Johnston delighted with ‘special’ end to season

AARON Johnston and Takamoto Katsuta were delighted to seal a podium finish at the first Rally Japan since 201 over the weekend.

The Fintona co-driver and his Japanese pilot finished third overall behind the Hyundai’s of winner, Thierry Neuville and runner-up Ott Tanak, to be Toyota Gazoo Racing’s top finisher at the company’s home event.

The fact they achieved their joint best finish of the season at Toyota and Katsuta’s home round, matching the third placed finish they recorded at Safari Rally Kenya, made the feat all the more ‘special’ for Johnston.

“It feels great to have achieved our second podium of the season,” he beamed. “Every time we go out our aim is to be at least fighting for the podium and we’ve done it several times this year but to do it at the season finale and especially with it being Japan it made it all the more special. We definitely couldn’t have capped off the year any better.”

The result sealed fifth place in the overall standings for the Team Next Generation crew, who finished just 12 points behind fellow Toyota driver, Elfyn Evans, with Neuville third, Tanak second and Kalle Rovanpera the overall winner.
And that is another achievement Johnston is thrilled about.

“I would have taken fifth at the start of the year so to get there at the end of the year is a massive achievement and one we can be proud of,” he said.

“The four guys in front of us include two World Champions and two guys who have won multiple rallies so to be best of the rest is an outstanding result and hopefully we can build on that now and use that momentum to maybe climb to fourth next year and keep pushing to achieve the best that we can.”

This season, the first full campaign together for Johnston and Katsuta has been a developmental one and the Fintona co-driver believes the signs are positive for 2023.

“We’re spending so much time together that you get to know each other and the personal preferences for certain things and after a year together now we have most of that under control,” he explained.

“So, I’m very hopeful that we can build on what we have learned so far and that we can fight for more podiums in 2023.

“The speed on tarmac has improved dramatically since the start of the year. We struggled in Croatia with several things, like the driving style and the set-up of the car, but throughout the year, Belgium and Spain and now Japan we have made massive steps to improve the speed.”

And while he is already looking forward to next season, Johnston is particularly looking forward to a return to Japan in 2023.
“Japan was different,” he observed. “I really enjoyed the time here, we were treated like royalty from the moment the plane landed.

“It’s been an incredible two weeks and an experience I’ll never forget and I’m already looking forward to coming back next year.”