One year ago, Takamoto Katsuta’s world was collapsing around him.
He’d gone toe-to-toe with Esapekka Lappi for the lead of Rally Sweden, then buried his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1. He was in bits, verging on tears when speaking to the media once he’d returned to the service park.
12 months later, his mood couldn’t have been more different. Beaming from ear to ear, you’d think he’d won the rally. He hadn’t – but he’d scored a major victory in his development as a rally driver.
As happy as Katsuta was, Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala might have been happier. His young Japanese charge finally demonstrated the sort of pace, from start to finish and without error, that his team needs from its regular third driver.
“Taka did the performance that we’ve been a little bit waiting for to happen,” Latvala told DirtFish.
“Towards the end of last year, after Chile, you could see there was a change within Taka and now he had a different approach.”
Elfyn Evans pulled a barnstorming penultimate-stage performance out of the bag to pip Katsuta to the top spot in Sweden last week. But Latvala isn’t at all disappointed by that outcome. By coming in second place, Katsuta demonstrated a stronger winning mentality than ever before – one which Latvala believes means he is finally ready to take the next step.
“Last year, here on the same rally, when he was in the hunt for the win, he attacked and he went off,” Latvala continued. “Now he was holding his mind back and decided that he will secure the podium. And still he was in the fight for the win.
“So now overall I would say Taka is ready to win rallies.”
Katsuta’s confidence-boosting Sweden performance means Latvala expects that win could come as soon as the next round of the season at the Safari Rally in March.
“This will definitely give him good confidence,” said Latvala. “If you think about it, Kenya is one of his favorite events, so I think that’s an event which he can actually win.”
