Toyota Sprint Series Is The Perfect Motorsport Baptism

Toyota’s support of grassroots motorsport will continue to grow on Sunday (28 April) at Blyton Park in Lincolnshire, the venue for the opening round of the Toyota Sprint Series. Thirty-plus Toyotas – from street-legal Yaris to highly tuned GT86 – are expected at the first of the season’s six events.

Old hands and complete novices will be taking part, going up against the clock and their class rivals as they bid to master the Blyton sprint course.

So far as series organiser Adrian Smith is concerned, there’s no better way to dip a toe in the waters of motorsport: “I know I am biased but if you want to find out if motorsport is for you or not, then sprinting is the perfect entry. You can come along with a road car, buy a competition licence on the day, and go sprinting. The only thing you will need is an approved helmet, although we recommend a proper race suit also.

“Any street-legal Toyota is good enough to take part. Event entry fees are set at £125 so it’s an affordable way to compete, and because the cars are pitted against the clock, and not going door handle to door handle, there’s very little chance of damage.”

There are 13 different classes catering for completely standard cars up to highly modified, and no age limit on the Toyota models which may compete. Many will be official UK models, whereas you can expect a number of rare domestic models as well.

“We have a number of complete novices taking part, as we have had on each of the past six seasons of the Toyota Sprint Series. It’s really gratifying when people who take up the sport with us start winning trophies within a couple of years.”

This year’s Toyota Sprint Series calendar features two visits to Blyton, running on differing circuits, as well as events at Croft and Snetterton race tracks. Further details of the competition can be found at www.toyotasprint.com

Toyota Sprint Series provisional calendar

• 28 Apr  BlytonPark, Lincolnshire
• 19 May  Woodbridge, Suffolk
• 09 Jun  Barkston Heath, Lincolnshire
• 18 Aug  Blyton Park
• 15 Sep  Croft, North Yorkshire
• 19 Oct  Snetterton, Norfolk

The delayed opening round of the Toyota MR2 Championship at Brands Hatch is also scheduled for 28 April. The championship had been due to commence last month at DoningtonPark but the event was snowed off.

ENDS