Last weekend, the Toyota of Alex Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre took victory in the 6 Hours of São Paulo.
The Brazilian race was only the car’s third outing after running well at Le Mans and finishing second at Silverstone. This result will likely be a relief to many, worried that Peugeot’s withdrawal from sports car racing would leave Audi unopposed at the top of the heap.
The last time a works Toyota won a World Championship sports car race was back in 1992 at the season opening 1000km of Monza, courtesy of Geoff Lees and Hitoshi Ogawa. Thereafter the season was dominated by Peugeot’s 905, and despite the promise of their fearsome GT-One at the end of the decade, Monza would stand as their last major victory for 20 years.
This video features interviews with Geoff Lees, Andy Wallace and former Lotus mechanic Dave ‘Beaky’ Sims in his role as team manager and there’s plenty of footage of the Tony Southgate-designed TS010 being tested at Eastern Creek Raceway near Sydney.
Taking a 3rd gear corner at speeds “in excess of 315kph”? I don’t think so! Turn one perhaps…