Training Report Vol.4 - WRC Rally Finland
TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Rally Challenge Program is underway in Finland since 2015. Takamoto Katsuta and Hiroki Arai had their second challenge to the WRC Rally Finland following their first entry last year. To prepare for the big event, both participated in Autoglym Rally held in Finland two weeks before.
Autoglym Rally （14-15 July. 2017）
As it’s been quite long time since the drivers drove on Finnish gravel roads last time, it was important to find a good rhythm and confidence to the high speed roads. There were eight challenging and fast stages mainly on wide roads, and flexible service schedule gave the possibility to try different setups between the stages. Arai had some mistakes during the morning stages, but he was able to get a better rhythm in the afternoon and finished 2nd in R5 class. Katsuta had a very strong pace in the morning and got a good confidence but he also had two spins. In the afternoon he was a bit nervous struggling find the good rhythm, but was able to get it back on the final stage. He finished 3rd in R5 class.
#4 Katsuta："It was almost 1 year since I drove on Finnish gravel roads last time and I could feel my driving, pacenote accuracy and listening were improved a lot since then. I spun in the morning, so I was a bit too nervous to avoid mistakes in the afternoon. It gave me a good lesson for how to control the mental side."
#7 Arai："I changed the pacenote system from this rally to make it simpler and easier to understand. My pacenotes before had a bit too much information to follow. Thanks to the new system it became very easy to have clear image of the road and good rhythm. It was a big improvement for me."
Rally Report
RESULT
#35 Takamoto Katsuta/Marko Salminen Retire (Ford Fiesta R5)
#37 Hiroki Arai/Glenn Macneall Retire (Ford Fiesta R5)
Rally Finland is the fastest event on the WRC calendar, contested over gravel roads through forests with numerous crests and jumps. One of the greatest challenges for crews was to make accurate pacenotes for the high-speed stages. Both drivers failed to finish after accidents during the final day of the rally, although they had set competitive stage times despite suffering from technical issues in their Ford Fiesta R5s.
Arai, co-driven by Glenn Macneall, enjoyed a strong start to the rally, sitting in third position in the competitive WRC2 class on Friday evening. On Saturday he suffered from a problem with the turbo boost, which limited his speed and caused him to fall back to fifth place. He remained there until the second stage on Sunday, where he went off the road after hitting a bump in a corner and could not continue.
For Katsuta and his co-driver Marko Salminen, the first full day of rallying ended on a road section after SS2 when the alternator belt broke after a rock went inside the engine bay. He was able to restart on Saturday and soon set the second fastest time over the first pass of the legendary Ouninpohja stage, as well as the third best time on the second pass. Unfortunately, his rally ended on Sunday’s first stage when he had a half-spin and damaged his radiator.
Hiroki Arai
I learned a lot from this rally. Since Sardinia, I changed how I spend my time on preparation. I tried to remember the stage characteristics and tricky places from recce video so that I can have more relaxed feeling during the stages. It worked well, so I will keep doing that for the next rallies.
On a Saturday afternoon stage, I suddenly lost power steering and got slow puncture at the same time. I felt rushed and couldn’t have calm judgment, so I need to be able to judge what is working wrong and what is working properly and immediately.
I ended up retiring from my small mistake on the final day. I was too cautious to turn a corner. I got flipped by a bump and went off. We already analyzed the reason and I will try to improve for coming events.
Comment from Chief instructor, Jouni Ampuja
We didn’t gain the results that we were looking for but we are satisfied that both drivers showed their progress and that they were able to be very competitive compared to other WRC2 drivers. When comparing their performances to last year the progress has been massive.
This time we had too many technical issues, which was very unlucky and unusual. On Sunday both drivers made mistakes but they were small driving mistakes and were easy to analyze and understand. Overall we are very happy how the drivers performed in this rally. Without problems they would’ve been fighting for podium places in WRC2 class. Now the drivers need to take all the positive things from this rally with them to their next event.
Takamoto Katsuta
It was very disappointing that I had to already retire after SS2. But luckily we could keep driving on the morning stages, so I just tried to learn as much as possible.
On the famous Ouninpohja I was the second fastest on the first loop and the third fastest on the second loop with 1.9 second gap from the top. After checking the onboard footage I found where I lost time, so I will continue improving.
On Sunday I got a half-spin on SS22 and we had to retire because of the damaged radiator. It was very disappointing because I have been driving well through the weekend until then. But I can still say it was a positive rally overall. I felt I made a huge improvement compared to my performance one year ago. Of course there are many things that I need to improve more, so I will keep putting my effort.