Takamoto Katsuta

Takamoto Katsuta (勝田貴元, ''Katsuta Takamoto'', born 17 March 1993) is a Japanese rally driver who currently competes in the World Rally Championship for Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT. Katsuta rose to prominence after taking a surprise victory in the WRC-2 class at the 2018 Rally Sweden. He achieved his first World Rally Championship podium in the 2021 Safari Rally, finishing in second place.

Early career

Katsuta was born in Nagoya. He began karting at the age of 12. Following intermediate success in this category, he began racing in the Formula Challenge Japan series in 2010, and eventually became champion in 2011, aged 18.

2012–2014: Years in Formula 3

Seeing the successes Katsuta had in Formula Challenge Japan, the TOM'S team hired him to be one of their drivers for the Japanese Formula 3 Championship in 2012, racing in the National class. He finished third in this category overall, and was eventually promoted to full championship driver for 2013. Katsuta experienced great success in 2013, winning two races and finishing second in the overall championship, beating drivers from the likes of Katsumasa Chiyo and future member of the McLaren Young Driver Programme, Nobuharu Matsushita. The following season, 2014, would be Katsuta's last in Formula 3. He ended up under-performing, finishing 4th in the standings with another two victories.

Taking an interest in rallying

During his final year of Japanese Formula 3, Katsuta began rallying at the local level. He began with a Toyota GT86 in the JN-5 class of the Japan Rally Championship (a series his father, Norihiko, has won eight times). In his second event, the Rally Highland Masters, Katsuta won his class, finishing 10th overall. His eventual goal was to be picked up by Toyota's development driver program. His performances in Japan attracted the attention of four-time World Rally Champion and future Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT team boss Tommi Mäkinen, who signed him onto Toyota's program alongside Hiroki Arai.

Rallying career

2015–2016: Early years with Mäkinen

At the start of his campaign with Mäkinen and Toyota, Katsuta would participate in selected rallies while practicing full-time in Finland, under Mäkinen's supervision. Katsuta's first rallies with Tommi Mäkinen Racing were in local Finnish and Latvian events, driving a Subaru Impreza WRX. Beginning in 2016, Katsuta would be rallying with a very experienced co-driver, Daniel Barritt. Katsuta experienced intermediate success in local Finnish rallies, before being supplied with a Ford Fiesta R5 for the Rally Estonia, his first major long-distance rally in FIA-homologated 4-wheel drive machinery. This was also his first start in the European Rally Championship. He failed to finish the event after crashing in the second leg. Despite this, Mäkinen promoted Katsuta and Hiroki Arai to their first World Rally Championship start at Finland, rallying in the WRC-2 Class. Katsuta would finish 12th in class, sixteen minutes behind the class winner.

2017: Full-time WRC program

Beginning in 2017, Katsuta would be participating in a full-season World Rally Championship program in the WRC-2 category, alongside Hiroki Arai. Katsuta would also be rallying in local rallies outside of Finland. He partnered Marko Salminen for this season. Successes for the two drivers were few and far between, but Katsuta would make a name for himself upon taking a class podium at the Rally Italia Sardegna.

2018: Victory and increased support from Toyota

After his breakout onto the international scene in 2017, Katsuta would begin to enjoy more successes in 2018. He began with a 3rd-place overall finish at the Arctic Lapland Rally, one of the biggest local rallies in Finland. Then at the Rally Sweden, after winning 10 of the 19 special stages, Katsuta won the World Rally Championship-2 class, finishing 11th overall. He won by just 4.5 seconds from Škoda factory driver and then-reigning WRC-2 champion Pontus Tidemand. After this surprise success, Katsuta and team-mate Hiroki Arai continued to rally in the European WRC events, albeit without reaching the level of success achieved at Sweden.

2019: World Rally Car debut

Towards the end of the 2018 season, Toyota announced their intentions to eventually run Katsuta in a World Rally Car potentially by 2020. He spent 2019 competing in the WRC-2 class with Tommi Mäkinen Racing. After two seasons with Elfyn Evans, Daniel Barritt returned to be Katsuta's co-driver. Katsuta's first outing with a Toyota Yaris WRC was at the SM-Itäralli, a round of the Finnish championship, in which he would impress with a victory. Katsuta managed to win WRC-2 in Chile, but he also did not finish three rallies in his campaign and eventually finished the season in 8th. His first WRC outing with the Yaris WRC was at Rallye Deutschland, where he enjoyed a trouble-free drive to finish 10th. He got another top class chance in Catalunya, but suffered a transmission problem on Saturday, which resulted in over 50 minutes loss in stage times and penalty for late start.

2020: Part-time WRC campaign

In 2020, Katsuta stepped up to WRC to contest all European rounds of the season. He started the season with 9th in Monte Carlo and 7th in Sweden. He then showed promising pace in both Estonia and Sardegna, but crashed out on both occasions. He also crashed on the first stage of Rally Monza, but later returned and won the Power Stage, effectively taking his first WRC stage win. Katsuta finished the season in 13th, with 13 points to his name.

2021: First full season in WRC

Katsuta stepped up to a full-time campaign with Toyota in 2021. He finished 6th on the first three events in Monte Carlo, Arctic and Croatia and then 4th in both Portugal and Sardegna. The highlight of his season was the Safari Rally, where he avoided all the drama and finished 2nd overall, only behind teammate Sébastien Ogier, leading a WRC rally for the first time on stages 14 and 15 following Thierry Neuville’s retirement. He retired early in Estonia after his co-driver Barritt suffered a back injury on stage 4. Keaton Williams replaced Barritt from Ypres onwards, but withdrew from Acropolis for family reasons, with Oliver Solberg’s co-driver Aaron Johnston becoming Katsuta’s new full-time co-driver from Finland on. Katsuta crashed in Belgium, Finland and Catalunya, but returned to the points with 7th in the season finale in Monza. He placed 7th overall with 78 points.

Racing record

Circuit racing career summary

Complete World Rally Championship Results

Season still in progress.

Complete World Rally Championship-2 Results

References

External links

Takamoto Katsuta's Twitter page

Katsuta's Facebook page

{{DEFAULTSORT:Katsuta, Takamoto
1993 births
Living people
European Rally Championship drivers
Japanese racing drivers
Japanese rally drivers
World Rally Championship drivers
Japanese expatriate sportspeople in Finland
Karting World Championship drivers
Toyota Gazoo Racing drivers
Japanese Formula 3 Championship drivers
TOM'S drivers
Formula Challenge Japan drivers
Racing drivers from Aichi Prefecture
Sportspeople from Nagoya