Toyota Outlines Motorsports Activities for 2006
Tokyo, Japan, Mar 3, 2006 - (JCN Newswire) - TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION (TMC) announced today the outline of its motorsports activities for 2006, which positions FIA Formula One World Championship (F1), NASCAR, Super GT and Formula Nippon as the main pillars of its motorsports competition, while including measures to further support the foundations of motorsports.As detailed in the outline (available in full below), for its fifth year of F1 competition, Toyota rolls out the TF106 race car, developed in response to changes in vehicle regulations, such as those concerning engine displacement. Continuing from last year, drivers Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli are aiming for Toyota's first F1 victory.
In NASCAR, Toyota is continuing its support for the teams driving its U.S.-market Toyota Tundra pickup truck, which debuted in the Craftsman Truck Series in 2004 and garnered nine victories in 2005. Toyota has also decided to begin competing in the Nextel Cup Series and Busch Series in 2007 with the Toyota Camry.
Along with continuing to support teams participating in Super GT, Toyota will begin supplying engines to Formula Nippon, a premier formula racing series in Japan.
To further support the foundations of motorsports, Toyota will continue to promote its Toyota Young Drivers Program (TDP), which cultivates young race drivers who hope to perform on the world stage by entering them in the GP2 series and F3 Euro series, which are geared as stepping-stones to F1. Toyota will also continue sponsoring one-make races in Japan, including the ESSO Formula Toyota Series, which is an entry-level formula category, and the Netz Cup races (Vitz Street-legal Series and Altezza Series).
The Motor Sports Division of the Higashifuji Technical Center is currently in charge of Toyota's overall motorsports activities, while Toyota Technocraft Co., Ltd./TRD in Japan, TRD, U.S.A. Inc. (TRD-USA) in the U.S. and Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG) in Europe serve as local hubs for regional activities.
Outline of Toyota's 2006 Motorsports Activities
1. FIA Formula One World Championship (F1)
- The Panasonic Toyota Racing team, competing in 2006 for its fifth consecutive year as a full-constructor team, is aiming to capture its first victory and to continue winning points.
- The team will compete using a new racecar, the TF106, which is equipped with a newly developed RVX-06 2.4-liter V8 engine to comply with this year's engine regulation changes. It also features an updated chassis and suspension that have been developed to accommodate the new engine and a switch to Bridgestone tires. Improved aerodynamics are also incorporated.
- The drivers will remain the same as last year, with Ralf Schumacher (Germany) and Jarno Trulli (Italy) behind the wheel, and with Ricardo Zonta (Brazil) as the third driver and Olivier Panis (France) as the test driver.
- Toyota will also supply the new RVX-06 engine to Midland F1 (MF1) Racing.
Toyota F1 Team Outline
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Team Panasonic Toyota Racing
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Drivers Ralf Schumacher, Car No. 7
Jarno Trulli, Car No. 8
Test drivers Ricardo Zonta (third driver)
Olivier Panis
Racecar TF106
Engine RVX-06
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2.1 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
Toyota will support teams taking part in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series through Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. (TMS) and TRD-USA. Participating vehicles will be units of the U.S.-market Toyota Tundra pickup truck fitted with specially developed 5.8-liter V8 engines.
Supported Teams
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Team Car No. Drivers
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Bill Davis Racing 5 Mike Skinner
22 Bill Lester
23 Johnny Benson
Darrell Waltrip Motorsports 17 David Reutimann
12 Joey Miller
Germain Racing 30 Todd Bodine
9 Ted Musgrave
Wyler Racing 60 Jack Sprague
Red Horse Racing 38 David Starr
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2.2 NASCAR Nextel Cup and Busch series - the Pinnacle of NASCAR
- The NASCAR Camry is currently being developed to participate in 2007 in NASCAR's Nextel Cup and Busch series.
- The teams scheduled to compete in the Nextel Cup Series are Bill Davis Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing Inc. and Team Red Bull.
3. Super GT
- As a premier racing series, Toyota will continue to support teams taking part through Toyota Technocraft Co., Ltd. (TRD).
- Scheduled to participate are the GT500-class Lexus SC430 and Toyota Supra, powered by 4.5-liter V8 (3UZ-FE) engines, the GT300-class Toyota Celica and Toyota MR-S, powered by a 2.0-liter turbocharged engine (3S-GTE) and a 3.5-liter V6 (2GR) engine, respectively.
Supported Teams
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Class Team Vehicle Drivers Tires
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GT500 TOYOTA TEAM CERUMO Lexus SC430 Yuji Tachikawa Bridgestone
LEXUS (Japan)
Toranosuke Takagi
(Japan)
TOYOTA TEAM TOM'S Lexus SC430 Juichi Wakisaka Bridgestone
(Japan)
Andre Lotterer
(Germany)
Mobil 1 TOYOTA Lexus SC430 Tatsuya Kataoka Bridgestone
Team LeMans (Japan)
Akira Iida
(Japan)
TOYOTA TEAM KRAFT SC430 Naoki Hattori Dunlop
Lexus (Japan)
Peter Dumbreck
(Scotland)
TOYOTA TEAM TSUCHIYA Toyota Supra Manabu Orido Yokohama
(Japan)
Takeshi Tsuchiya
(Japan)
TOYOTA TEAM SARD Toyota Supra Andre Couto Bridgestone
(Portugal)
(To be announced)
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GT300 APR Toyota MR-S Morio Nitta Michelin
(Japan)
Shinichi Takagi
(Japan)
APR Toyota MR-S (To be announced) Michelin
RACING PROJECT BANDOH Toyota Celica (To be announced) (T.B.A.)
TOYOTA TEAM CERUMO Toyota Celica (To be announced) Kumho
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4. Japanese Championship Formula Nippon
This is the top category of formula car races in Japan. Starting this year, 3-liter V8 engines (Toyota RV8-J) will be provided to seven teams (13 vehicles).
Supported Teams (Engine Support)
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Team No. of cars Drivers
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mobilecast TEAM IMPUL 2 Benoit Treluyer (France)
Tsugio Matsuda (Japan)
arting RACING TEAM with IMPUL 2 Satoshi Motoyama (Japan)
Kazuki Hoshino (Japan)
KONDO RACING 2 Sakon Yamamoto (Japan)
Masataka Yanagida (Japan)
Team LeMans 2 Toranosuke Takagi (Japan)
Tatsuya Kataoka (Japan)
TEAM CERUMO 1 Yuji Tachikawa (Japan)
INGING MOTORSPORT 2 Ronnie Quintarelli (Italy)
(To be announced)
DHG TOM'S RACING 2 Andre Lotterer (Germany)
Takeshi Tsuchiya (Japan)
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Other Support Activities
All-Japan F3 Championship Series
Formula Three is the first step toward F1. Toyota will provide 2-liter
3S-GE engines to five teams.
Supported Teams
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Team No. Of Cars Drivers (tentative)
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TOM'S 3 Hideto Yasuoka (Japan)
(TDP driver)
Kazuya Oshima (Japan)
(TDP driver)
Adrian Sutil (Germany)
INGING MOTORSPORT 2 Robert Streit (Brazil)
Naoki Yokomizo (Japan)
NOW MOTOR SPORTS 1 Tsubasa Abe (Japan)
(TDP driver)
Le Beausset 1 Kohki Saga (Japan)
ZAP SPEED 1 (To be announced)
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ESSO Formula Toyota SeriesThese entry-level formula car races have garnered a reputation as a category that fosters young drivers. All cars in the one-make races are FT30 type vehicles with 1.6-liter (4A-GE) engines.
Formula Challenge Japan (FCJ)
This new, entry-class category starts this year. All of the cars are specially and independently designed FCJ vehicles (FC106).
Netz Cup Vitz Street-legal Series and Altezza Series
This series started in 2000 as "participatory" races. So far, approximately 7,200 people have competed.
- Vitz Street-legal Series
This series features street-legal racecars, with new-model Vitz racecars replacing the first-generation Vitz racecars used up to last year. Starting this year, new models will replace previous vehicles. The car used is the specially designed Toyota Vitz RS TRD Racing, which is based on the Vitz RS 1.5-liter with manual transmission. The series consists of twenty-seven races held in five regions in Japan (Tohoku, Kanto, Central Japan, Kansai and Western Japan) with regional series winners competing in the championship race in the autumn.
- Altezza Series
This series will end this year with the end of sales of the base vehicle and will comprise of seven races, covering major circuits across Japan.
Additional Support Activities
Japan
- Support will go to teams participating in a variety of activities including the All-Japan Rally Championship and All-Japan Dirt Trial Championship.
- The Vitz one-make rally TRD Vitz Challenge (with a total of six races) will be held making it possible for even beginners with a B-class license to compete.
- Support will go to the Toyota Motor Sports Club (TMSC).
United States
- Toyota will provide engines to the Midget Series of the United States Auto Club (USAC).
- Toyota will continue to provide 4.3-liter V8 (3UZ-FE) engines to Grand American Road Racing teams - in January 2006, the engines won first and second place in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Europe
- Support will go to Team Land Cruiser TOYOTA AUTO BODY participating in the Dakar Rally.
- Team Land Cruiser TOYOTA AUTO BODY won the top two spots in the "unmodified production class" of the Dakar 2006 rally held in January, for its second consecutive first-place finish in this race.
Toyota Young Drivers Program (TDP)
Basic Concept
This program is aimed at cultivating drivers who hope to compete in top racing categories, both in Japan and the rest of the world. It is dedicated to identifying new talent and allows each participant to improve in line with his or her own abilities. The program is being offered in Europe and Japan as listed below.
List of Trainee TDP Drivers for 2006
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Drivers Category Team (Ref.) 2005 category
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Europe
Franck Perera GP2 DAMS (France) F3 Euro series
(France)
Kamui Kobayashi F3 Euro series ASM Formula 3 Eurocup Form. Renault
(Japan) (France) Champ. Ital. Formula
Renault Series Champ.
Kohei Hirate Manor Motorsport F3 Euro series
(Japan) (United Kingdom)
Kazuki Nakajima All Japan F3
(Japan) Championship
Henkie Waldschmidt Eurocup Formula Prema Powerteam (Selected through
(Netherlands) Renault Series & (Italy) previous year's
audition)
Martin Plowman Italian Formula
(United Kingdom) Renault Series
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Japan
Hideto Yasuoka All Japan F3 TOM'S All Japan F3 Champ.
(Japan) Championship
Kazuya Oshima ESSO F. Toyota Champ.
(Japan)
Tsubasa Abe NOW MOTOR ESSO Formula Toyota
(Japan) SPORTS
Kyosuke Kunimoto Formula Toyota TOM'S SPIRIT (Graduate of 2004
(Japan) and FCJ Formula Toyota
Racing School)
Yoshifumi Kubota
(Japan)
Takuto Iguchi (Selected at 2005
(Japan) Formula Toyota
Racing School)
Sadaomi Masuda
(Japan)
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Formula Toyota Racing School (FTRS)This is a racing school held at Fuji Speedway employing "Formula Toyota" vehicles. Once again this year, two types of training programs will be held: one-day hands-on courses and three-day scholarship courses (dates to be announced).
One-day course: This is held on a single day and intended for those who want to participate in the ESSO Formula Toyota Series, which mainly covers learning the fundamentals.
Scholarship course: This two-night, three-day course covering everything from the basics to participation in non-sanctioned races. Auditions will be held for outstanding participants with future prospects, and the final drivers selected will be given a scholarship for the following year.
About Toyota Motor Corporation
Toyota Motor Corporation develops and
manufactures vehicles, and is one of the largest car manufacturers in the
world, offering a wide range of products from minivehicles to trucks. In
addition to its core business, Toyota has a large business portfolio in
financial services, including sales finance, vehicle insurance, and credit
cards. It is also involved in telecommunications through a subsidiary that
provides cellular services in Japan. Other diversified businesses include
industrial equipment, prefabricated housing, and leisure boats. The company
is headquartered in Aichi, Japan. Fot more information, please visit
www.toyota.co.jp/en/index.html.
