Fintona’s Aaron Johnston caps ‘good weekend’ with podium ‘Finnish

FOR the second time in three years, Fintona’s Aaron Johnston had the honour of standing on the podium at Rally Finland.

At the ninth round of this year’s World Rally Championship, he and his Japanese driver, Takamoto Katsuta, went one better than 2023 when they claimed third position at the ‘Gravel Grand Prix’ by finishing second behind their Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate, two-time World Champion, Kalle Rovanpera, and ahead of their fellow colleagues Sebastien Ogier, Elfyn Evans and Sami Pajari, as the squad sealed a remarkable 1-2-3-4-5 in the overall standings.

Having tasted a similar result in Sweden earlier in the year, Johnston admits it’s taken himself and Katsuta longer than they would have liked to return to the WRC podium, but they are delighted to do so at Toyota’s ‘home’ rally – the WRC team is based in Jyväskylä.

“We were P2 in Sweden too at round two, so it’s taken us seven rallies to get back on the podium now in Finland,” he said. “But the speed has always been there, there was no question about that, there were just issues along the way and a string of difficult events.

“But to come back with a bang and a podium like that in Finland on the fastest rally of all time with an average speed of 129.95km/h, it was a good weekend.”

Johnston and Katsuta’s good weekend started at the very beginning as they went fastest over the shakedown stage, which the 30-year-old felt gave them a good platform to continue on the front foot.

“We were fastest in shakedown, which is always nice to get set up like that because it gives you a bit of confidence to push for the rest of the weekend when the feeling is there. It was a good weekend from start to finish, no doubt about it,” he beamed.

After that early marker, Johnston and Katsuta proved their shakedown performance was well merited as they claimed a stage win, six second fastest times, including one on the concluding Wolf Power Stage over the epic Ouninpohja test, and a third quickest time to claim second overall.

The result leaves them in a positive mindset ahead of what is potentially their biggest adventure of the season when they spend a month in South America for Rally Paraguay at the end of this month, before travelling across the Andes to Rally Chile in mid-September.

“We have a month in South America. I’m not coming home between the two events, so we’ll just spend the time down there and I’m looking forward to it,” Johnston explained.

“Paraguay is new for everybody and obviously we weren’t in Chile last year, it’s been two years since we’ve been there, so looking forward to it.

“It’s always nice to do a long-haul event and experience different parts of the world and obviously go rallying when we’re there! “