Barrie Thomlinson’s annual trip to Europe to attract young motor racing talent to New Zealand has just been made easier for the 2016 season following New Zealand’s historic one-two finish at the Le Mans 24 Hours Sports car race.
Thomlinson, the Category Manager of the premier single-seater championship which is run over five rounds in January and February, believes the recent success of its graduates will encourage the next generation of world class driver’s to get involved.
Le Mans winner Earl Bamber and runner-up Brendon Hartley are both graduates of the Toyota Racing Series. Mitch Evans who also finished in the top ten and second in his class in the famous French race is another winner to come out of TRS, as is Richie Stanaway who led his class for much of the 24 hours.
“Each year the level of inquiry about racing in TRS increases,” said Thomlinson. “Drivers see the benefits of five intense weeks of racing in the northern hemisphere off-season. And apart from the Kiwi drivers, there are many international drivers who have competed here that have gone on to become recognisable names in various categories around the world.”
The presence of as many as 15 or 16 international drivers in the TRS field provides New Zealand’s young emerging talent with an opportunity to gain experience and gauge their own competitiveness against up and coming international talent.
The Toyota Racing Series has become the crucible for nurturing local drivers to see if they are good enough to venture abroad. The single seater championship will run over five rounds in January and February.
Thomlinson will go to a combination of Formula 3, Formula 4 and GP3/GP2 races at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria; Snetterton in England; the Nurburgring in Germany and Belgium’s Spa Francorchamps circuit during August.
There he will meet with drivers, managers and parents to discuss and sell the benefits of racing in New Zealand in January and February next year in one of the identical Toyota powered single seaters which are supplied by Tatuus SRL in Italy.
The TRS series is unique, with all the cars being owned by Toyota New Zealand and using the same Toyota 1.8 litre engines. All the cars are currently being stripped and rebuilt for the 2016 series.
The Toyota Racing Series was originally set up as a stepping stone above Formula Ford to help local drivers transition to international racing. Multiple victories in TRS assisted Bamber, Hartley, Evans and Stanaway secure drives internationally leading them to their impressive Le Mans successes.
Barry you are a Legend.From what we are told TRS is aired all over the world.
who gives??? Toyota and v8s not supporting the all the south island tracks,so why support or follow or support them,2 me these r not nz series just north island ones just travelling cheers 1 and all
I agree, barry will be remembered for what he has donefor motorsport, I think he will have an easy job recruting young drivers to the series.he has built the trs up to bea world recognised, and watched, by fathers, driver managers, and the like, and the more the drivers perform, ala kyvat, alex lynn, mitch, and co.the trs goes up with them.
BUT Barry, you realise trs wouldnt have been where it is today, without the levels raceway!.
What exactly is the problem there?,from all reports its the trs that dont want to go to levels because the first corner is too dangerous, if this is correct, then excuse me barry, its been like that for umpteen years, as whats the problem baz?.I think you should recruit cool young heads, instead of the rich kid hotheads, who dont know when to brake!.
Any how baz, an answer would be good, thats my rant over….keep up the good work, and lets get back to levels.
I agree with Animal and Victor, plus it’s hardly a local series when most of the competitors are foreigners!
And as for the Levels question, I would have assumed it would be important for the young drivers to race on all sorts of tracks so as to sort out the real boys from the silly boys! They’d learn far more racing at Levels than at Puke!
PK.