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

■Profiles of drivers