On July 8th, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing announced that the GR Yaris M Concept, which was scheduled to make its debut in the ST-Q class, will be missed at the ENEOS Super Endurance Series 2025 Empowered by BRIDGESTONE Round 5 “Super Endurance Race in Autopolis” to be held at Autopolis in Oita Prefecture from July 26th to 27th.
In 2025, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing, together with ROOKIE Racing, has been working as a “TG-RR” to “create better cars starting from motorsports” through its participation in the Super Endurance Nurburgring 24 Hours.
Among the activities this season, there have been continuing interesting initiatives, such as participating in the TGRR GR Corolla H2 concept with a hydrogen engine and taking on the challenge of the GR Yaris with a DAT at the 24-hour Nürburgring, but the most notable feature of the GR Yaris mid-ship announcement at the Tokyo Auto Salon in January was the GR Yaris M Concept.
It was also revealed during a media briefing at the third round of Fuji 24 Hours that his highly anticipated debut will be the fifth round of Super Endurance to be held at Autopolis from July 26th to 27th, and TG-RR said that “all together the development team have worked together to identify and improve many issues” in preparation for his race at Autopolis.
However, on July 8th, it was announced that he would miss Round 5 at Autopolis, saying, “Each of stopping, turning, and driving is the difficulty unique to midship, and in order to make it a better car, we have decided to refrain from participating this time. TOYOTA GAZOO Racing is aiming to run in the sixth round, which will be held at Okayama International Circuit from October 25th to 26th.
In addition, for the fifth round of Autopolis, although he will miss the GR Yaris M Concept, he will be competing in the GR Yaris, which completed the 24-hour Nürburgring. This car has fought through the harsh Nureau, but it gains new knowledge through driving in harsh environments with different properties, such as the high temperature and humidity at Autopolis in July, and will be used in future car construction.
With the continued unique attempts of the TG-RR, as was the case with hydrogen engines, there is always a “suffering of creation.” However, another feature is that amazing technology is born beyond that. First of all, I look forward to the GR Yaris M concept running in Round 6 in Okayama.
