Baptism at Qualifiers in Nürburgring
On June 17, TGRR began its campaign at Nürburgring 24 Hours by visiting a small park beside a public road near Nürburgring where two cherry trees—one Japanese and one German—are growing.
Beyond the cherry trees lies the curve where Naruse tragically lost his life in 2010 in an accident during the development testing of the LFA Nürburgring Package. Here, Morizo and all team members prayed for safety in the race and shared their individual goals with Naruse, whose efforts paved the way for current activities at Nürburgring.
On June 18, Adenau Racing Day was hosted by the town of Adenau, which is located about ten minutes from Nürburgring.
This special event featured a parade on public roads of racing cars and drivers competing in the Nürburgring 24 Hours. The organizers randomly invite teams to participate, and TGRR received its first invitation since its debut in 2007. Led by Morizo, the entire team participated in the parade. Despite the event being held midweek, the venue was packed with fans to the extent that cars had almost no space to pass through. Everyone enjoyed interacting with the fans in a relaxed atmosphere before the race began.
The first day of qualifiers was June 19. The daytime sessions went smoothly, but the team soon received a harsh lesson on the difficulties of Nürburgring during the nighttime session.
Car No. 382 stopped on the course after the impact of a jump caused excessive engine movement and triggered the safety device of the fuel system.
Similarly, Car No. 110, which was fighting for a top qualifying position, was also subject to impact from a jump that caused the transmission to shift into neutral. While coasting to a safe area, the team was penalized for speeding (driving at 70 kmph under code 60 kmph restrictions). As a result, the car started in last place.
Car No. 109 suffered a windshield crack caused by a flying stone from the car ahead. The team did not have a spare windshield, and they even considered the emergency measures of removing the front windshield from the GR YARIS M Concept prototype (a mid-ship 4WD on display in the paddock). Fortunately, they were able to source a new windshield for replacement.
Although none of these incidents were serious enough to knock one of the cars out of the race, they were troubles caused by the unique road conditions at Nürburgring. “It should never be assumed that things will go smoothly when racing with GR,” said one engineer while refocusing his energy on the competition. Nevertheless, Hisadomi remained optimistic. “Such incidents had never occurred before during test drives at Nürburgring,” he noted. “On the other hand, I believe this means that we are pushing our cars to an unprecedented high level of performance.” Despite these difficulties, all four drivers in cars No. 109 and No. 110 were able to complete the requirement of two laps.
On June 20, only Car No. 110 completed in the second days of qualifiers.
That night, the team participated in a tour around the Nürburgring circuit. The tour gave them a firsthand experience of the track’s undulations and bumps, as well as a chance to interact with fans camping beside the course.
“The parade and tour have always been some of my favorite events,” said a happy Morizo. “Actually, the only person who seemed to dislike them was Naruse. He seemed annoyed at such frivolous events before the real business of racing. I wonder what he would think if he saw how much I enjoyed myself this year—he’d probably get annoyed again! Also, I was happy to see a fan wearing GAZOO Racing apparel from 2012. It renewed my resolve to see how our continued commitment to Nürburgring has kept our fans enthused for all these years.”
At 8:30 a.m. on June 21, all members involved in this challenge gathered for a morning meeting at the team tent. Morizo addressed the members as follows:
“Today marks the start of our challenge at the 2025 Nürburgring 24 Hours. This morning, a newspaper was delivered to my room. It featured a photo of the GR YARIS with the headline ‘Toyota is Back at Nürburgring!’ along with an article that said ‘Welcome Back to Your Home Away From Home.’ I’ve never seen reporting like this before. In the past, Morizo was a persona to hide my true identity as the executive Akio Toyoda. However, people are now expecting Morizo to be a leaders in motorsports.”
“I competed at qualifiers yesterday, and it felt good to step on the accelerator at Nürburgring again for the first time in a long time,” continued Morizo. “Physically, I somehow managed to get into good enough shape to compete. Thank you all very much for continuing to strive together with me. Our 24-hour battle starts at 4:00 p.m. today. Although I am still competing under the name ‘Morizo,’ I am a much different person than I was back in 2007. I am very grateful to all of you for supporting me in my quest to compete. For that reason, I want to finish the race and capture a high placing together. Let’s do it!”
The next event was the grid walk, which was packed with spectators. Morizo was visited by Eiji Tatsumi, the former general manager of the STI NBR Challenge Team who retired last year. The two men have competed together at Nürburgring, and Morizo was able to personally thank Tatsumi for the encouragement that strengthened his resolve to continue racing at Nürburgring.
Meanwhile, Naohiko Saito, Chief Engineer of the GR YARIS, looked at the GR YARIS with a solemn expression. “I get emotional when I think how far the GR YARIS has come,” said Saito. “At first, the GR YARIS completely failed to meet our expectations, but only nine years later it is racing at Nürburgring. Still, I can’t help but worry—Morizo has warned me about the extreme difficulty of this race.”
