Red Bull Motorsports
WRC
Could Takamoto Katsuta become Japan’s greatest ever rallying export?
After his surprisingly assured maiden WRC2 victory at Rally Sweden 2018, is the Toyota protégée set for World Rally Championship greatness?
For a car-making nation of such world-leading repute, Japan’s record in the World Rally Championship could be better.
Japanese-produced cars from the likes of Subaru, Toyota and Mitsubishi have won 138 WRC rounds between them. Yet there have only been two victories for a Japanese driver in the series’ history, placing it behind nations including Kenya, Belgium and Estonia in the wins-per-country stakes.
Takamoto Katsuta wants to change all that. The 24 year old is part of Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Challenge Program and, at last week’s Rally Sweden, he rocked rallying’s establishment to its core with a confident maiden WRC2 win.
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Takamoto Katsuta wins the WRC2 category at Rally Sweden 2018
Takamoto Katsuta wins the WRC2 category at Rally Sweden 2018
Katsuta has his sights firmly set on driving one of the Toyota Gazoo Racing Yaris WRCs, currently occupied by top level drivers Jari-Matti Latvala, Ott Tänak and Esapekka Lappi, in the near future – and that dream might have moved a bit closer towards reality after his impressive drive in Sweden.
Here is all you need to know about the Japanese driver:
– Takamoto Katsuta (“Taka” to save time) was always destined for life on the stages. His father Norihiko Katsuta won his eighth Japanese Rally Championship title last year. His grandfather competed as well, and remains a driving force behind the sport in Japan today.
– Katsuta started competing aged 12, racing karts at home in Japan.
Taka en route to victory in Sweden
© Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool
– At 18 he won the Formula Challenge Japan title (a slicks-and-wings single-seater series for young Japanese racers) and graduated to Formula Three with the TOM’S team. He finished second two years later, but had already started thinking about the switch to rallying.
– During his final year of F3, he stepped aboard a Toyota GT86 rally car and won his class at the Rally Highland Masters. He’d heard about Toyota’s driver development programme and set his sights firmly on it.
The goal is to compete in Toyota's Yaris WRC
© Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool
– Taka was signed to the programme by four-time WRC champion and Toyota Gazoo Racing team boss Tommi Mäkinen in 2015, driving alongside another son of another famous Japanese rally driver, Hiroki Arai. Arai’s father Toshi has 86 World Rally Championship starts to his name, twice finishing fourth with the official Subaru World Rally Team.
– Despite driving for Toyota, Katsuta actually competes in a Ford in the World Rally Championship. Toyota, for now, doesn’t make an R5 car, which is why Taka’s in a Fiesta.
Despite his Toyota ties, Taka has to compete in a Ford Fiesta R5
© Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool
– Rally Sweden was only Katsuta’s seventh start in the WRC, his previous best result being third in WRC2 in Italy last year.
– While the gap to Škoda driver Pontus Tidemand at Rally Sweden was just 4.5 seconds after 315 flat-chat kilometres through the frozen forests, Katsuta led for all but one of the 19 stages last week.
– Katsuta moved from Japan a couple of years ago and now lives in Jyväskylä, home of Rally Finland – which is much more convenient for the Toyota Gazoo Racing factory, which is just north of the city in Puuppola.
Taka's moved to Finland to be closer to Toyota
© Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool
– Rally Sweden was actually Taka’s seventh start on snow. He’s been competing at selected rounds of the Finnish Rally Championship for the past two years, which includes several winter events. Prior to last weekend, he finished third overall at the 2018 running of the fabled Arctic Rally – an event which based in Rovaniemi, the official home of Joulupukki, aka Santa Claus.
– Katsuta will tackle all remaining European WRC rounds for the 2018 season except for Rally Germany. In addition to that, he will expand his experience of asphalt driving on selected Italian national rally events.
Expect to see Taka at all the remaining European rounds in 2018
© Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool
– Tommi Mäkinen has got a plan for Taka making his debut in a Toyota Yaris WRC: “The plan is for a possible Rally Japan entry in 2019 – that would be most natural, if it happens,” says the Finn, referring to Japan’s bid to return to the World Rally Championship calendar for the first time since 2010. “But maybe it could be earlier. Let’s see…”
– The only Japanese driver ever to win a WRC round is Kenjiro Shinozuka, who took a Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 to back-to-back Ivory Coast victories in 1991 and 1992.
