One of a new breed of racing drivers will return to race in the Toyota Racing Series when it begins in January: Jann Mardenborough’s motorsport career began when he won a motor racing competition online in 2011.

The winning prize was a coaching programme and a competitive drive as part of Nissan’s GT Academy programme and this opportunity has propelled him all the way to a drive in the 2013 Le Mans 24-hour endurance race.

Cardiff-based Mardenborough raced in the 2013 Toyota Racing Series, winning the rookie title and finishing tenth overall in a very strong field in his first championship outing in a ‘wings and slicks’ single seater race car.

He finished third in the LMP2 class at Le Mans this year and finished the year 12th in LMP2 in the World Endurance Championship. Mardenborough has also been racing in the European Formula Three series along with many other TRS graduates and finished sixth in the British F3 championship’s international series.

He heads back to New Zealand for a second season of TRS and will race with multiple TRS champion team Giles Motorsport.

Joining Mardenborough on the grid in the Giles team cars are Ryan Tveter, Alif Hamdan, Matt Rao, Matteo Ferrer and Martin Rump.

Ryan Tveter, 19, is from Connecticut in the United States of America. He has been racing this year in Formula Renault Northern European Cup and Formula Renault 2.0 in Europe. His career includes drives in the American Star championship series and Formula Tour 1600 in Canada.

Alif Hamdan is the latest Malaysian driver to head south for the five-week TRS championship.

He has been racing GT3, Carrera Cup and Super Sports events and championships in Malaysia this year, and won the Malaysian Super Series sports production category in an Aston Martin Vantage GT4. Hamdan, 22, will be assisted and advised by TRS graduate and current Carrera Cup Asia champion Earl Bamber.

Matt Rao, 19, is a British driver who has been racing in Formula Renault this year. He was British Formula Ford Duratec champion in 2012.
Matteo Ferrer is from Italy. He has been racing in Britain this year contesting Formula Renault 2.0 and the new BRDC Formula Four category. Ferrer is managed by Peter Collins and has ties to the Racing Engineering team.

The youngest of the Giles drivers is Estonian Martin Rump, 17. He will be accompanied to New Zealand by fellow countryman and 2010 TRS graduate Sten Pentus who will coach and advise.

Tveter, Hamdan, Rao, Ferrer and Rump are all first season TRS rookies.

Giles Motorsport has been TRS champion team four times, twice with Mitch Evans (2012 GP3 champion, now racing GP2); once with Nick Cassidy and once with Mitch Cunningham. Team principal Steven Giles says he is looking forward to the coming championship and in particular to seeing the 23-car field grid up for the 2014 New Zealand Grand Prix in February.

“From Teretonga in January to the Grand Prix a month later we are going to see some excellent competition among drivers who are the ‘names of the future’. The interest in TRS has gone from strength to strength in the past few seasons and as a result, we have the biggest field of internationals ever. The racing will be intense,” he says.

The Toyota Racing Series is New Zealand’s premier international category and the only series that offers aspiring local racers the chance to compete in modern ‘wings-and-slicks’ open-wheel race cars against rising international drivers before heading offshore to the next step in their careers. For the international drivers, the series offers five weeks of intense racing action that propels them back into their northern hemisphere seasons ready to win races and championships.