The Toyota GR Supra 2020 will race in the 24H of Nürburgring

The Toyota GR Supra 2020 will race in the 24H of Nürburgring. It’s worth noting that earlier this year, at the Geneva Motor Show, Toyota Gazoo Racing unveiled the Toyota Supra GT4 Concept, a preview of what would become its race car for the GT4 category.

Now the moment has come to see reality, as the racing division of Toyota has announced it will take part, with two vehicles, in the endurance race of the 24 Hours of Nürburgring. The chosen vehicles are the Toyota GR Supra and the Lexus LC.

For obvious reasons, all the attention will go to the Toyota GR Supra race car, which will run its first 24 Hours of Nürburgring from 20 to 23 June of this same year. It is important to point out that the Japanese brand has released two photos of the model that appear to show an aerodynamic package, identical to the one seen on the Toyota Supra GT4 Concept.

However, this gruelling endurance race will not be the first race for the Toyota Supra on the legendary Nürburgring circuit, also known as the “Green Hell”.

Toyota GR Supra at the 24 H of Nürburgring

The car has also competed in shorter races of the VLN Endurance Championship Nürburgring last autumn, even before the official launch of the race car, so at that time it had good full camouflage. Now, however, there is no longer any need for camouflage.

That does not mean the Nürburgring race holds no more secrets for the Toyota Supra, quite the opposite. Toyota has assured that both the Toyota Supra and the Lexus LC that will compete in the 24 hours “will incorporate and refine advanced parts and technologies intended for future race cars”. Sounds interesting, doesn’t it?

The Toyota Supra of the 24 Hours of Nürburgring will carry number 90 and will compete in the SP8T class, which allows bodywork modifications and is for cars with engines of up to 4.0 litres displacement with forced induction. The Toyota GR Supra race car features a 3.0-litre turbocharged engine with six cylinders directly related to the production car.

The goal set by Toyota for this year’s 24 Hours of Nürburgring is to complete the race. The Toyota GR Supra will be driven by a four-driver team made up of Masahiro Sasaki, Uwe Kleen, Herwig Daenens and Hisashi Yabuki. The Lexus LC competing in the SP-PRO class with number 56 will have an entirely Japanese team including Takeshi Tsuchiya, Naoya Gamo, Takamitsu Matsui and Yuichi Nakayama.

The 24 Hours of Nürburgring is a demanding race on a 25 km circuit, with more than 170 corners and a maximum elevation difference of 300 m. Toyota Gazoo Racing has competed in this event since 2007 with the aim of improving both its human team and its road vehicles, as part of Toyota’s purpose of building ever better cars by applying everything learned in competition.

Hideyuki Tanaka, chief mechanic of the Toyota GR Supra at Nürburgring, has stated that “so far, we have been working on the GR Supra in preparation for the 24 Hours of Nürburgring. We also competed in two VLN Endurance Championship races at Nürburgring, as well as in the qualifying for the 24 Hours of Nürburgring. We were able to identify several problems. At those moments, I felt that completing a race at Nürburgring is not a simple task, even if it’s only four or six hours, not to mention what could happen during a 24-hour race. Even so, we will work as one united team to finish the race. I hope everyone cheers us on enthusiastically.”