February 25, 2003
2003 Indy Racing League IndyCar Series FAST FACTS
Toyota Indy 300
Date: March 2, 2003
Track: Homestead-Miami Speedway
Broadcast: ABC, 1:00 p.m. ET
Race Length: 200 laps for 300 miles
Track Length: 1.5-mile oval
2002 Winner: Sam Hornish
What to look for at the Toyota Indy 300:
TOYOTA SET TO MAKE IRL DEBUT – Toyota will make its Indy Racing League (IRL) IndyCar Series debut this weekend at the Toyota Indy 300 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. Last year, Toyota won the 2002 CART Manufacturer’s Championship on the strength of 10 wins in 19 races with Toyota pilot Cristiano da Matta winning the series driver title. Da Matta has since moved on to drive for Toyota’s Formula One program.
PROVEN WINNERS – Of the 10 Toyota-powered drivers in this weekend’s Toyota Indy 300, seven have previously won either IRL or CART events. Helio Castroneves, Gil de Ferran, Scott Sharp, Al Unser Jr., Felipe Giaffone and Tomas Scheckter all have been victorious in IndyCar Series competition, while Scott Dixon, Unser Jr., de Ferran and Castroneves all won in CART competition.
Of the three drivers that have yet to win an IndyCar Series event, A.J. Foyt IV won last year’s Pro Series championship, while Tora Takagi won the 2000 Formula Nippon (Japanese F3000) championship and Shigeaki Hattori was a winner in Indy Lights competition.
THE HOME TEAM – Not only will Toyota be sponsoring the season-opening IndyCar Series event, but the “home-field advantage” also lies with four Toyota drivers who live in Florida. Helio Castroneves currently resides in Miami, while Penske teammate Gil de Ferran lives in Ft.Lauderdale. Just up the coast, Scott Sharp now calls Jupiter home and Felipe Giaffone is the northern-most of the Floridians in Orlando.
FOYT IV MOVING QUICKLY – A.J.Foyt IV will be making his IndyCar Series debut this weekend after winning the 2002 Infiniti Pro Series title. Just 18 years old, Foyt will be the youngest driver in the Toyota Indy 300 field. He will be campaigning the Conseco Toyota-powered Panoz G Force for legendary driver and grandfather A.J. Foyt, the four-time Indianapolis 500 winner.
NOT JUST ROUND AND ROUND – While 10 Toyota-powered cars will be circling the 1.5-mile Homestead Miami oval, another Toyota will be both making both left and right-hand turns at the track this weekend. Darius Grala and the Motorola/OzExe Toyota will be making its second start in the new Daytona Prototype class of the Grand American Rolex Series. The Cegwa Sport team is coming off an impressive performance at the Rolex 24 in Daytona where it ran in the top five much of the night before succumbing to mechanical problems. The Grala-led team ran more than 1,000 miles at Daytona, which was more than its entire testing program leading up to the event.
TOYOTA AND MIAMI – While new to the IndyCar Series in Miami, Toyota’s racing roots in the market-place run deep. The Toyota Indy 300 will mark the third different racing series to run in Miami in which Toyota has either served as either the title or presenting sponsor during the past decade. In addition to this year’s title sponsorship, Toyota also served as the title sponsor for the downtown IMSA race in 1993 and as the presenting sponsor for CART races downtown and at the Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Toyota IndyCar Series Driver Line-Up
Car # Driver Team Car
No. 3 Helio Castroneves Marlboro Team Penske Marlboro Toyota (D)
No. 5 Shigeaki Hattori A.J. Foyt Enterprises Epson Toyota (PGF)
No. 6 Gil De Ferran Marlboro Team Penske Marlboro Toyota (D)
No. 8 Scott Sharp Kelley Racing Delphi Toyota (D)
No. 9 Scott Dixon Target Chip Ganassi Target Toyota (PGF)
No. 10 Tomas Scheckter Target Chip Ganassi Target Toyota (PGF)
No. 12 Tora Takagi Mo Nunn Racing Pioneer Toyota (PGF)
No. 14 A.J. Foyt IV A.J. Foyt Enterprises Conseco Toyota (PGF)
No. 21 Felipe Giaffone Mo Nunn Racing Hollywood Toyota (PanG)
No. 31 Al Unser Jr. Kelley Racing Corteco/Bryant Toyota (D)
(D) = Dallara chassis
(PGF) = Panoz G-Force chassis
“Quotes”
Jim Aust, Toyota vice president of motorsports: “We’re thrilled to begin our participation as an engine supplier in the Indy Racing League at the Toyota Indy 300. Testing has gone very well, but now we’ll finally get a true grasp on where we stand when the racing begins this weekend. One thing that has become obvious, though, is that the IndyCar Series is going to be tremendously competitive this year. It’s hard to imagine it being more competitive than it was a year ago, but I think race fans are going to see 15 or more cars having a shot to win on any given weekend. Fortunately, we have a terrific group of teams and drivers using Toyota engines who should be in the mix.”
February 04, 2003
TOYOTA UNVEILS POTENT 2003 INDYCAR SERIES LINE-UP
Featuring the two-time defending Indianapolis 500 champion and seven other past Indy Racing League (IRL) or CART winners, Toyota’s 2003 IndyCar Series line-up should ensure a strong run in the manufacturer’s quest for its first Indianapolis 500 victory and an IRL championship.
Five teams – Kelley Racing, Marlboro Team Penske, Target Chip Ganassi Racing, Mo Nunn Racing and A.J. Foyt Enterprises – will field at least nine total Toyota-powered entries this season.
“We believe that we have a terrific line-up of drivers and teams for 2003,” said Jim Aust, Toyota vice president of motorsports and the president and CEO of Toyota Racing Development (TRD), U.S.A. “I think the high quality our group of teams and drivers is due, in large part, to offering a tremendously competitive engine at an affordable price with strong track support. We’re thrilled to have nine proven race-winners scheduled to drive Toyota-powered cars this year. It should be an incredibly competitive and exciting season.”
Heading into the Test in the West, the new Toyota Indy V8 has logged more than 4000 miles during off-season testing in preparation for the season-opening Toyota Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on March 2.
Leading the charge will be two-time defending Indianapolis 500 champion Helio Castroneves and two-time CART champion Gil de Ferran, of Marlboro Team Penske. Castroneves and de Ferran combined to win four of last year’s 15 IRL events during their first season in the series with Roger Penske’s team. Castroneves placed second overall, while de Ferran finished third. Each is back for their second IRL season and will campaign Toyota Dallara’s.
Two past series champions will be campaign a pair of Toyota-powered Dallaras for Kelley Racing. Scott Sharp, the 1996 IRL champion, will drive the Delphi Toyota, while two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Al Unser Jr. will drive a Corteco-sponsored entry. Each is an IndyCar Series winner. KelleyRacing was the first team to sign with Toyota’s IRL program last year.
One cannot talk about Toyota’s open-wheel racing program without mentioning long-time partner Target Chip Ganassi Racing. The team has expanded its IRL program to two Toyota-powered Panoz G-Force cars this year and will feature a pair of 22-year-old hot shoes: Scott Dixon and Tomas Scheckter.
Dixon is a former CART Rookie of the Year and the youngest race winner in major open-wheel history. Scheckter took the IRL by storm in his rookie season a year ago by constantly running up front and earning his first victory at Michigan Speedway. The son of former F1 World Champion Jodi Scheckter, he was second in the IRL with three pole positions and third in laps lead, including a race-high 85 at the Indianapolis 500.
Mo Nunn Racing’s first-year IRL program was the surprise of the IRL ranks a year ago. Driver Felipe Giaffone established himself as a legitimate IndyCar Series contender in 2002, earning his first IndyCar victory on the way to fourth-place in the championship in his Hollywood-sponsored Panoz G-Force. The team has expanded to a second car this season with former F1 and CART pilot Tora Takagi in a Pioneer Electronics-sponsored Toyota Panoz G-Force. Takagi, a former Formula One driver, dominated the Japanese Formula Nippon series in 2000 with a record-setting eight victories in 10 races before moving into CART in 2001.
The most recent addition to the Toyota ranks is racing legend A.J.Foyt and his A.J. Foyt Enterprises team. The four-time Indianapolis 500 winner will campaign a Toyota-powered Panoz G Force for his grand-son, A.J. Foyt IV, the reigning Infiniti Pro Series champion with four race victories last season. The younger Foyt will turn 19 years old on May 25, the scheduled running for what may be his first Indianapolis 500. He’ll be joined by veteran Shigeaki Hattori for the season’s first four events in the Epson Toyota.
The Toyota Indy V8 is an all-new engine designed from a “clean sheet of paper” for competition in the IRL. It was designed, built and developed by Toyota Racing Development (TRD), U.S.A. in its 47,000-square-foot Costa Mesa,Calif., facility. The engine began dynamometer testing in February 2002 and ran its first official on-track test in August 2002 at the Kentucky Speedway with Castroneves behind the wheel.
TOYOTAS TOP IRL TEST IN THE WEST AT CALIFORNIA SPEEDWAY
Felipe Giaffone (Hollywood Toyota) led the way as Toyota-powered cars topped the charts in both sessions in the Indy Racing League’s IndyCar Series’ Test in the West at the California Speedway today.
Giaffone led a four-car Toyota sweep at the top of the charts during the morning session and then repeated as the fastest driver in the afternoon. Tomas Scheckter (Target Toyota) was the runner-up to Giaffone in each session, giving Toyota a one-two sweep on the day.
“I was very impressed with the top-end power we had with the Toyota today,” said Giaffone, who placed fourth overall in IRL competition last season. “There were seven Toyotas in the top 10 in the afternoon so that shows the engine is very good. The engine also appears very reliable as we’ve yet to have a single problem in testing so far this year.”
In the morning session, Giaffone and Scheckter led Scott Dixon (Target Toyota) and Tora Takagi (Pioneer Toyota) in a sweep of the top four positions. Impressive rookie A.J. Foyt IV (Conseco Toyota) placed seventh in the morning in his first test of the year and his first time with the new Toyota/G Force package.
In the afternoon, Giaffone and Scheckter were once again one-two, with Gil de Ferran (Marlboro Toyota), Dixon, Takagi, Al Unser Jr. (Corteco Toyota) and Helio Castroneves (Marlboro Toyota) placing fifth through ninth. The 18-year-old Foyt was impressive in the afternoon as well, falling just outside of the top 10 in the11th spot.
“We’re very pleased with how things went today,” said Jim Aust, Toyota vice president of motorsports. “It was nice to see all five of our Toyota teams placing a car in the top seven in at least one of the two sessions. Unfortunately, they don’t give points for test sessions and we know that we’re going to have to continue to improve for what should be an incredibly competitive IndyCar season.”
The IRL’s Test in the West will resume on-track action in Arizona on Friday for the first of a two-day test session at Phoenix International Raceway in preparation for the season-opening Toyota Indy 300 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, March 2 (ABC, 1 p.m. EST).
February 02, 2003
TOYOTA CEGWA SPORT TEAM IMPRESSES AT ROLEX 24
After running second in class and in the top five overall for much of the night, an impressive performance for the new Cegwa Sport Motorola/OzExe Toyota came to an end due to a fire caused by a loose oil line – but not before the new Daytona Prototype team impressed all those on hand in the team’s very first race.
Featuring a 4.35-liter V8 Toyota engine, team owner Darius Grala brought his Cegwa Sport team to Daytona with four drivers who had never raced before at Daytona with a car that had a fraction of the pre-race testing seen by some of the more experienced competitors. Yet, despite a learning experience for all those involved, the team logged more than 1,000 miles in the race, most of it spent in the top-10 overall with the team rising to fourth during the evening hours of the twice-around-the-clock spectacular.
“Other than the end result, I couldn’t be happier with the way things went during the race,” said lead driver and team owner Grala. “We had approximately 15 percent of the testing that some of the bigger teams had coming into the race, but our Motorola/OzExe Toyota was as good as any car in the field. Our drivers are all new to Daytona, endurance racing and night racing, so we had a fairly steep learning curve. Yet, we accumulated more racing miles (1,031) than we’d previously done in testing and ran upfront in the process. I can’t say enough about the whole Cegwa Sport team.”
Grala shared driving duties with three young open-wheel hot-shoes in Brazilian F3 champ Oswaldo Negri, 2002 Formula Mazda champion Guy Cosmo and two-time Barber Series winner Josh Rehm.
“We fell short of our ultimate goal of finishing the race, but we’re very pleased with our first time out in the new Daytona Prototype class,” said Gary Reed, Toyota Racing Development program manager for the new division. “The Toyota engine ran trouble-free for more than 1,000 miles and you had to be impressed with the Cegwa Sport team’s ability to run the car upfront. We’re looking forward to the rest of the Rolex Series season and, hopefully, we’ll be providing Toyota power to more teams in the future.”
The race marked Toyota’s first appearance in the Rolex 24 since Dan Gurney’s All American Racers team earned the overall victory in 1993 with a Toyota Eagle MKIII driven by PJ Jones, Mark Dismore and Rocky Moran.