TOYOTA GAZOO Racing announces 2018 activity for its Rally Challenge Program

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing is pleased to announce a 2018 activity for the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Rally Challenge Program, which supports young drivers competing in the tough global arena of World Rally.

Drivers Takamoto Katsuta and Hiroki Arai, who were chosen after auditioning in 2015 and then trained by competing in rallies in Europe, will continue their training during 2018 while based in Finland with the cooperation of Tommi Mäkinen Racing.

During 2018, the drivers will focus on training by competing in rallies with the goal of further boosting their skills in the competitive environment. They are scheduled to compete in a total of 10 rallies, including five FIA World Rally Championship (WRC2) events in which they will compete with R5 cars (Ford Fiesta). Having previously competed in eight of the ten rallies, the familiar environments will enable them to concentrate more on competing than in 2017 when they were participating in many of the rallies for the first time. As a result, both drivers can be expected to show further growth and more active participation. *Please see the tentative 2018 schedule for details.

As with 2017, Katsuta’s co-driver will be Marko Salminen (Finland), while Arai’s co-driver will be Glenn Macneall (Australia). The training program for co-driver Sayaka Adachi will be announced separately.

■Instructor comments:
“We were very pleased to see the progress of our drivers in 2017. With their driving skills and pacenoting already at a good level, the next step for them is to work on consistency and develop their mental strength to handle the increased pressures in WRC2 rallies. 2018 will be a very important year for the Challenge Program, and I would say that next year will show what the future holds for our drivers in this sport.”

2018 schedule

Dates Event
January
25 to 27
Arctic Lapland Rally
(1st round of the Finnish Rally Championship)
Ice/snow
February
15 to 18
Rally Sweden
(2nd round of the FIA World Rally Championship)
Snow
March
23 to 25
Rally Il Ciocco e Valle del Serchio
(1st round of the Italian Rally Championship)
Tarmac
April
5 to 8
Rally France
(4th round of the FIA World Rally Championship)
Tarmac
Early May TBA Gravel
May
17 to 20
Rally Portugal
(6th round of the FIA World Rally Championship)
Gravel
June
7 to 10
Rally Italy
(7th round of the FIA World Rally Championship)
Gravel
July
12 to 14
Autoglym Rally (Finland) Gravel
July
26 to 29
Rally Finland
(8th race of the FIA World Rally Championship)
Gravel
August 31
to
September 1
Enset Oy SM-Ralli
(6th round of the Finnish Rally Championship)
Gravel

■Profiles of drivers

Driver Takamoto Katsuta

Takamoto Katsuta

Takamoto Katsuta
Katsuta was born in Aichi Prefecture on March 17, 1993. He drove in his first race at the age of 12, and at age 18 he won the Formula Challenge Japan (FCJ). He placed second in the F3 series at age 20, and since 2014 he has competed in F3 in addition to notching his first JN5 class win in the eighth race of the Japanese Rally Championship. In the seventh race of the 2017 FIA World Rally Championship (Italy), he took his first podium by finishing third in the WRC2 class.

Driver Hiroki Arai

Hiroki Arai

Hiroki Arai
Arai was born in Gunma Prefecture on August 2, 1993. Since driving in his first rally race at age 19, he has competed in the Japanese Rally Championship and Rally Hokkaido, the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship. In 2014, he also competed in the JN6 class in the Japanese Rally Championship and in the second race of the Austrian Rally Championship. In 2017, he achieved his personal first overall win in Rally Baiao Amarante (Portugal), and took his second overall win in Rally Ourense-Ribeira Sacra (Spain).