Pragathi Gowda continued her fine form in her first experience of international gravel rallying on Sunday. The Rallye Terre de Lozere, a round of the French national championship, which welcomed 126 entrants from around the world, saw Pragathi finish 15th in the Rally 5 class and 53rd overall with a time of 1:42:03.7. Pragathi reflected on the fantastic drive saying, “This is a rally where world champions like Sébastien Loeb and Sébastien Ogier have learned and progressed. Making my gravel rally debut here is a special feeling in itself, but to be the only Indian to have achieved this feat in a European/French national championship round is the icing on the cake. I cannot thank Sidvin Engineering enough for this tremendous opportunity.” On a rally with challenging terrain in the volcanic mountains, which was a first for Pragathi, with ruts up to 3-4 feet deep dug by the 4-wheel drive cars and all the top French drivers taking part in cars including WRC-1, 2 and 3 specification cars and Rally-4, Rally-5 and historic cars, Pragathi faced a steep learning curve ahead. She was slower at the start, coming in 31st in class on the first special stage. But she wasted no time in adapting to this unique rally which includes a recce in the rally car in the morning, followed by the rally stage after 1 hour, instead of the regular recce which is done the day before, in a normal car and has 2 passes on the road; Pragathi was helped by WRC championship-winning co-driver Arnaud Dunand to improve her pace notes and by her coach, Alex Bengue, a former French national champion who has driven alongside drivers such as Sébastien Loeb. With a total of 6 stages on Saturday and 4 on Sunday, she made huge strides after the first stage, improving her pace by almost 2.5 seconds per kilometre over the 2 days, a feat highlighted by all the elite drivers. “The stages were very tough and I have never seen such tough stages in my career. The ruts created due to the powerful WRC and WRC2 cars were something I have never seen. I made it a point to keep it clean and only had a puncture on the second stage of the rally. “After overcoming that hurdle, I knew how to drive cleanly and not damage the car. A top 15 finish was very satisfying and hats off to PH Sport for giving me a very reliable car,” Pragathi explained about the challenges she faced. She recorded the 13th fastest time on the final stage and finished 15th in class with 27 cars behind her as she crossed the finish line. Pragathi also managed average speeds of 82 km per hour, a very high figure for a gravel rally. Pragathi is supported by Sidvin Engineering, which was the first to bring an Indian to the WRC in 2009.
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