LOCAL duo, Aaron Johnston and Jon Armstrong enjoyed positive weekends at Rally Japan where both returned with valuable World Rally Championship points as the series bid farewell to the current Rally1 machinery on tarmac.
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Johnston and his Japanese driver, Takamoto Katsuta finished fourth overall, taking second placed points on Super Sunday and on the Wolf Power stage to earn 20 points, which leaves them second in the overall standings, 20 points adrift of their team-mates, Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin, but 29 in front of colleagues, Oliver Solberg and Elliott Edmondson.
It was a positive result for the Fintona co-driver and Katsuta, who found the going tough initially as they struggled to find a suitable set-up or their Rally1 Yaris.
Strong finish
While they lost time on Friday, they found their groove on Saturday and Sunday with a string of top four fastest times as they clawed their way to within touching distance of the podium with a strong finish.
“After a tough start to the weekend we fought back well,” Johnston beamed. “We showed some good pace, finishing second on the Wolf Power Stage, second in the Super Sunday standings and fourth overall as part of a Toyota Gazoo Racing 1-2-3-4!
“It’s been great to be back in Japan again, to see the fans and to give these magnificent machines a proper send-off on tarmac.”
Some struggles
Armstrong, meanwhile, also endured some struggles before finding his feet and finishing eighth overall alongside co-driver Shane Byrne in their M-Sport Ford Puma.
They overcame set-up challenges and demanding conditions, leaving the Kesh native pleased to achieve a clean rally, score valuable points and continue his run of top-ten finishes.
“It was quite nice to drive the stages for the first time,” he said. “The temperatures have been very high and I think from that side it’s been a little bit tricky for our performance with trying to get a setup in a window and also just them being comfortable to really have a good rhythm.
“So we’re a little bit far away from where we want to be pace wise, but still we got some points on the board which is important to keep getting some top tens. It’s easy to just come to a rally and push and end up having mistakes. So that was one of our goals for this event was to have a clean rally and I think you can say that we’ve done that.”
The action resumes at the end of June when Acropolis Rally Greece takes place.