Training Report Vol.2 - Tarmac rallies with R2 cars
After a series of snow rallies to start the year, Takamoto Katsuta and Hiroki Arai compete on three tarmac rallies in Italy and France with R2 car to continue their learning curve. It will be their first tarmac event outside Japan. Through these rallies they aim to learn pacenoting and driving on tarmac, how to use tyres effectively on tarmac, and how to adapt a new car… and so on, to accumulate their rally experience.
TRAINING
Before the rally event Katsuta and Arai had a long testing day to get used to the R2 cars. During the day both drivers tried different car setups and tyre compounds. Mikko Hirvonen co-drove with both drivers and helped them to understand the car setups and driving.
Both drivers started to get used to the cars cautiously. Hiroki, who has less experience in tarmac, was struggling a bit at the beginning especially with the braking, but he was able to get it on better level during the day.
Between Rally Ciocco and Sanremo, drivers stayed in Italy and continued pacenote training on Italian roads which have quite different feature from those in Finland.
Katsuta changed his way of making pacenote after his last rally in Sweden to make it more simple and effective. He repeated practice for his new pacenotes based on the advices from his instructors and his co-driver, Marko Salminen.
Rally Report
RESULT
#27 Hiroki Arai/Glenn Macneall Class 5th, 16th overall (Ford Fiesta R2) 2:14：04.4
#35 Takamoto Katsuta/Marko Salminen Retire (Ford Fiesta R2)
As asphalt is a surface that the drivers have even less experience of than snow, they switched to less powerful Ford Fiesta R2 cars to continue their apprenticeship. Against an extremely strong field of R5 and two-wheel drive cars driven by local experts, Arai finished 16th overall and fifth in class at the Rally Il Ciocco, after 17 special stages. This was despite having a puncture on Saturday morning and then picking up another puncture in the dark on Saturday evening, which cost them a lot of time.
Katsuta was having a very strong pace, but were forced to retire at the end of Saturday’s leg after picking up two punctures on the penultimate stage. They were able to restart on Sunday morning, but didn’t make the finish as the gearbox broke after Sunday’s second stage. Nonetheless Katsuta was able to make use of his circuit racing experience: he previously competed in the Japanese Formula 3 Championship, finishing runner-up.
RESULT
#38 Hiroki Arai/Glenn Macneall Class 4th, 13th overall (Ford Fiesta R2) 2:08：31.3
#27 Takamoto Katsuta/Marko Salminen Class 9th, 27th overall (Ford Fiesta R2) 2:20：31.4
Having completed the Rally Il Ciocco two weeks earlier, Katsuta and Arai aimed to capitalise on their prior experience in order to further improve their driving on asphalt. Despite the demanding nature of the most famous event in the Italian Rally Championship ? which is always contested by an experienced array of local experts ? Arai finished 13th overall and fourth in the R2 class after an entirely clean run from start to finish. Having found a good rhythm and car settings, he increased his pace stage by stage. Katsuta finished 27th overall and ninth in the R2 class, after starting the second day under the super rally regulations. On Friday’s penultimate stage, Katsuta slid wide and damaged his car’s suspension, which meant that he had to stop and re-start on Saturday morning. Apart from that, he made no mistakes at all.
A further challenge came from some sudden wet weather, which affected the final loop of the 11-stage event. Taking care not to make any mistakes, the drivers had to get to the finish using slick tyres on a fully wet surface. The rally gave the both drivers very good lessons for the future.
RESULT
#83 Hiroki Arai/Glenn Macneall Class 8th, 26th overall (Ford Fiesta R2) 2:15：12.7
#84 Takamoto Katsuta/Marko Salminen Class 6th, 24th overall (Ford Fiesta R2) 2:15：04.6
On the second stage, Katsuta picked up a slow puncture that deflated the tyre with four kilometres left to go on the stage. He drove slowly to the finish, but the incident cost a minute and a half. He went on to set five fastest stage times and finish sixth: without the incident, he would have been challenging for the class win.
Arai also put in a strong performance, concluding the rally eighth in class. He drove consistently from start to finish, although he and co-driver Glenn Macneall felt that their pacenotes could have been better under the specialised circumstances. They also experienced a damper problem in the closing stages of the rally, which meant that they were not able to drive to their full potential. Nonetheless, Arai was pleased with his personal progress: finishing just two-tenths of a second behind the seventh-placed driver.
Both drivers were in a Ford Fiesta R2, the car they are using to gain experience of asphalt stages. Despite their relative unfamiliarity with this tricky surface, they were able to go faster than many local experts in similar machinery, who have in-depth knowledge of the roads.
Hiroki Arai
Tarmac roads in Europe were very characteristic and overwhelming. In Ciocco I tried many ways of driving as my experience on tarmac is limited. I gradually picked up good rhythm and could get close time with the top drivers’ on latter stages. In Sanremo I tried to improve my tarmac driving and pacenote accuracy. One of the reasons I had many punctures in Ciocco was because my way of description of corner length was not accurate and it led to wrong lines and caused punctures. So from Sanremo I increased scales for corner length and it enabled me to drive with constant speed on the long stages without mistake.
The roads in France were wide and smooth and it made me realize again how important the driving lines and breaking are. It was unfortunate that we had a damper trouble at the end but I was satisfied with how much I learned. Thanks to Jouni, who did my safety crew, I could find where to improve my pacenote, so I will try to correct them by the next rally.
Comment from Chief instructor, Jouni Ampuja
We are very satisfied with these rallies we did on tarmac with R2 cars. The drivers gained a lot of experience and they were competitive among the local drivers who know the stages very well. R2 cars have less power than R5 cars, and in order to go fast with these cars, driving needs to be smooth. Small mistakes are affecting more in R2 car than in R5 car. We believe that driving R2 car supported a lot to get a progress in pacenoting and driving of R5 cars.
Katsuta’s speed was very impressive and he made a big progress on these three rallies. He gained a lot of self-confidence and we think it will make his driving better also on gravel. Arai has a good patience and he can stay calm even under unexpected conditions. Serving as his safety crew in France I found where he could improve more on his pacenotes. We are sure they can be easily corrected in the upcoming rallies and he will achieve further improvement.
Takamoto Katsuta
In Ciocco I had been driving with very good feeling until I got a puncture and had to retire. It was very disappointing but I learned how I should react when I got a trouble or an irregular incident. I also had to retire in Sanremo due to a small mistake. It was very frustrating again, but except for that stage I could drive with quite good times and it gave me good confidence back. It was a big improvement that I could stay calm and react properly when an accident happened this time. I had another puncture in France and it made me move down a lot. I tried to enjoy how much I can recover and went on. I was glad to show my speed by achieving five top times.
I’m surprised with how well my new pacenote is working only after three month since I changed it. I have more detailed information and length on corners matches well to my feeling. Now I’m looking forward to the first gravel rally with my new pacenote!