› The 2024 FIA World Rally Championship came to a close in Japan with locals Hiroki Arai/Shunsuke Matsuo driving a Škoda Fabia to third position in WRC2.
› Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 crews Gus Greensmith/Jonas Andersson and Kajetan Kajetanowicz/Maciej Szczepaniak finish fourth and fifth respectively.
› Not competing at Rally Japan, Toksport WRT’s Oliver Solberg (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) is classified second in the season’s WRC2 overall standings*.
Aichi (JPN), 24 November 2024 – The season-ending Rally Japan developed into a difficult event for the Škoda crews. Ahead Japan Racing Team’s Hiroki Arai and co-driver Shunsuke Matsuo made the best of the demanding road conditions and reached the finish third in WRC2 – their best ever FIA World Rally Championship result.
While many competitors were caught out by the slippery stages on the tarmac roads of Honshū Island, Hiroki Arai managed to keep his Škoda Fabia Rally2 out of trouble. The reigning Japanese champion and his co-driver, Shunsuke Matsuo, set the fastest WRC2 time on two stages and maintained a top-3 position throughout the event. Only some rear differential issues during the final leg caused headaches. But the fan favourites held on to finish third in WRC2.
Toksport WRT’s Gus Greensmith and co-driver Jonas Andersson were hit by bad luck already on Friday morning (SS3). “In a slippery corner I lost the rear of the car under braking and it hit a banking,“ Greensmith explained a front right puncture on the Škoda Fabia RS Rally2. The British-Swedish duo lost one and a half minutes, falling back to seventh position in WRC2. With a string of fast stage times, they made up a couple of positions over the next two days and finished fourth in WRC2.
Fifth WRC2 position went to Kajetan Kajetanowicz/Maciej Szczepaniak. When the exhaust of their Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 was squashed as the result of a spin during the Friday leg, the Polish pairing lost engine power. But they refused to give up and brought their car to the Team RaceSeven service crew, who fixed the problem. Kajetanowicz/Szczepaniak were classified fourth in the WRC2 Challenger classification, securing “Kajto” third position in the overall rankings of this category*.
Daniel Chwist/Kamil Heller from Poland and local crew Osamu Fukunaga/Misako Saida rounded up the five Škoda crews finishing inside the WRC2 top 10.
As usual sharing a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 run by team Toksport WRT, Josh McErlean/James Fulton were not entered into WRC2 and competed for category RC2 silverware only. The Motorsport Ireland-backed pairing also went out of luck. They started into the second leg third of the category, but had to park their Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 in Saturday’s first stage. “We hit a tree stump in a cut. My mistake going in that inch too far,“ McErlean described. Restarting after repairs, the Irish duo eventually finished 14th in RC2.
With the 2024 season over after 13 rallies, six Škoda drivers are classified inside the top 10 of the WRC2 overall standings*. Highest placed is Oliver Solberg of team Toksport WRT in runner-up position. Together with British co-driver Elliott Edmondson, the 23-year-old from Sweden won three events (Sweden, Latvia, Finland). Having already completed his allocated limit of seven WRC2 rounds, Solberg had to watch Rally Japan from the sidelines.
With the fifth place from Rally Japan, Team RaceSeven’s Kajetan Kajetanowicz from Poland also secured fifth in the WRC2 year-end rankings followed by Finnish driver Lauri Joona of team TGS Worldwide. Having won WRC2 at the Safari Rally Kenya, Englishman Gus Greensmith ended up seventh overall.
Rallye Monte-Carlo kicks off the next FIA World Rally Championship season from 23 to 26 January 2025.
Rally Japan, 21-24 November 2024, Result WRC2
1 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (BGR/ANA), Citroën C3 Rally2, 3:33:45.3 hours
2 Sami Pajari/Enni Mälkönen (FIN/FIN), Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, +1:46.5 minutes
3 Hiroki Arai/Shunsuke Matsuo (JPN/JPN), Škoda Fabia Rally2, +3:20.0 minutes
4 Gus Greensmith/Jonas Andersson (GBR/SWE), Škoda Fabia RS Rally2, +4:11.5 minutes
5 Kajetan Kajetanowicz/Maciej Szczepaniak (POL/POL), Škoda Fabia RS Rally2, +6:46.6 minutes
Final Standings WRC2/Drivers* (after 13 rallies)
1 Sami Pajari (FIN), Toyota, 126 points
2 Oliver Solberg (SWE), Škoda, 123 points
3 Nikolay Gryazin (BGR), Citroën, 116 points
4 Yohan Rossel (FRA), Citroën, 111 points
5 Kajetan Kajetanowicz (POL), Škoda, 69 points
6 Lauri Joona (FIN), Škoda, 58 points
7 Gus Greensmith (GBR), Škoda, 54 points
8 Jan Solans (ESP), Toyota, 54 points
9 Josh McErlean (IRL), Škoda, 50 points
10 Robert Virves (EST), Škoda, 45 points
*subject to confirmation by the FIA
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