Champion team quits Toyota Racing Series

Twice Toyota Racing Series winning team, International Motorsport, will be absent from the single seater series this summer with the team deciding to concentrate on Porsche GT3, NZ V8s and Mini Challenge.

“Yes, we’ll be sitting out this season and then we’ll have another look at it next year,” said team principal, Lyall Williamson.

“With 20-odd cars to look after, things were getting a little bit too big and now with two new cars we have to look after the Porsche side and step that up a bit.”

Last season International Motorsport faced strong competition in the Battery Town Porsche Series from the then new team, Triple X.

International Motorsport has regularly run at the front in the Toyota Series, with drivers including two times winner Daniel Gaunt and Shane Van Gisbergen. Last season its lead driver Earl Bamber was a series contender for the series, before being headed off by Andy Knight.

Williamson says his team’s NZ V8s line up is far from finalised with only Paul Pedersen, who is returning for another full season, confirmed at this stage. The team is actively seeking sponsorship for one or two other cars in a difficult market.

Changes in the NZ V8s regulations to allow the teams to run new stronger gearbox have added to the expense.

“It’s true that you can run the existing gearboxes, but if you want to run at the sharp end, you need the new needle roller gearbox and the [engine cylinder] heads will have to be changed to run 98 unleaded fuel.”