Igniting motorsports with Gazoo Racing

By CARSIFU | 5 September 2019




PETALING JAYA: Season three of the Toyota Gazoo Racing Festival and Toyota Vios Challenge one-make race series will launch tomorrow to the delight of motorsports fans and Toyotaenthusiasts.

The opening round will be held on a 1.65km temporary street circuit around the Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Stadium in Kuala Terengganu.

“Toyota wants to establish an even bigger footprint in Malaysian motorsports and at the same time make a significant contribution by giving it a further boost.

“After carefully considering all factors, we believe the best approach to grow local interest and appreciation in motorsports is by bringing the races closer to the people,” said UMW Toyota Motor president Ravindran K.

UMW Toyota Motor president Ravindran K (right) with Vios Challenge one-make series race car driver Hayden Haikal.
UMW Toyota Motor president Ravindran K (right) with Vios Challenge one-make series race car driver Hayden Haikal.


He added that the concept of street racing also helps to provide local drivers with a different challenge of competing on new tracks.

The race series has gone through two seasons already with 16 races which were held at venues located in Kuala Terengganu, Johor, Penang, the Klang Valley and the Sepang International Circuit (SIC).

This has attracted almost 100 drivers consisting of celebrities, amateurs and professionals as well as roughly 200,000 spectators and approximately 1.1mil live-stream viewers.

For Season Three, the races will be held on three street circuits with the SIC saved as the fourth and final round just as it was in Season Two.

Before any form of racing can be permitted, the street circuit must first be built strictly to the requirements of the international motorsports governing body Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) before being inspected, tested and certified.

UMW Toyota Motor deputy chairman Akio Takeyama holding a t-shirt with his name.
UMW Toyota Motor Chief Motorsport Officer Akio Takeyama holding a t-shirt with his name.


Because of this, the event is known as the sole premier street racing series within Malaysia.

To build the circuit for the upcoming race to be held in Kuala Terengganu, some 800 four-tonne reinforced concrete barriers that can withstand an impact of up to 200kph have been interlocked together to provide the layout.

The concept of a one-make race series limits the number of modifications allowed to the vehicle thereby making it more affordable for local amateur and professional drivers to participate.

Meanwhile, this creates a more competitive and level playing field for all where drivers rely on their skills and not on vehicular performance.

“Affordability is the keyword here and to make motorsports more accessible to the masses, but these efforts are not only confined to racing but also includes reaching out to the younger generation via other platforms including E-Sports,” said Ravindran.

Those who participate in the one-make race series are offered a special package for the purchase of the race car and includes all tyre and fuel requirements for the season as well as subsidised prices on spare parts and attractive prize monies.

UMW Toyota Motor has also taken motor-racing into the virtual world with the introduction of the Gazoo Racing Velocity E-Sports racing series.

“There must be continuity in motorsports and E-Sports is one platform that reaches out to millions of young people globally, especially children, who may or may not one day aspire to indulge in real racing.

“What Gazoo Racing and the Toyota GazooRacing Festival hope to accomplish on a global and domestic level respectively, is to ignite a strong passion and interest for motorsports,” said Ravindran.

Because of affordability, it makes the race series an ideal platform for young drivers which allowed 14-year-old Hayden Haikal to transition from karting to saloon car racing. His return to the race series has attracted another young newcomer - 17-year-old Bradley Benedict Anthony.

“Affordability was absolutely a deciding factor for Hayden’s participation in the Toyota Vios Challenge. At the same time, the Toyota Gazoo Racing Festival Racing School programme was a value-added opportunity for Hayden to prepare under the guidance of instructors,” said Hayden’s father Haikal Zubir.

Like all competitors, Hayden too had to first obtain a racing licence from Malaysia’s motorsports governing body.

Meanwhile, UMW Toyota Motor deputy chairman, Akio Takeyama, explained that the series served the bigger agenda of introducing and promoting Toyota’s global Gazoo Racing activities.

Toyota has been competing in global motorsports since 1957, but in 2015, the company took steps to unify all its motor-racing activities under Gazoo Racing.

This has since led to winning many of the world’s most gruelling and prestigious motorsports events that include the 24 Hours of Le Mans, The World Sports Car Endurance Championship, Dakar Rally and the World Rally Championship.

“In order for Toyota to evolve into a performance brand, you need credibility and a strong motorsports heritage and this is what Toyota brings to the forefront with the Gazoo Racing branding. Gazoo Racing will eventually spur the introduction of special vehicles that will wear the ‘GR’ brand,” said Takeyama who is also UMW Toyota Motor’s chief motorsports officer.

“Gazoo” originates from the Japanese word, “gazo”, which means “picture” or “image” and in its early days, Toyota engineers had a mental image of garages filled with unique cars – an initiative that is already underway with the launch of the GR Supra, the very first model to wear the GR badge.

He said the development of new cars was better achieved in extreme conditions.

“This is why Toyota competes in motorsports around the world. Toyota’s philosophy is ‘the road shapes the driver as well as the vehicle’, in other words - roads build people and people build cars.

“Evolution is all about pushing limits and the extreme conditions of motor-racing to reveal the full potential of vehicles – potential that is not seen in day-to-day driving,” he said.


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