2023-11-17 15:37:01
©Jun Uruno
The final stage of the WRC, Forum Eight Rally Japan (tarmac), began on November 17th. On this day, the driving area was the eastern part of Toyota Stadium where the service park is located. The 3 SS of last year’s WRC Rally Japan, Isegami’s Tunnel (23.67km), Inabu Dam (19.38km), and Shitara Town (22.53km), were completed in two loops with a service at Toyota Stadium in between, and then the second time of the day. After this service, the 7th SS was scheduled to run on the Toyota Stadium Super SS. However, the morning was filled with thick fog and heavy rain, and a red flag was raised due to an accident involving Rally 1 on SS2 Isegami’s Tunnel. All JRCar cars were given a notional time. Additionally, SS4 Shitara Town has been canceled due to heavy fog for safety reasons.
SS3 Inabu Dam, which was essentially the first stage of the day for the JRCars, had extremely risky conditions due to heavy rain and water puddles on the road surface, with most of the riders complaining of hydroplaning. Norihiko Katsuta (Toyota GR Yaris JP4-Rally 2), who set the top time among JRCars in SS1 the day before, also set the top time among JRCars in this stage. The first rally cars had a tough time on this stage due to problems with their front windows fogging up, so Katsuta’s time was 5th overall. Katsuta returned to service at Toyota Stadium with the fastest time among JRCars in the followingnoon loop, with a difference of 2 minutes 6.4 seconds over 2nd place Toshihiro Arai (Subaru WRX S4).
“It rained a lot in the morning, so it wasn’t scary at all.In the followingnoon, I was in a bit of a frightened mode,” said Katsuta. However, bad luck awaited him during the second Toyota Stadium Super SS run following the service. He hit his left rear into the concrete wall at the right corner on the last lap. The impact caused the tire to come off, making it impossible to drive. Katsuta’s machine has been returned to service and is currently undergoing repairs with the aim of restarting the race. A day retirement penalty was added to his SS8 time, dropping him to 4th in the JRCar category.
June Uruno
With this, Arai has emerged as the top of the JRCar squad. In the morning, the road was slippery due to rain and fallen leaves, which he said was “dangerous,” but in the followingnoon, he said, “In the followingnoon, it was just a bit wet, so it would have been difficult to use rain tires, so soft tires might have been better. “There were a lot of fallen leaves, so I mightn’t take as much risk as running on soft tires. It was a bit difficult,” he said, reflecting on the difficult day’s conditions.
On the other hand, Satoshi Magai’s Toyota GR Yaris DAT, which sustained damage during the previous day’s Super SS, had the radiator replaced as well as the entire suspension, as the right rear had been hit before the jump. He refreshed his car until the last minute before entering parc fermé for a restart and returned to the rally, catching up to 6th among the JRCars.
On this day, there was a series of ups and downs in the overall top rankings, with Hiroyasu Shimizu (Toyota GR Yaris), Yasunori Hagiwara (Subaru WRX STI 2015), Tsuji Irie (Toyota Vitz), and Yasuyuki Sasaki (Toyota GR Yaris) all leading the way. It was a tough day, with a number of day retirements due to machine problems and off-course issues.
The stage on the 18th will be in the southeastern part of Toyota Stadium. After the pre-start service, the 2nd SS of Nukata Forest (20.32km) and Lake Mikawako (14.78km) was followed by two consecutive runs on the newly constructed super SS (2.84km) at Okazaki Central General Park. After that, it will be a marathon stage where the first 2 SS will be rerun, and 7 SS (82.58 km) will be run only in the tire fitting zone until Shinshiro City (6.70 km), which will only be run once. After that, the race will run on the Toyota Stadium Super SS, which will conclude with a service at Toyota Stadium, for a total of 8 SS, 84.68 km.
WRC Rally Japan provisional results following JRCar SS8
1 Toshihiro Arai (Subaru WRX S4) 1:34:37.0
2 Kosuke Murata (Toyota GR Yaris) +6:30.7
3 Shin Hotta (Toyota GR Yaris) +7:02.9
4 Norihiko Katsuta (Toyota GR Yaris JP4-Rally 2) +7:51.9
5 Yuta Yamamoto (Toyota 86) +9:32.7
6 Satoshi Magai (Toyota GR Yaris DAT) +10:28.1
7 Toru Nakayama (Toyota GR Yaris) +15:27.7
8 Mitsuhiro Kunisawa (Renault Clio Rally 5) +15:31.4
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