‘not returning’ in the literal sense but that is the attitude in my house. Because of the motorsport culture in my house, with my uncles racing and rallying, I guess it is just so easy now to accept this way of life. My wife comes to my rallies to watch and she loves to sit in the car. Her aim is to be my co-driver one day and we have been working on it for some time.
xBhp: Have you suffered any serious injury in the sport? How did you make a comeback from such injury?
Gaurav Gill: Well, yes, I have suffered a lot of injuries, primarily when I was riding motocross and motorbikes. In the late 90s when I was rallying, the bikes had become too fast, they had lots of horsepower but they didn’t have adequate suspension to go wide open throttle over the bumps and dips that the rally stages usually have. All the guys were crashing and breaking bones and ending up in the hospital and yes I have had numerous surgeries to put back my bones and joints together (laughs)! But that is part and parcel of this sport. Luckily nothing really big in a car so far.
I have never really thought about it because am so committed and passionate about my sport, my aim is to recover as quickly and strongly as possible so as to not miss out on days that I should be on the bike or the race car. Recently I had a small incident where I broke my wrist and knee and had to sit out for 10 odd months because of the surgery. But I was lucky enough to have the support of my family and I recovered in 3 months and was in my rally car in Japan in less than four months and the doctor was shocked to see me driving. Because I wanted to get there I put everything together and gave my 100% to bounce back.
xBhp: What are your passions/ interests other than motorsports?
Gaurav Gill: Honestly all my passions are around motorsports and motor sporting activities whether it has something to do with engines or wheels. If it doesn’t have wheels it has to have an engine. Sometimes it is a jet ski or a bicycle. I like to work out a lot and also have a preference for adventure sports like skydiving and I love to ski. Whatever it is it has to have something to do with speed!
xBhp: How difficult is it to participate in motorsports in India?
Gaurav Gill: The main issue here in this country is getting sponsorship. That is what all of us run after all through our lives. That is what we do and will keep doing as long as we are riding and driving. But I have been fortunate to have MRF as our primary sponsor, who have been with me for the last 9 years. Then I have Mahindra who have supported me a lot, they have been with me for the last 5 years now. It is great to see manufacturers coming back. Although India is soon going to be the 3rd-4th largest auto manufacturer in the world; yet motorsport is still something that isn’t understood currently. I some instances the management understands that this is a good way of promoting their products but others still think that picking a Bollywood actor or a cricketer will help them and it does obviously, since cricket and Bollywood are the two biggest things in the country right now as far as drawing attention goes. But in other countries Auto Brands would have a Michael Schumacher promoting it and not a Brad Pitt! Here apparently people still haven’t understood that concept.
xBhp: Where do you see yourself 5-10 years from now?
Gaurav Gill: Currently am driving in the Asia Pacific Championship and the future plan is to go to the World Championship where I was before for a very short period. But again ran out of sponsorship money, since it is very expensive. Apart from those 5-10 years down the line I would like to participate in cross country raids like the Paris Dakar. I am always trying to get manufacturers involved in this format of rallying. Things look positive so hopefully we should target that in the next 5 years.
xBhp: Have you noticed any tangible change in the motor racing scenario in the country?
Gaurav Gill: Motorsports is slowly becoming acceptable in society, among manufacturers and as a career option. There has obviously been a big change over the past years. But I don’t really see a lot of upcoming talent. When we were young, we used to bunk school and college and go practice out in the gravel and the dirt with our cars. If I didn’t have my car then I would probably have my friend get his car. I don’t see that happening today, probably because everyone is busy with their social lives and not really inclined towards the sport.
I see a lot of academies cropping up; offering riding skills and are mostly into bikes and the biking culture. Some of them are my friends who are promoting this. I think it is more of a lifestyle now rather than being a real biker. It is what I feel. We probably see like 500 Hayabusas but how many real riders are there? Probably 5 I think (laughs)!
xBhp: Did you go for any formal training as a young racer?
Gaurav Gill: There was no training then, no equipment, nothing. We guys were hard core. We did not know what proper techniques were; we used to just get by. I used to beg my uncle who travelled to the US to get me Motocross videos so I could watch and learn from the visuals. But later on when I started driving, I had more sponsorship opportunities to fund my program so I went to Finland and England to learn from some of the best and the finest drivers that the world has to offer. Then I understood how to improve my technique. But when I was riding bikes it was just learning from each other. Just trying out different techniques and if it worked it worked, if it didn’t you crashed (laughs)!
xBhp: What was the most memorable moment of your career so far?
Gaurav Gill: Everything has been very memorable. I remember the first bike race that I did and the first rally that I won, my first crash. I remember most of it. But obviously winning the Asia Pacific Title is the biggest moment and I was the only Indian to have been felicitated at the FIA awards in Paris recently and so that is obviously one of the most memorable moments.
xBhp: How did you manage your shift from motorcycle to cars, and how different are the two?
Gaurav Gill: It’s very difficult to shift from bikes to cars. There is actually no link between them, there is no comparison. On a bike you have to be a lot more versatile, there is basically only 3 or 4 inches of traction that you get, which basically decides whether you are going to make the corner or not. While in a car you have the front two wheels that give you traction. But whether you are riding or driving on gravel, you need to create traction, you don’t have traction. For me it wasn’t very difficult since I am lucky enough to be naturally gifted, I thank god for this talent. But the transformation is difficult; I used to practice a lot when in school, I was lucky to have parents who gave me a car and bike to practice on. So I was always gearing up for the big league. At the age of 14 I knew what I wanted in the future!
xBhp: What is the biggest hurdle in competing in World Rally Championship?
Gaurav Gill: The WRC is the pinnacle of rallying. It is difficult because of the fact that there are 150 cars going on the same gravel road that you are going to drive on. And when you are new you aren’t a seeded driver and you start at the back. Probably 120th and when you go into a corner at 150kmph on a mountain bend and you see big rocks in the middle of the road, and you have only one line to choose from and if you don’t choose that line you might hit the wall or you might go down the mountain. So you need to know how to avoid those rocks. You need to be practicing so much of that and when you have so many competitors even if you drive for 30-40 km flat-out you are probably separated by one or two seconds. And that is the difficulty there.
xBhp: Do you still ride motorcycles?
Gaurav Gill: I can never stop riding. I have been a biker all my life and will continue to ride. I have owned several bikes over the years, including a Harley Davidson which I don’t know why (laughs)! But yes I do ride Motocross. In fact just 6 months ago I was riding with my friends but not in India. I can still ride a little bit, maybe not as well as earlier, but definitely am in tune with riding motocross.
xBhp: What made you switch from bikes to cars?
Gaurav Gill: In the year ‘99, that was probably the last year for Indian Championships on bikes. Because the Indian Federation was quite angry with the fact that the bikes were getting really fast, but not equipped with decent suspension. Every rally there were a lot of bad crashes; even I had a nasty crash in Calcutta while fighting for first place while riding for TVS. That was probably the last rally that I did on motorcycles. From then on the Indian championship for bikes was defunct and they stopped it. They just started this year after 15 years of not having any championship because of the lack of good equipment, because they were tired of having everyone crash. That was the last event I did, because I had a big crash and went into the hospital to patch up my ankle. From there I turned 18 and I had my licences and bounced back and jumped into a rally car and 6 months after that I started rally driving.
xBhp: How well do you need to know your machine?
Gaurav Gill: You actually need to be a mechanic, you need to be as qualified as a mechanic whether it is riding or driving. When you are in the sport of rallying cross country you need to know your machine inside out. Because you need to carry out several repairs form mechanicals to patching up a suspension and if there is no wheel then creating a link that will let the wheel stay on the car to get the car back to service. This is a sport where you are on natural roads in the mountains on fast gravel roads, with rocks and undulating surfaces. The rough patches will take out any part of your suspension and you put your car through a lot of damage and you need to understand most of your car parts. In fact, you need to be able to repair them anytime, anywhere on road.
xBhp: How do you balance family with this dangerous profession?
Gaurav Gill: After being married and having a family it is difficult to leave them behind when am going for a rally for 15 days at a stretch. It is obviously hard to stay away from the family, but I am lucky to have a wife who loves and understands the sport and that is why I married her (laughs)! She knows what I go through and I have a son who is 3 years old and he loves rallying already and he wants to come to all the rallies. It is very difficult for me when I go for my events; I just leave everything behind and I am a different man there, because that is what is required when you are a professional driver.
xBhp: How different is rallying from closed circuit racing?
Gaurav Gill: There is a huge difference between racing and rallying. Whether it is bikes or cars. Rallying is covered over vast distances, well over 500-700 km. That is one of the reasons that rallying sells less than racing. Because racing is on an enclosed circuit so you can generate a lot more sponsorship. Because all eyes are on you, on the sponsors, the tags, the stickers, the branding all the time through the two hour race. Whereas in rallying you are travelling from Point A to B and you swoosh past the ten cameras that you have. You can’t obviously have 40 cameras over 40 kilometres. And that is why this sport is unable to generate the same sort of publicity as MotoGP or Formula 1.
xBhp: Finally how does it feel to be recommended for the Arjuna Awards by the FMSCI this year?
Gaurav Gill: It is a great honour to be nominated by the federation for the Arjuna Award. It has been a while since the federation has been recognised by the Government of India, because we guys are as fit as or fitter than other top sportsmen of the country and we need our due and it is good that it’s coming now. Better late than never! Like CS Santosh has done very well, he has gone to the Dakar and done fairly well for himself and the country. I have done something for the country and have won at the Asia Pacific. Because there are other kids for whom it is a great inspiration. It is not just for myself, but it is going to open a whole new avenue for people to choose motorsports as a career. If this comes through then it will be great for the country, for the sport and for everyone.
This article was first published in the August 2015 Issue of the xBhp Magazine. You can get yourself a copy of the magazine delivered to your doorstep from itsallhere.in
