DAVID EVANS
GROUP RALLYING EDITOR “Words are being whispered in the right ears”
Taxi drivers in white gloves; piped bird song at pedestrian crossings, bangbang chicken and some of the most committed rally fans I’ve ever seen in my life. That’s what Japan will bring back to the World Rally Championship. Those things, and the third largest economy in the world.
How has it taken so long for us to get back to Japan? It’s eight years since Sebastien Ogier celebrated victory at the Sapporo Dome after three days of racing on the Hokkaido gravel. Well, if the World Motor Sport Council does the decent – and common sense – thing in October, the World Rally Championship will be back where it belongs.
Oddly, Japan’s presence in the world championship has been linked to local manufacturer involvement. Last time around, with Subaru, Mitsubishi and Suzuki all competing, it was impossible to ignore the Nippon call. But when those three heavy-hitters all departed, Rally Japan became unsustainable financially and it reverted to being a round of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship.
Now, with Toyota’s feet well and truly under the WRC table, it’s time to welcome Japan back. And I can’t wait. I loved the place and the people last time out and, according to Tommi Makinen, nothing has changed. Nowhere else in the world do you see so many fans queuing to see their heroes at first service every morning. And when I say first service, I mean the one before each day’s first stage. Most often, before dawn has broken. I couldn’t be sure some of them hadn’t slept outside their favoured team’s service park.
And that was on the northernmost island of Hokkaido, a flight and some hassle away from the hustle of Tokyo. This time around we’re bound for Nagoya, just two and a bit hours away (admittedly those two and a bit hours are spent at close to 200mph aboard a Shinkansen). The potential for Rally Japan is huge.
And the potential for the World Rally Championship is even bigger. When Toyota president Akio Toyoda talks of the opportunity to bring the likes of Mitsubishi and Subaru back to the table, everybody has to listen. Our sport has never had a stronger sporting advocate than Toyoda and, commercially speaking, he’s a potential gamechanger. He has the right message for the right ears and we need to make sure he gets everything he needs – including a long-term deal to see the WRC arrive and remain in his own Nagoya backyard.
Having seen the success Toyota has made of its return to the world championship, I can’t begin to imagine what their countrymen will deliver in terms of a WRC round. Personally, I think it’s a shame we’re not going back to Hokkaido, back to the far north for Obihiro’s gravel and the chill of Japan’s coolest place Rikubetsu.
But actually, I don’t care. We’re closer than ever to going back to a rally and a place that must become one of the cornerstones of the WRC moving forward. We’ve been and gone to Japan before, but this time we must make a longer-term commitment to the place, the people and the potential.