Toyota in motorsport
FIA president Max Mosley called the illegal turbo restrictor "the most sophisticated device I've ever seen in 30 years of motor sports."
The Corolla WRC debuted at the 1997 Rally Finland, with Auriol finishing in eighth place and Marcus Grönholm retiring.
Toyota-powered cars, campaigned by the All American Racers and PPI Motorsports teams, languished at the back of the grid, slow and unreliable.
Toyota started seeing its fortunes improve in 1999 as Scott Pruett took pole position at the final race of the season at the California Speedway.
Following the 2005 IndyCar Series, Team Penske and Target Chip Ganassi Racing announced they would switch to Honda engines, leaving Toyota with no championship contenders.
As a result of this and their intent to re-allocate resources for NASCAR, Toyota announced they would leave the IndyCar Series prematurely during the off-season.
Factory supported Toyota Team Tom's competed in World Sportscar Championship and Le Mans until 1994, with varying results.
8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid won the race, becoming the second Japanese manufacturer after Mazda to win outright at the Circuit de La Sarthe.
In 1982, Davey Allison drove a Toyota Celica in the then-called NASCAR International Sedan Series, where he would be taken out of the race with mechanical issues.
Other driver's championships won by Toyota include Johnny Benson Jr. in 2008, Bodine in 2010, Matt Crafton in 2013 and 2014, Erik Jones in 2015 Christopher Bell in 2017, Brett Moffitt in 2018 and Ben Rhodes in 2021.
Kyle Busch gave Toyota its first Cup win in the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 9, 2008; he led a race-high 173 laps in his Snickers-sponsored Camry, owned by Joe Gibbs Racing.
In 2009, Toyota would continue its successful run with a further 10 victories, 4 each for star drivers Hamlin and Busch along with surprise wins from MWR's David Reutimann and Red Bull's Brian Vickers.
After a torrid start by Johnson with wins in three of the first five races, Hamlin emerged as a real threat to the dominant Hendrick Motorsports team.
As a result, MWR emerged as a more consistent performer, winning three races with new addition Clint Bowyer and showing much better pace with all their cars.
This boost in performance, coupled with a further five wins from JGR's Hamlin, made for a successful debut season for the new engine partnership.
In 2013, JGR signed veteran driver Matt Kenseth away from Roush Fenway Racing and Ford to drive the iconic No.
Kenseth, in his debut season with Toyota, won a series high 7 races in 2013 and challenged for the championship deep into the chase before eventually falling short to Jimmie Johnson.
The reliability problems disappeared, but as a result of the changes Toyota drivers found themselves at a significant horsepower deficit to their Chevrolet and Ford rivals.
[13] Two years later, the team's Martin Truex Jr. won the manufacturer a second driver's title as he led a 1–2 Toyota championship finish with Busch.
[14] FRR ceased operations after the 2018 season,[15] and Leavine Family Racing made their own move to Toyota for 2019.
Under Gascoyne Toyota gained fourth place in the constructors championship in 2005, scoring 88 points and five podium finishes - in what was to be the team's best Formula One season.
Toyota began supplying customer engines in 2005, initially with Jordan Grand Prix, and continuing as the team was brought and renamed as Midland F1 and Spyker respectively.
After an upbeat in form in 2008, and signing Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock as a replacement for Ralf Schumacher, Toyota scored its first podium since 2006.
After scoring three third places, and qualifying one-two at the Bahrain Grand Prix,[23] performance fell rapidly as other teams out-developed the Toyota.
A late season improvement in form managed two second places, including Toyota's home race in Japan, and secured fifth position.
Akio Toyoda announced that Toyota would be stopping both the team and the engine deal with Williams, citing the economic environment as the main deciding factor.
Toyota and Lexus powered prototypes had also taken top honors in Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series and 24 Hours of Daytona race.
