Toyota has announced Zeal Jones and Hiroya Minowa as the fifth-generation drivers for its WRC Challenge Program.
Twenty one-year-old Jones, who hails from New Zealand but has a Japanese mother, and Minowa – who comes from drifting and is the youngest driver to ever join the program at 16 – impressed judges (including Mikko Hirvonen and Janne Ferm) at a five-day training camp in Lapland.
The pair join current Toyota WRC Challenge Program Rally2 drivers Shotaro Goto, Takumi Matsushita and Yuki Yamamoto – who’ll contest a full WRC season – as well as Jaspar Vaher, who in November was confirmed as the first non-Japanese driver to be inducted into the program.
Rio Ogata and Kanta Yanaguida meanwhile step up from Rally4 to Rally3, with new recruits Jones and Minowa moving to Finland in the new year to undergo an “intense training schedule” before competing in Finnish and European events from the summer of 2026.
Chief instructor Hirvonen said: “The level of the drivers in the final selection was really high again this year. Generally, they were very consistent, with only small things making the difference, so it wasn’t an easy decision but two of the guys stood out in particular.
“Zeal made a very good step up from last year’s selection, when he was a little wild and aggressive in his driving. This year he has clearly grown and matured and he showed really good performance in every area.
“Hiroya, despite his youth, demonstrated exceptional car handling in every different type of car he drove – front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive and four-wheel drive – and was always able to perform when the pressure was on.
“I’m really happy that we found two very talented drivers with great potential in rallying, and this is a very exciting opportunity for them.”
The talent scheme has been running since 2015 and is what unearthed current Rally1 driver Takamoto Katsuta.
L-R: Minowa and Jones
