Young racers can now hone their skills with Toyota’s new young driver programme

UMW Toyota Motor launches its Gazoo Racing Young Talent Development Programme to help nurture young aspiring Malaysian racers. The programme is aimed at youngsters aged 14 to 20 years old.

In the past 3 seasons, the Toyota Vios Challenge has been attracting aspiring racers to give motorsports a try. Thanks to its affordable cost of participation, the challenge has done a good job at reaching its goal to bring motorsports to the masses.

UMW has also noted that more and more young drivers are signing up to participate in the racing series to test their talent racing a purpose-built Toyota Vios in a specially-built street circuit.

This has inspired the company to start the Gazoo Racing Young Talent Development Programme to further help nurture interest and healthy racing in a new generation of race lovers.

At the moment, the programme has already recruited 6 young racers. The racers were scouted from various accomplishments such as their karting career and sim-racing accomplishments. They were also judged by their overall performance and level of commitment in their respective fields.

The racers will be put through intensive training for both on and off the track under close guidance from instructors at the Gazoo Racing School. They will have to further prove their talents under several criteria before they are certified competent to race.

Of course, these racers will also have to fulfil all conditions for the issuance of a national competition license (circuit racing) by Malaysia’s motor-racing governing body, the Motorsports Association of Malaysia (MAM).

Once they have passed all qualifications, they will be allowed to take their place in the fourth season of the Toyota Vios Challenge.

The ultimate goal for the new Gazoo Racing Young Talent Development Programme is to provide a gateway into higher levels of motorsports racing for young racing talents in Malaysia. Perhaps we’ll even find the next Malaysia Formula 1 driver soon!