At yesterday’s launch of the Toyota GR Yaris and Toyota Vios GR Sport, UMW Toyota Motor also announced its plans for the 2021 season 4 of its Vios one-make race series Toyota Gazoo Racing (TGR) Festival.

The highlight of yesterday’s announcement was the inclusion of the Sepang 1,000 km (S1K) into its racing calendar. The 9-hour endurance race will be known as the Vios Endurance Cup.

This is not the first time UMW Toyota Motor has fielded a factory-backed team in S1K. Last year, the company’s Deputy Chairman and Chief Motorsports Officer Akio Takeyama, along with  William Ho and 6-time Le Mans 24 Hours finisher Akira Iida participated in the race along with 10 other Vios teams.

The Vios Endurance Cup and two more Vios Sprint Cups are the three new events added to Season 4 of the Toyota Gazoo Racing Festival.

Honda Malaysia Racing Team (HMRT) have yet to confirm if it will compete in next year’s S1K, but the team is a regular participant. This year’s S1K event was cancelled due to Covid-19, and the 2019 race wasn’t a good one for HMRT, as it was won by Proton’s R3 team’s Proton Saga and Honda was robbed of a podium finish due to some race regulation technicalities. 

Motorsports is expensive and given the current market outlook, we will not be surprise if Honda pulls out from the race but doing so would be bad for public relations, because it could easily be interpreted as Honda stepping down as Toyota steps up its participation in S1K.

Apart from the expanded race events, the next season of Toyota Gazoo Racing Festival will also see a new group of drivers joining, including 6 young drivers aged between 14 to 20 years old – two are coming from e-simulation racing background, while four are karters.

All 6 drivers are currently undergoing driver development training sponsored by UMW Toyota, mentored by ex-F1 and Audi R8 LMS cup’s Alex Yoong.