Waiting patiently on the start-line, anticipation beginning to build, Aaron Johnston looked at the clock. Instinct took over.
“30 seconds,” he said.
And then it dawned on him: that wasn’t his job this weekend. With a steering wheel within his grasp as opposed to a pacenote book, the Toyota co-driver had become a driver at his local Irish event.
“I was definitely not approaching the event as a driver,” Johnston tells DirtFish. “I was keeping an eye on Sportity for what was coming in from the co-driver’s side in terms of timing and organization.
“And when we were sitting in the start line of the first stage, just out of absolute habit, I said 30 seconds to Eoin [Treacy], which was, you know, not really my job to do, but I was just purely in autopilot mode really. You’re so used to watching the clock and counting down that it just happened.
“So no, I did not go into the event with a driver mentality. It was very much: I’m a co-driver and I’m just here to have a weekend’s craic.”
Johnston and Treacy's only mission was to have good craic
And that’s exactly what Johnston – usually found co-driving Takamoto Katsuta in the World Rally Championship – did alongside his fellow Irishman and Rally1 co-driver Eoin Treacy.
Piloting a Toyota Starlet EP81 in a last-minute opportunity at the Bushwacker Rally, the goal was not to be competitive or meet any sort of expectation. Indeed, the fact Johnston had to retire with a broken driveshaft on the seventh stage would usually be a source of great frustration – but it just didn’t matter this time.
“It was a special event for me and everyone in the club because it was the 50th anniversary of the Bushwacker Rally and Omagh Motor Club,” he says. “So to be involved and to start my career there in my home club 15 years ago and to be invited back as a guest, let’s say, and do the 50th anniversary was definitely something very special and an experience that I will, of course, never forget.”
How did he find driving?
Johnston reveals that he did actually try and drive a rally a decade ago, but an accident in testing robbed him of the chance to make the start-line.
“So already on Thursday when we got through the test, I was like ‘right, well we’re onto a winner here now!'” he laughs.
Johnston describes that 50km test on Thursday as a “blind date” because he hadn’t even seen the car he’d drive the next day, let alone sit in it or drive it. But the day wasn’t about chasing the perfect setup or feeling; instead learning the car’s ergonomics and for the RLA Autosport team to make sure the car was totally prepared.
It didn't take long for Johnston to understand his Starlet, but listening to pacenotes...
It might be assumed that the actual driving of the car would prove the biggest challenge for someone so used to sitting on the other side, but not in Johnston’s case – even if he acknowledges how difficult it is.
“The actual theory [of driving], it’s very clear what to do and how to do it and the possibilities of grip and set up and all of this. In my mind, that’s very clear, but putting it into actually doing it practically yourself: extremely difficult,” he explains.
“But listening to the notes was probably the biggest difference compared to what you’re used to – it wasn’t actually driving the car. Driving the car was quite OK, but concentrating on driving and listening at the same time was more difficult than I really expected, to be honest. And that was probably the biggest challenge, to get used to listening to what somebody beside you was saying, you know?”
Adjusting to having a co-driver
A professional co-driver needing to adjust to listening to pacenotes may seem absurd, but delivering those notes is very different to actually needing to digest them.
It’s often the biggest struggle drivers from other motorsport disciplines have when they try rallying, so it’s only really natural if it’s what you’re used to from the get-go.
“That’s a pretty good way to sum it up,” Johnston says. “When I’m reading the notes, of course, you’re fully focused on concentrating on what you’re saying but it’s not the be all and end all if you’re not taking it all in. But when you’re on the opposite side, you have to listen and take it all in at the same time, as well as maintain control of the car.
There were a couple of Coke Zeros on Sunday night in Chile, and over dinner there was a deal struck to bring Eoin up to sit in the factory Toyota!Aaron Johnston
“So yeah, on Wednesday after I got home [from Chile], when the DVD and the notes were at home here for me, I spent half the day going through them and basically took out a lot of information that I just thought at the speed that we would be going was irrelevant. I made the notes as simple as possible so that I could take them in, and I was glad I had done that when I did go to the test and realized that this would be maybe the most difficult part of it for me.
“As well, it didn’t probably help that the first experience of driving was going to be done in the pitch black dark. We didn’t have a recce, so when you’re having long distances of 250 or 300 meters in the dark and there might be little crests or dips or whatever, the lights can’t… sometimes they can be hidden from you.”
“But again it wasn’t about being prepared, being fast or trying to prove anything,” Johnston adds, “it was purely an exercise in having a weekend’s craic. That was it. There was no other target apart from that.
“Of course it would have been nice to make it to the finish, but like I told you at the start, to do seven of the 10 stages and enjoy every single one of them, I think I can be happy and tick that box off.”
Working with Treacy
Usually Johnston and Treacy (co-driver for M-Sport’s Josh McErlean) are opponents on the stages, but at the Bushwacker they were sharing a car.
Treacy (right) and Johnston proved a strong partnership
Plenty of other Rally1 co-drivers have driven rallies (not least Johnston’s Toyota team-mate Jonne Halttunen who even drove in Finland on the same weekend!) but they haven’t taken other Rally1 co-drivers with them for the ride.
Was it an easy choice for Johnston to pick Treacy?
“James Fulton was on the short list to go, who has the Toyota link as well, but unfortunately something came up for him last minute and he let me know when we were in Chile,” Johnston says.
“And then there were a couple of Coke Zeros on Sunday night in Chile after a long month away and I was with Josh and Eoin and Mr Mike Chen as well, and there were a few stories. Over dinner there was a deal struck to bring Eoin up to sit in the factory Toyota!”
Sharing the car with him proved to be a special experience.
“Yeah, it was brilliant. And to have someone that you know and fully trust to do the job was great for my first time. Of course, there was any number of guys from home that we could have asked and done the rally with, but to have a professional in his field to come up and to enjoy it with me, as well as a friend, was fantastic.
“I think Eoin enjoyed it as well from the laughing and joking that was going on. So all round, very happy to have Eoin in beside me and also just to be there and understand what the target was for the weekend and it wasn’t anything overly serious. We just both went out to enjoy ourselves with zero pressure. That was the big thing. To do something in a competitive environment but with zero pressure was a nice feeling also.”
Would he do it again?
The obvious and cliché question: has this experience given Johnston the desire to do more rally driving in the future?
“Yes and no,” he replies. “I really enjoyed the weekend, I enjoyed the buzz of driving the little Starlet and everything that the weekend presented me with. So will I do more in the future? Yes. Will it be regular? I would say no.
“Let’s see, maybe you could turn it into an annual thing and do the Bushwacker every year or something like this, but to start to do two, three, four rallies a year right now with where we’re at, it’s not something that’s very high up on my priority list.”
After all, he’s got plenty of things on his plate co-driving in a GR Yaris Rally1 for 14 events across the globe.
Johnston isn't giving up the day job, but is open to more driving outings
Johnston concludes: “I’ve got to thank Omagh Motor Club for putting on one of the, if not the, best events in Irish forestry rallying. I think everybody that started the event really, really enjoyed it and the spectacle of night stages as well is something that is very rare to do nowadays, but something that I think everybody enjoyed. So fair play to all the organizers, officials, marshals, set-up, safety crews, everybody. They deserve a massive round of applause and a pat on the back for what they did.
“From a personal side, of course, I have to thank all my sponsors, C&M Motorsport, McKelvey Construction, who were also the title sponsor of the Bushwacker Rally this year and have been for 15 years. So it’s a credit to them for the support that they’ve shown me over my career and as well our home rally. And then of course ECD NY, MW Fire Solutions and PH Shot Blasting. Without these guys it would have been almost impossible for me to take the start at the weekend, so it’s a credit to them.
“And lastly, David Young of C&M Motorsport deserves full respect from me because without this guy alone, the event simply would not have happened. I’ve been in South America for a month leading up to the rally and obviously only came home for two days before the event started but David sorted everything: tires, fuel, delivery, transport for the car and without David it just simply wouldn’t have happened.
“So thanks to him for the effort that he put in and allowing me to have that experience at the weekend.”
