Toyota has competed in NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series Funny Car competition with its Camry nitro-burning race car since 2012, so it’s appropriate to introduce a new competitive model for that auspicious occasion, as Toyota also marks a total of 20 years in both the Flopper class and Top Fuel nitro categories, as the 2021 season comes to a close.
From the beginning of its Funny Car competition, the Japanese manufacturer, with 10 manufacturing plants in the United States, has used the Toyota Celica and Toyota Solara body styles in the Flopper class; for the past ten years its best-selling Camry model has met great success, in particular with its resemblance to the production model.
For 2022, Toyota will roll out the GR Supra, with the most significant styling characteristics of any previous Toyota Funny Car. “After 10 years of fielding the Camry in NHRA Funny Car competition, it’s really exciting for us to be moving to the GR Supra and ultimately the next generation of Funny Cars for NHRA,” Paul Doleshal, group manager of motorsports for Toyota Motor North America explained.
“Our team at Toyota Racing Development (TRD), along with the design team at Calty worked hard to incorporate as many features from the production GR Supra into the Funny Car that J.R. Todd and Alexis DeJoria will drive in 2022,” he said.
In addition to the styling that bears likeness to the production GR Supra sports car, Toyota has made development changes that will be beneficial for the drivers, including giving the drivers more visibility behind the wheel and adding space around their helmets, together with added safety foam in the driver’s cockpit of this new, GR Supra. TRD worked closely with Todd, its 2018 Funny Car champion from Kalitta Motorsports, to develop many of these safety enhancements. The project has seen a two-year development process.
“It’s been a really unique experience getting to work with the engineers act TRD on the new GR Supra Funny Car,” Todd said. “To be a part of the work to try and make these cars as safe as possible for us as drivers means a lot to me. We all worked together on some of the issues we’ve faced for some time, including visibility.
“That said,” Todd continued, “I’ve had some big moments in my DHL Toyota Camry, including my first U.S. Nationals win and my 2018 championship. Toyota’s support of NHRA, Kalitta Motorsports and myself, specifically, means a ton. I hope we can deliver even more success to them with this new GR Supra.”
During its 20-year tenure in NHRA’s nitro classes, Toyota and its drivers have accumulated 137 Top Fuel and 43 Funny Car victories, together with six Top Fuel and three Funny Car championships.
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