News this week that Cologne (Germany) based Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG) will now be renamed TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Europe GmbH (TGR-E).
TGR-E is Kiwi driver Brendon Hartley’s employer as they run both the World Endurance Championship program for Toyota as well as supplying engines for the Toyota’s World Rally Championship and developing the GR Supra GT4 customer motorsport project.
TGR-E have gone through a number of name changes since its inception by Swedish rally ace Ove Andersson in 1979.
Andersson made quite an impression on his rally debut in the 1963 Swedish Rally driving a Mini. He went on to finish second in the 1967 Monte Carlo Rally (Lancia Fulvia), winning it in 1971 with David Stone in an Alpine -Renault A110. That same year he won the Rallye Sanremo, the Österreichische Alpenfahrt and the Acropolis Rally, winning the International Championship for Manufacturers title for Alpine.
In the early 1970s he was to establish his own rally team, Andersson Motorsport, which would later become Toyota Team Europe (TTE) based in Cologne, Germany. TTE ran Toyota’s highly successful WRC program through to the late 1990s. In 1999 when the company withdrew from rallying it switched its focus to Formula One competing between 2002 to 2009.
It was in 1993 that Toyota Motor Corporation took sole ownership and renamed it TOYOTA Motorsport GmbH (TMG).
Then in 2012 TMG re-entered the World Endurance Championship, having competed at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1998 and 99 with their GT-One program.
“It is logical that, as a valued member of the GAZOO Racing Company, the company’s name should adapt to reflect the strengthening link between Cologne and Japan,” said Hisatake Murata, Chairman of TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Europe. “We are all looking forward to an exciting future in which together we will make cars that inspire and delight drivers, on the road and in motorsport.”
Where does Marcus Grönholm fit into this? Many know the Finnish rally star for his exploits as a Peugeot WRC factory driver, winning the WRC title twice, in 2000 and 2002. Yet Grönholm spent a large part of his early career driving Toyota’s, particularly for the TTE team.
He won the Finnish championship in 1991 (Group N – Toyota Celica GT-Four ST165), 1994 (Group A – Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD), 1996 (Group A – Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205), 1997 (Group A – Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205) and 1998 (Group A – Toyota Corolla WRC/Toyota Celica GT-Four).
In fact it wasn’t until his early thirties that he eventually became a factory driver in the WRC.
Grönholm first competed in Rally New Zealand in 1995 in a Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD (ST185) retiring with engine trouble in Special Stage 8. He returned in 1998, this time in a Toyota Corolla WRC, but again retiring with engine problems in SS9.
Two years later he returned with the Peugeot WRC team, winning his first of five Rally New Zealand WRC rounds, three with Peugeot (2000, 2002, 2003) and the final two in a Ford Focus RS WRC (2006, 2007).
The current official Toyota WRC team, Toyota GAZOO Racing WRT, is based in Finland and run by another Finnish World Rally Champion, Tommi Mäkinen.
Unfortunately Ove Andersson died in a vintage rally crash on 11 June 2008 near George, South Africa.
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