Japanese driver Kazuki Nakajima who is a multiple 24 Hours of Le Mans winner and a former Formula 1 driver for Williams Racing back in 2007 to 2009, will be taking part in his rally debut this weekend drving in a Toyota Yaris N5 at the Varaosaexpert Ralli in Lahti, a support rally event which will be run alongside the Lahti Historic Rally, part of the 2022 FIA Historic Rally Championship.
Nakajima didn´t get a breakthrough in F1 and his career was shortlived there but after that the racing career fortune got turned around when he signed up for Toyota Gazoo Racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2012, during his time in the WEC, the Japanese scored a total of three back-to-back wins in 24 Hours of Le Mans between 2018-2020 and a further 13 wins, including the driver´s title in the 2018-19 season in WEC.
He announced his retirement from endurance racing at the end of last season and he has since then became the vice president of the Toyota Gazoo Racing´s European division. Now he will be doing his first-ever rally with Aaron Johnston as his co-driver, the Britoin is also co-driving for the fellow Japanese driver Takamoto Katsuta in the FIA World Rally Championship and the car is a national spec N5, similar to the current Rally2 regulations but with cost effiency in mind,
Varaosaexpert rally will also feature the young Japanese drivers of Nao Otake, Yuki Yamamoto and Hikaru Kogure from the TGR´s Next Generation driver development team but those three are entered in a trio of Renault Clio Rally4 cars.
