2016 Training period 1 - Arctic Lapland Rally

As it was the first training in winter conditions for Katsuta and Arai, they concentrated on the things which have to be taken into consideration on snow. In the pacenote training, they focused on driving lines and braking points for winter condition to make faster and safer pacenotes.
Driving training started on the icy handling track. They concentrated on getting the feeling of the grip level, throttle and brake using and steering angle in long corners...and so on. After moving to the forest stage, they also focused on understanding the road conditions such as lines and ruts and practiced in the dark with extra lights.

Arai and Katsuta participated in Arctic Lapland Rally held in Finland's Lapland. This first round of Finnish National Championship is traditional and well-known with challenging stages surrounded by beautiful landscape.
There is no limitation in recce in this rally although most rallies allow only two times on each stage. As all stages are new for the crew, they repeated recce as much as possible. Long recce consumes their energy and concentration, but it was also a part of the training for them. Detailed pacenotes made carefully and with sincere attitude became one of the reasons for the good result.

During two days the route covered 829 kilometres, 233 of which were special stages driven at maximum speeds.

This was the first snow rally for the young Japanese drivers, but they adapted well to the new elements. Driving a Group N car Hiroki Arai achieved third place overall among hot competition. Out of a total of ten special stages he was fastest Group N competitor on no less than four. This result exceeded the expectations of his coaches, but still did not come as a total surprise.

Arai took to the competition exactly as we had planned. We decided in advance that it is enough to drive at similar speed to what we'd seen in practice. The idea was to start at a consistent pace and towards the end he even managed some fastest times, explained Arai's coach Jouni Ampuja.

Katsuta set off with similar thoughts, but unfortunately ran out of patience on the third stage. He ran off the road, which finished the rally for him. He's fast all right, but it remains a challenge to keep his composure to the finish of a long rally, Ampuja analyses.

Arctic Lapland Rally was won by the hugely experienced multiple Finnish champion Juha Salo with a Peugeot 208 T16 R5. Second and winner of Group N was Teemu Asunmaa with a Subaru Impreza WRX Sti R4. Hiroki Arai used a similar car to finish third overall and second in Group N, 1:37.2 (0.417sec/km) behind Asunmaa.

Two more rounds remain during the winter season of the Finnish Championship. SM Vaakuna Ralli next weekend is based in Mikkeli and two weeks later comes Tahko SM-ralli in Nilsiä. Then there's a bit of a gap before the series continues with three gravel rallies from June onwards.