PLANO, Texas, Aug. 2, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Toyota Motorsport's GmbH (TMG) 86 Cup Car will make
its North American debut in the Pirelli World Challenge (PWC)
racing series at Utah Motorsports Campus in Tooele, Utah, August
11-13.
Entered in the TCA class, the 86 Cup
Car will do battle in the PWC's double-header race weekend and is
scheduled to compete only in the two Utah PWC events, taking place
outside Salt Lake City.
"Bringing the TMG 86 Cup Car to Pirelli World Challenge presents
an opportunity to test and showcase the ability of our Toyota 86 in
a competitive racing series," said Keith
Dahl, motorsports general
manager for Toyota Motor North America (TMNA). "The seasoned
DG-Spec team won the PWC title for Scion in 2010 and we're hopeful
they can perform well with the 86. We have a great combination of
team and driver with Craig Stanton
to showcase the ability of this TMG-built 86, so we're cautiously
optimistic for solid results in the Utah double-header."
The TMG 86 Cup Car will be driven by veteran road racer
Craig Stanton, a former GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series GT and
Continental Tire GS class champion with over 30 years of driving
experience, and fielded by the Dan Gardner Spec (DG-Spec) Racing
team. DG-Spec previously won the Pirelli World Challenge TC
class championship with the Scion tC in 2010, and has also competed
in GRAND-AM and other sports car
and endurance series.
"It's been a while since we raced in Pirelli World
Challenge....but we've been at the
track constantly over the last few years, testing, developing and
racing in other venues," said Dan
Gardner, team owner and namesake of DG-Spec. "The team is
really sharp and Craig is on his game. The Toyota 86 is ready to go
and we hope to turn some heads in Utah."
Gardner's team recently won One Lap of America in the Toyota
Sienna R-Tuned in 2016, and
provides support for programs, such as the Land Speed Cruiser and Rally
RAV4. The Rally RAV4 team of Ryan
Millen and Rhianon Gelsomino
recently clinched the American Rally Association's 2WD
championship.
The current 86 sees a
return to Toyota's history of sports cars and
enthusiast motorsports. When the Corolla AE86 was launched in
the United States in the 1980s, it
earned a strong enthusiast
following, while the car was simultaneously building a cult
following in Japan as a drift
vehicle. The 2017 Toyota 86 pays homage to the legendary car of the
past, while proving itself to be an athletic force today.
"Our Toyota 86 is a potent car right out of the box, but it gets
even hotter with a full lineup of TRD parts and accessories," said
Preston Dyer, national marketing manager of Parts and
Accessories for TMNA. "TRD gets its inspiration where it
counts – on the track – and we couldn't think of a better way to
demonstrate that performance than by entering our TMG 86 Cup Car in
Pirelli World Challenge."
The decision to enter the TMG 86 Cup Car in PWC was birthed in
the success of another Toyota 86. After a stock 86 with TRD parts
and accessories bested the entire field at the local Spring Fling
Autocross event in Southern
California in March, Toyota officials began looking for
additional opportunities to highlight the prowess of the Toyota
sports car that also competes in Formula Drift.
The TMG 86 Cup Car, an enhanced, production model developed by
TMG for the GT86 Cup, part of the VLN Series in Germany, had been making the auto show circuit
as part of a Toyota 86 display when the idea was hatched to enter
the nimble, stock race car in PWC's TCA class. The TMG 86 Cup car
is a production Toyota 86 prepared by TMG for racing competition.
The TMG 86 Cup Car features a stock 86 engine and transmission, as
well as TMG upgrades to the vehicle's suspension, brakes and engine
tuning, among other changes that include safety equipment for
racing.
The PWC Utah event will mark the debut entry by a TMG 86 Cup Car
in a North American competition. The TMG 86 Cup Car is only
scheduled to compete in both PWC events at Utah Motorsports
Campus.
Fans can watch the action live in person or via Motor Trend on
Demand at https://www.motortrendondemand.com. The PWC races will
also be taped for broadcast on CBS Sports Network on August 23 at 8:00 p.m.
ET.
High-resolution photography can be downloaded at
toyotanewsroom.com
You can follow Toyota Racing on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and
online at www.toyotaracing.com.
About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE: TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric
in the U.S. and North America for
60 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable,
next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus
brands. During that time, Toyota has created a tremendous
value chain as our teams have contributed to world-class design,
engineering, and assembly of more than 33 million cars and trucks
in North America, where we operate
14 manufacturing plants (10 in the U.S.) and directly employ more
than 46,000 people (more than 36,000 in the U.S.). Our 1,800
North American dealerships (nearly 1,500 in the U.S.) sold almost
2.7 million cars and trucks (2.45 million in the U.S.) in 2016 –
and about 85 percent of all Toyota vehicles sold over the past 15
years are still on the road today.
Toyota partners with community, civic, academic, and
governmental organizations to address our society's most pressing
mobility challenges. We share company resources and extensive
know-how to support non-profits to help expand their ability to
assist more people move more places. For more information about
Toyota, visit
www.toyotanewsroom.com.
Toyota Motor North America, Inc. (TMNA), headquartered in
Plano, Texas, brings together
Toyota's marketing, sales, and manufacturing arms in North America. It is wholly owned by Toyota
Motor Corporation.
Contact (Golin for Toyota Racing):
Matthew Simmons, 310.709.1346,
msimmons@golin.com
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SOURCE Toyota Motor North America