endurance – PressAP

ROOKIE Racing and TOYOTA announce participation in 25-hour endurance race in Thailand

December 12, 2022

TOKYO, Dec 12, 2022 - (JCN Newswire via SEAPRWire.com) - ROOKIE Racing Co., Ltd. (ROOKIE Racing) and Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) announced their competition in the IDEMITSU 1500 SUPER ENDURANCE 2022 (Thailand 25H Endurance Race) at the Chang International Circuit in Thailand from December 17 to 18, 2022, with the ORC ROOKIE GR Corolla H2 concept, a hydrogen engine vehicle, and the ORC ROOKIE GR86 CNF Concept, a carbon-neutral (CN) fuel vehicle. The participation will not be for the entire 25-hours but will be for the first and last few hours of the race. This will be the first time for both vehicles to compete in a race outside of Japan. In addition, one of TOYOTA GAZOO Racing team Thailand's vehicles is also scheduled to run on CN fuel. Starting with our participation in the Thailand 25H Endurance Race, we strive to increase CN options in Asia, through motorsports.ROOKIE Racing and Toyota participated in the Super Taikyu series in Japan midway through the 2021 season with a hydrogen-powered Corolla and accelerated efforts of "producing," "transporting," and "using" hydrogen together with like-minded partners inside and outside the industry in the interest of helping to achieve a CN society. From the 2022 season, in addition to the hydrogen engine Corolla, we are racing the CN fuel GR86 and continuing to approach the challenge of expanding fuel options using internal combustion engines.In addition, during the ninth round of the World Rally Championship (WRC) in Ypres in August and the 13th round of the WRC Rally Japan in November, we ran a demonstration of the GR Yaris H2 hydrogen engine vehicle under test development to show European and Japanese rally fans the potential of hydrogen as an option for achieving CN.The Chang International Circuit venue is a major international circuit in Thailand and hosts the Thailand MotoGP, the world's most prestigious motorcycle race. Since its opening in 2014, Toyota Motor Thailand Co., Ltd. has been the circuit's main sponsor and has promoted the development of motorsports in Thailand by holding one-make races there. ROOKIE Racing won the 10-hour IDEMITSU 600 SUPER ENDURANCE 2019, its first entry in a race held at the circuit. In this race, our first entry in three years, we will train our car in an environment different from Japan to accelerate efforts to expand fuel options toward creating a CN society. Copyright 2022 JCN Newswire. All rights reserved. (via SEAPRWire)

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing announces team setup for Nurburgring Endurance Series

June 23, 2022

TOKYO, Jun 23, 2022 - (JCN Newswire via SEAPRWire.com) - TOYOTA GAZOO Racing (TGR) will compete in Rounds 4 and 6 of the N?rburgring Endurance Series (NLS(1)). Although TGR has decided not to participate in this year?s 24 Hours of N?rburgring Endurance Race(2), it will refine people and cars, and continue its pursuit of making ever-better motorsports-bred cars through domestic testing and participation in the NLS with a view toward next year and beyond.N?rburgring is a demanding course that is 25km in length, has a maximum altitude difference of 300m, and features 172 corners. The N?rburgring 24 Hours Race, which TGR competed in from 2007 to 2021, with the aim of "refining people, refining cars," represents the roots of TGR. The mechanics and engineers, who are Toyota employees, aim to test the cars to their limits and learn how to make them better than ever by gaining experience under even harsher conditions than testing and evaluations conducted on regular test courses. This valuable experience is subsequently fed back into the development of all kinds of vehicles.NLS Round 4 (to be held on June 25) is a 4-hour endurance race and will feature drivers Tatsuya Kataoka, Hiroaki Ishiura, Masahiro Sasaki, and Takamitsu Matsui. NLS Round 6 (to be held on September 10-11) is a 6-hour endurance race held over two days for a total of 12 hours of racing(3).TGR will compete with the LEXUS LC and the new GR86. The LC will be refined through the investment of a significant amount of advanced technology that will be used in future production vehicles, centered around body rigidity, aerodynamic development, and suspension technology. The new GR86 is competing for the first time at N?rburgring. It is equipped with a 2.4-liter engine that is more powerful than the previous model and will take on the challenges of the world?s most demanding course.(1) Nurburgring Langstrecken Series(2) Event dates (May 28-29, 2022) conflict with major races in Japan, which would hinder the team preparation and setup(3) Drivers for NLS Round 6 will be decided at a later date(4) A member of Toyota Motor Corporation Copyright 2022 JCN Newswire. All rights reserved. (via SEAPRWire)