【Japanese Rally Championship Round 3 / Karatsu City】

Nutahara Attains GR Yaris’ First JRC Podium Finish.
20-Year-old Otake Gets Maiden JN-3 Win.

JRC Round 3

Date	9-11/04/2021
Venue	Karatsu city, Saga
Weather	Leg1 : Fine / Leg2 : Fine
Surface	Leg1 : Dry / Leg2 : Dry (Tarmac)
Total distance	283.13km
Total SS distance	66.94 km

• |
• >>Report |
• >>Result |
• >>2021 Index (Calendar) |

After opening the season in March in Shinshiro, Aichi Prefecture, the 2021 Japanese Rally Championship (JRC) went westward for the next round and arrived in Kyusyu. The third round of JRC, Tour de Kyusyu in Karatsu, returned to the city after only a four-month absence. The event hosted by Karatsu in Saga Prefecture was run as the effective curtain-raiser of last year’s championship in November 2020.

There were ten Special Stages (SS) over the two days, April 10 and 11. The stages were the same as those used last year, but the famous Sanpou stage (11.41km) was run in the opposite direction. Including this longest stage, the itinerary consisted of five routes, each being run two times.

The rally started on Saturday afternoon, and the recce was set on Friday and the scrutineering on Saturday morning. Thanks to this timetable, the mechanics and team staff could arrive one day later than the drivers, which led to their cost-savings.

In JRC, the organizers of each event allocate the car numbers to the competitors. Normally, in the early part of the season, the allocation is based on the previous year’s championship rankings. For this event in Karatsu, however, #1 was given to Fumio Nutakara, who finished the series in second last year, because the reigning JN-1 champion, Hiroki Arai, was absent because of participating in an overseas event.

Nutahara didn’t take part in the last round in Shinshiro. Now he set up his own Nutahara Rally Team and returned to the series with a young co-driver, Shungo Azuma, switching the car to Toyota GR Yaris. His brand-new vehicle, having just completed the shakedown test, in ADVAN livery attracted much attention.

Therefore, the main Yokohama-shoed JN-1 competitors in this round were: Toshihiro Arai / Naoya Tanaka in 2000cc turbo engined Subaru WRX STI, Hiroshi Yanagisawa / Takahiro Yasui in Skoda Fabia R5, which is a purpose-built competition car under the international R5 regulation, plus Nutahara and Yuta Yamamoto / Kazuko Tachikui driving Yaris GR4s with 1600cc turbo engine.

Arai won SS1 Uchiura 1 (4.37km) with his well-proven Subaru. Yanagisawa and Nutahara followed him to round out a Yokohama top-three sweep, and they became the early rally leaders.

Then SS2 Sanpou Reverse 1 saw a GR Yaris’ one-two. By finishing this stage in second, Nutahara moved up to second overall. On the other hand, Arai spun just before the stage finish and hit the car’s rear end against a bank. As a result of this incident, he lost ground because the car had damage to the exhaust pipe, and its wheel alignment was messed up.

Nutahara also set the second-fastest time on SS3 Uchiura 2, which pushed him to the overall leader. Then he won the last stage of the day, SS4 Sanpou Reverse 2. This was the first stage win achieved by a Toyota GR Yaris, and he was ahead of an R5 car in second by 1.4 seconds at the end of Leg 1.

The sky was clear, as it had been on the previous day, when Leg 2 started. It got underway with SS5 Shirakikoba 1 (7.82km). As the stage had many tight corners and so-called stop-and-go characteristics, R5 cars and Subaru WRXs, which had more powerful engines, were generally faster. Consequently, Yanagisawa was the second-fastest here, followed by Arai in third, and Nutahara fell back to second overall.

However, Nutahara won the next SS6 Hachiman 1 (6.05km), which was the second stage win in this rally, and now he reduced the gap with the leading R5 car to 1.7 seconds. While he performed well in the final stages, he narrowly lost out to Yanagisawa in the fight for a second by only 0.1 seconds. Still, Nutahara marked the GR Yaris’ first podium finish in JRC and proved the car’s potential in the competition field.

Yanagisawa set the fastest times in the last two stages, SS9 and SS10, and finished the rally in second. The result showed that the overall victory in the coming rallies is already within his reach.

In JN-3 class, Nao Otake, a graduate of Nutahara’s rally school, displayed a stunning performance. Sharing a Toyota 86 with his co-driver Megumi Fujita, he dominated all four stages in Leg 1 and built a considerable time gap with the other competitors in the class. After another stage win in the first stage of Leg 2, he controlled his pace until the rally finish, and no one could threaten him.

By winning the class in JRC for the first time, the 20-year-old also finished the rally in ninth overall, and now it was clear that he is a leading player in the battle for the class championship.

In JN-6 class, the reigning class champion, Shintaro Meiji, paired with Hiroki Tachikui this time. He drove the last year’s title-winning car, Toyota Vitz with CVT transmission, and got on the podium by finishing in second.