Drivers & Co Drivers
Gaurav Gill
Gaurav Gill is India’s leading rally driver. He is a past winner of India’s National Rally Championship, National Road Racing Championship and FIA APRC Rally Indonesia 2008.
Born on 2nd December 1981, Gaurav got into motorsport at a young age racing motorbikes in the National Motocross Championship in 1999. Riding his first events with gusto, the always 100%, daredevil driving style was to become his very own. Sucess was not far away and he won his debut event at Cochin.
Encouraged in no small measure by his uncle, the very famous Dicky Gill, Gaurav was soon showing astounding adaptability as he moved to 4-wheels and was soon winning national car rallies, karting championships and endurance races, he even signed up for the Raid-de-Himalaya in 2000!
Gaurav’s love affair with motorsport continued and his first major break was in 2003 when he was runner-up in the National Road Racing Championship, a feat that he bettered the following year in 2004 when he became National Champion.
The love for dirt rallying was hard to subdue and he was back behind the wheel of factory rally car in 2005, this time there was no stopping Gaurav as he demolished the status-quo and was consistently the fastest driver on the track. He finished the 2006 season, second overall.
While he was not smashing stage records, he was winning on the road racing circuit, Gaurav also won the National Road Racing Championship - Formula Rolon in the same year!
In 2007, Gaurav was untouchable as blazed the National Rally Championship with Team MRF, he was National Nally Champion but would remember 2007 more for his exploits on the APRC circuit where he was having an impressive rookie year with MRF behind a Ralliart Mitsubishi.
In 2008, Gaurav was determined to repeat his domestic success on the international circuit and show that Indian drivers are second to none. Focus, training and hard work paid off handsomeley as he won the FIA APRC Indonesian Rally 2008 for MRF and India! This had to be a golden moment in Indian motorsport, the versatile boy who started out racing motorbikes had finally done it!
Aiming for glory, Gaurav is competing in the Production Car World Rally Championship with Team Sidvin India and he continues to drives for Team MRF leading India’s challenge in the FIA APRC.
David Senior
As one of the most experienced WRC co-drivers in the business, David Senior was a natural choice to partner one of the sports rising stars, Gaurav Gill.
Senior’s WRC career goes back to 1990, when he made his championship debut driving for Jimmy McRae on the British round of the series, then known as the Lombard RAC rally. The following year he tackled the same rally with Jimmy’s son, Alister, and began a successful and long standing partnership, which lasted until 2004.
Senior and Alister McRae competed in a wide variety of teams and cars, but started off as specialists in two-wheel drive models from Volkswagen and Hyundai. That all changed in 2000, however, when the pair signed to the Hyundai World Rally Team and moved into the WRC class with the Accent WRC for two seasons. After 2 years with Mitsubishi in 2002/3, the pair tackled the P-WRC in 2004, finishing fifth overall. Senior also tackled three rallies that year with J-WRC driver Kris Meeke.
With no WRC programme for McRae in 2005, Senior partnered Hamed Al-Wahaibi in his Oman Arab World Rally Team P-WRC campaign, before beginning his association with Conrad Rautenbach in the J-WRC series in 2006.Also in 2006 Senior partnered top Estonian driver Markko Martin on the Portugal and Cork Rallies. In 2008, Senior helped Rautenbach make the jump from his 1600cc two-wheel drive Renault Clio to the latest top-level four-wheel drive machinery from Citroen Sport culminating in a superb 4th place overall in Rally Argentina.
