TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Rally Challenge Program produces strong performances on Italian asphalt

Quotes:
Takamoto Katsuta

“I am happy with how this rally went, particularly after taking fourth place on the last stage and being only 1.3 seconds from the fastest time. I think that shows that I improved quite a bit from the beginning of the rally. I feel I learned a lot. I don’t have so much experience on asphalt in an R5 car, so this was good practice for Rally Corsica. I still need to improve our pace-notes for asphalt rallies as well as my driving: I need to make my driving style smoother as sometimes I am too aggressive.”

Hiroki Arai

“I am fairly happy with my rally, but it was a little bit frustrating that I had a braking problem on some stages. The feeling from the pedal seemed different on every corner, so I kept having to adjust all the time. Otherwise I think that things went well. My driving was getting better all the time and I believe the times have been quite OK. I learned quite a lot about how to use the road, and hopefully this will be useful for Corsica.”

Sayaka Adachi

“This was our first time in an R2 car and on asphalt roads. The stages on this rally had lots of twists and narrow corners, so the pace-notes were very busy. This was good experience and practice for me. I was getting better with my reading of the pace-notes throughout the rally. I was also learning more and more about how Jarkko was driving the car, particularly how light it is, and how easy it is to lose the grip at the rear. I hope this experience will help me in the future.”

Jarkko Nikara

“This rally was a big challenge, as it was my first time on asphalt with Sayaka, and I had not driven on asphalt in an R2 car for many years. At the beginning we had a problem with the car, and Sayaka’s pace-note reading was also bit late, so it was difficult to find the rhythm. In the afternoon though it was actually really good. My driving was getting better and Sayaka’s pace-note reading at the end of the rally was good. We learned a lot so it was a good rally for us.”

Jouni Ampuja (TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Rally Challenge Program instructor)

“With Takamoto and Hiroki we got the maximum from this test event before Rally Corsica. Firstly, they had a good test and then during the rally they did exactly what we planned, which was to get the feeling for driving on asphalt and to improve their driving styles. We are really happy that they both did clean stages throughout, and because of that achieved some nice results. They made no mistakes on challenging roads against some really tough competition. For Sayaka this was a totally different kind of rally to what she has done before, so there were new challenges with the navigation and the pace-note reading, as well as with how the rally was organised, which was different to what she is used to Japan and Finland. Despite the problem with the car, it was a good rally for her.”

What’s next?:

Katsuta and Arai will be able to use the experience gained on Rally Il Ciocco when they take part in the Tour de Corse, the French round of the FIA World Rally Championship, on April 5-8. Taking part on the island of Corsica, the rally is one of the most challenging asphalt rallies in the world, known for its long and twisting stages. Adachi and Nikara’s next rally meanwhile will mean another change of surface as they return to the Finnish Rally Championship for the O.K. Auto-Ralli on May 18-19. Based in Kouvola in southern Finland, it will be the first gravel round of the season, with Adachi and Nikara back in their usual R4-specification Subaru Impreza.