Motorsport: Toyota Racing Series announce shortened 2021 championship

Reigning Toyota Racing Series champion Igor Fraga is from Brazil and unlikely to be available to defend his title. Photo / Photosport

The brains trust behind the Toyota Racing Series (TRS) has made a decision to run just three rounds of the highly regarded championship in the new year.

Due to the Government-imposed border restrictions and travellers from overseas having to quarantine for 14 days, it's made it all but impossible for overseas drivers to make the series.

In a valiant effort to at least let a crop of young Kiwi drivers get some seat time and put on a show, Toyota has announced a reduced championship to be run in just the North Island.

"It's a special year that has made getting a championship the same as in the past impossible," TRS category manager Nicolas Caillol told the Weekend Herald.

"The Government will not be able to let us know about getting international drivers here until the end of November and that doesn't leave the drivers or us much time to get things organised.

"If you want to make sure something does happen and we can get enough Kiwi drivers, a decision had to be made now."

While there has been some angst from the South Island racing fraternity, it has to be remembered the cost of shipping the cars, and all the support required, down south is incredible. So to attract a number of young Kiwi drivers to contest the TRS, Toyota is passing on the savings from not travelling to the South Island to young New Zealand racers by reducing the cost of entry.

By having a field of young Kiwis the TRS is continuing to commit to its long-standing ethos of promoting and supporting local talent.

"We realised that just running a Kiwi series over five rounds was going to be too expensive. It's not that we want to save money for the sake of saving money, we wanted to be able to contribute to the Kiwis drivers being able to race," explained Caillol.

"The main purpose of the category is to help young Kiwi drivers start in their racing career. To get them across the line and commit to the series we have to help them, especially as Covid has hurt a lot of businesses.

"At the moment we have between seven and nine drivers for the grid, but we have some time yet to encourage others."

Such is the popularity of the TRS, fields in the past few years have been jam-packed with international drivers wanting to get 15 races over a five-week series in preparation for the beginning of the European and American racing season.

The list of TRS graduates both international and local is pretty impressive. Four drivers contesting Formula One all cut their teeth racing up and down race tracks in New Zealand — former TRS champions Lance Stroll and Lando Norris along with Daniil Kvyat and Nicholas Latifi.

"Performing well in TRS is recognised and noted everywhere in the motorsport world," said Caillol.

"This is not a nothing championship and you just have to look at how Liam Lawson got into Red Bull Junior Team.

"The same happened with Igor Fraga [2020 TRS champion and also at Red Bull]."

The first and second rounds of TRS will be part of the MotorSport New Zealand Summer Series at Hampton Downs with Manfeild holding the third round. The New Zealand Grand Prix will still be part of the TRS, but which round is still to be determined.

In a twist, Caillol reveals the NZGP will be an All Stars event.

"For the New Zealand Grand Prix we are getting high-profile Kiwi drivers who are still in the country to race. For the young drivers doing the whole series it will be great for them race against high-profile international drivers from New Zealand."