“Motorsport is more than just entertainment. It is vital to the development of the car industry.”
—Kiichirō Toyoda
OUR FOUNDATION
Our devotion to motorsports begins with Kiichiro Toyoda, founder of Toyota Motor Corporation. His passion led to the creation of the first Toyota racecar, the Toyopet Racer, and his spirit inspired our international racing debut at the 1957’s Mobilgas Rally Round Australia.
After three strong wins across Japan in 1966, the Fall of that same year saw a preproduction version of the Toyota 2000GT set three world records and 13 international records in the 2,000-cc class during an intense 72-hour testing session at the Yatabe Test Track.
A Corolla 1600 takes home the first WRC win for a Toyota in 1973, and in 1975 Toyota entered the WRC as a factory team and wins its first series championship. This victory will set the stage for decades of WRC dominance in cars like the ST185 Celica Twin-Cam Turbo, the ST205 Celica GT-Four, and today’s GR Yaris.
In 1973, a young Hiromu Naruse made his first visit to the Nürburgring to serve as a technical advisor to the local Toyota racing team. Their Celica 1600 GT, fresh off an earlier win at Spa, would finish the six-hour endurance race with a class win and a 6th-place finish overall.
Toyota’s Eagle MkIII racecar, and its dominance of the IMSA GTP class, is the stuff of legend. Between 1991 and 1993, this car secured 21 wins across 27 races. Its design, engineering and speed were so advanced that rival teams simply could not compete, prompting IMSA to dissolve the class before the 1994 racing season.
Nineteen years, 88 wins, 14 drivers’ championships, 11 manufacturers’ championships and one videogame transformed a white Toyota pickup truck with its yellow-orange-and-red racing livery into the definitive symbol of all things off-road.
In 1985 Toyota officially entered Le Mans with its Group C prototype, the TOM’s 85C. Of two cars entered, one finished the race in 12th place, making it the first Japanese racecar to complete the famed 24-hour endurance race. In 1992 Toyota would take home a second-place finish with its TS010, marking the first-ever top-three finish for a Japanese car and first-ever podium finish for a Japanese driver.
OUR ORIGIN
Akio Toyoda may say he began his journey simply chasing the taillights of master driver Hiromu Naruse, but those familiar with this lead-follow exercise know that it’s here where one starts to learn the finer nuances of car control. And through Naruse’s lessons, Toyoda begins to develop his own driving expertise. Their shared belief: car development can’t be handled by data alone—it must be felt through hands-on experience.
Naruse encourages Toyoda to join him in attempting the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, and in 2007 the two rise to the challenge with their new privateer team, Team Gazoo. Toyoda, driving under his now-iconic pseudonym, Morizo, pushes his used Toyota Altezza to its limits, intensely focused on sticking to the back bumper of his master’s matching race-prepped sedan. Despite the odds, the team finished the race. A quiet miracle that sparked something greater.
In the words of Morizo, ”If you’re making a car dedicated to the finest performance, you need to refine it and nurture it at Nürburgring” So in 2008 he and Naruse return to the ‘Ring with a new race team, Gazoo Racing, and a never-before-seen car, a prototype LFA. The intensity of competition was essential to the supercar’s development, and the lessons learned here continue to be applied to the vehicles we build.
Naruse’s spirit lives on at Gazoo Racing, with Morizo embracing his role as master driver and inspiring the next generation of builders, engineers and drivers. And Morizo’s passion for racing has never waned. In 2025 he once again drove the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, this time feeling Naruse’s headlights chasing him, his memory encouraging Morizo, and the entire Gazoo Racing team, to keep pushing forward.
OUR PROOF
We’ve been racing since 2007. And through the collective passion, hard work and determination of the entire Toyota Gazoo Racing (TGR) team, we continue to prove ourselves on the world stage.
NÜRBURGRING
Each visit to the 24 Hours of Nürburgring serves as a poignant reminder as to how far we’ve come. This race has not only helped to develop cars like the Lexus LFA, but develop the people who build them. And our years at the ‘Ring have given us plenty to celebrate, including class wins in SP8, SP Pro and SP2T.
LE MANS
Winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans is as much about determination as it is about skill. In 2018, and after 19 previous attempts, the TGR team and the TS050 Hybrids were able to finally claim victory at Circuit de la Sarthe with an incredible 1-2 finish. And the team would go on to repeat these wins in 2019 and 2020. In 2021 the team returned with an all-new car, the GR010 Hybrid, to claim the series’ first-ever win in the new Hypercar class.
WRC
Backed by rally legends, TGR returned to the World Rally Championship in 2017 with the mighty GR Yaris. And our winning streak has been nothing less than legendary. We secured our 103rd victory at the 2025 Rally Chile with a 1-2 win, making Toyota Gazoo Racing the winningest manufacturer in the history of the WRC.
DAKAR
Since the race’s inception in 1979, Toyota vehicles have played a pivotal role in the Dakar Rally. TGR began supporting a small South African Rally Raid team in 2012, and through the years, this partnership earned multiple top 10 finishes and Toyota’s first-ever Dakar Rally win in 2019. In 2020 this small team was brought fully into the TGR fold, with the resulting factory works team bringing home Dakar Rally wins in 2022, 2023 and 2025.
