Busy weekend for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Rally Challenge drivers and co-drivers, in Portugal and Finland
The TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Rally Challenge drivers and co-drivers were competing at opposite ends of Europe last weekend, on the FIA World Rally Championship round in Portugal and the latest event on the Finnish Rally Championship at the Riihimäki Rally in southern Finland.
Japanese drivers Takamoto Katsuta and Hiroki Arai contested Rally Portugal, each at the wheel of a Ford Fiesta R5, co-driven by Marko Salminen and Glenn Macneall respectively. Katsuta eventually finished 14th in the WRC2 category, while Arai retired.
In Finland, Japanese co-driver Sayaka Adachi competed alongside Jarkko Nikara in a Subaru Impreza R4, finishing sixth overall. Consequently, they maintain third place in the championship.
Katsuta/Salminen
Katsuta and Arai came to Rally Portugal fresh from the Amarante Rally: a small event in Portugal held just a week earlier, which Arai won from Katsuta following a very tight battle where they were separated by just tenths of a second, ahead of all the local experts. But they did not enjoy similar good luck on the WRC round.
On Friday morning, both cars hit trouble. Katsuta was forced into retirement from the day with a broken steering rack: due to the constant impacts from the rough gravel surface. Arai was also in difficulty, when he had a puncture and broke a wheel. The broken wheel then proved to be nearly impossible to remove, costing a total of 15 minutes. On top of that, he was hampered by a consistent problem with the pop-off valve, which meant that the car could not deliver full power and he had to turn down the turbo boost pressure. Much worse was to come for Arai: on Saturday afternoon he went off and his car caught fire, burning out completely before the crew had a chance to extinguish the blaze. In the meantime, Katsuta had returned under the Rally 2 regulations on Saturday morning and was able to set some promising times, although he also had no chance of sealing a representative result because of his earlier problems. Having completed the majority of the stages, he ended up 14th in class at the rally finish.
Nikara and Adachi also had their fair share of adventures, although thankfully their rally was not quite as eventful of that of their colleagues in Portugal. The Riihimäki Rally consisted of eight stages packed into one hectic day on Saturday. During the second stage they had an overshoot, and on stage six they had a puncture, although with just three kilometres to go until the stage finish they were able to continue. In the end they finished sixth overall. As usual on the Finnish Rally Championship, the margins were extremely close. With a rapid succession of corners and junctions, the series provides a tough learning ground for co-drivers in particular.
Hiroki Arai
“From the beginning the roads were very slippery and rough; I couldn’t believe it when we had quite a small problem on the first loop of stages, which then turned into a very big one when we couldn’t get the wheel off. On Saturday afternoon we simply went off and the car caught fire immediately; it was quite a scary moment as nothing like this has ever happened to me before. Now we have to work out exactly what happened. Luckily the next rally is coming soon, so I can get my confidence back.”
Sayaka Adachi
“Riihimäki Rally was very fast and very tricky: the average speed of the second stage was more than 120kph, for example! I really enjoyed the rally, but I still need to learn a lot more. On the seventh stage in particular my reading of the notes was very late. It was a pity that we had the puncture, but there were only three kilometres of stage left so we were able to drive to the finish.”
Jarkko Nikara
“It was quite a difficult rally; I think because there was a very long gap since the last rally and so it took some time for us to find the rhythm again, which is normal. But as we did more kilometres it got better and better, so the feeling was coming. The puncture was just unlucky, but it didn’t cause us too many problems and so we keep our place in the championship. As the next rally is only in three weeks’ time, I’m sure we will be back on the pace. At this level, you have to compete as regularly as possible, which is why the Challenge program is so valuable for all the drivers and co-drivers.”
Jouni Ampuja (TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Rally Challenge Program instructor)
“It was definitely a very mixed weekend, but that is rallying. It’s a shame what happened in Portugal, especially after such a positive result on the Amarante Rally, but the main thing is that everybody is OK and we have a spare car so nothing will affect our program. Both Taka and Hiroki lost their chance for a strong result on Friday morning, but at least they were able to drive some kilometres to gain more experience. In Finland, Sayaka and Jarkko did a great job on a really quick and challenging rally, which is especially difficult for co-drivers. Even though they are in an R4 car against the quicker R5 cars, they are still in a very good championship position. Now all the crews are looking forward to competing again in only three weeks; once more at opposite ends of Europe.”
Arai/Macneall
Nikara/Adachi
WRC2 Results:
1 Pontus Tidemand/Jonas Andersson (Skoda Fabia R5) 3h54m17.6s
2 Teemu Suninen/Mikko Markkula (Ford Fiesta R5) +11.2s
3 Simone Tempestini/Giovanni Bernacchini (Citroen DS3 R5) +7m00.6s
4 Miguel Campos/Antonio Costa (Skoda Fabia R5) +9m19.3s
5 Lukasz Pieniazek/Przemyslaw Mazur (Peugeot 208 T16) +10m59.5s
14 Takamoto Katsuta/Marko Salminen (Ford Fiesta R5) ＋51m16.2s
Retired Hiroki Arai/Glenn Macneall (Ford Fiesta R5)
FRC Results:
1 Marko Manty/Joni Makela (Skoda Fabia R5) 45m22.1s
2 Juuso Nordgren/Mikael Korhonen (Skoda Fabia R5) +3.4s
3 Teemu Asunmaa/Jonne Halttunen (Skoda Fabia R5) +4.0s
4 Mikko Lehessaari/Reeta Hamalainen (Skoda Fabia R5) +1m03.8s
5 Eerik Pietarinen/Juhana Raitanen (Mitsubishi Lancer) +1m09.7s
6 Jarkko Nikara/Sayaka Adachi (Subaru Impreza) ＋1m15.5s
What’s next?:
The next event is also the next round of the FIA World Rally Championship: Rally Italia Sardegna from June 8-11. This is another event featuring soft and sandy gravel, as well as high temperatures that will add to the challenge. The next round of the Finnish Rally Championship is the O.K. Auto-Ralli in Kouvola during the same weekend, from June 9-10.
Quotes:
Takamoto Katsuta
“It was a very tough rally. The surface and the conditions were quite rough, so to find the right driving style was not easy for us. But in the end I learned a lot of things. It was very disappointing when I had to retire for day two due to the broken steering rack although there was no specific impact I felt. On the final day we had an engine problem before the last stage, but I’m so glad that we still managed to get to the finish. I’m so thankful for Marko who tried to start the engine again without giving up.”