Toyota to Field Two Cars for Fuji

Photo: Toyota Racing

Toyota will return to a two-car effort for its home race at Fuji next month, it was confirmed by the Japanese manufacturer this week.

Both the No. 7 Toyota TS030 Hybrid of Alex Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Kazuki Nakajima, as well as the No. 8 entry driven by Stephane Sarrazin, Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi are now set for the Six Hours of Fuji on Oct. 20, following the decision to scale back to a single car for the balance of the season.

The trio from the No. 8 car, however, will be in action this weekend at Circuit of The Americas, where Toyota debuts its hybrid-powered prototype on U.S. soil. The factory squad will be looking to rebound following early race accident at Interlagos, which ended in retirement and the subsequent re-tubbing of the car for Austin.

“We had an extremely disappointing race in Brazil when we thought we had a genuine chance of victory so I am determined to have a better weekend in Austin,” Davidson said. “Our updated TS030 Hybrid felt really good at Interlagos which gives us confidence for this weekend.”

Toyota will be searching for its first FIA World Endurance Championship victory of the season, in a title race that has gone Audi’s way following the Brazil round. Sarrazin, Davidson and Buemi currently trail champinship leaders Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Loic Duval by 49 points heading into COTA.

“Our high-downforce package performed well in Brazil but we didn’t have the chance to see exactly how competitive we were in race conditions due to the accident,” explained Team President Yoshiaki Kinoshita. “So this time we want to take the fight to Audi for the full six hours.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John