Toyota and Rookie Racing Enter a 25-Hour Endurance Race in Thailand

Rookie Racing Co. Ltd. And Toyota Motors Corporation is poised to enter the Idemitsu 1500 Super Endurance 2022 – Thailand’s 25-hour endurance race, which will take place in Chang International Circuit, Buriram, Thailand.

Starting from 17 to 18 Dec 2022, this endurance event will see both entities racing in the ORC Rookie GR Corolla H2 Concept and the ORC Rookie GR86 CNF Concept. What makes both cars more interesting is the fact that they are being powered using alternative, carbon-neutral fuels.

The ORC Rookie GR Corolla boasts a hydrogen-fuelled powertrain, while the ORC Rookie GR86 is powered by a carbon-neutral fuel. Seeing this endurance race as a perfect testing ground for Toyota’s alternative fuel vehicles, both cars won’t be participating in the entire 25-hour of the race, but rather only during the first and last few hours only.

In addition to both ORC Rookie cars, Toyota Gazoo Racing Team Thailand will also run both their vehicles with carbon-neutral fuels – a significant mark in Toyota’s bid to facilitate the development of carbon neutral technologies in the region.

This 25-hour endurance race in Thailand also marks the first-time ever that both vehicles compete in a race outside of Japan.

Prior to this, Rookie Racing and Toyota have participated in Japan's Super Taikyu series – a pro-am racing series open for any commercially available racing cars, ranging from GT3, GT4 to TCR spec racers, and even minimally-modified production cars. Entering midway in the 2021 season, the hydrogen-powered GR Corolla was driven by Toyota’s President Akio Toyoda himself, under the moniker “Morizo”.

Aside from the Super Taikyu entrant, Toyota also ran a demonstration of its hydrogen powertrain’s prowess by running a demonstration drive on a prototype GR Yaris H2. Said demonstrations were ran during the ninth and 13th round of the 2022 World Rally Championship (WRC), taking place at Ypres, Belgium and Nagoya, Japan respectively.

With this upcoming Idemitsu 1500 Super Endurance 2022, Toyota and Rookie Racing hope this endurance race participation will further cement the feasibility of both its carbon-neutral cars, while promoting carbon neutrality to this part of the world. 

This is also in-line with Toyota’s global electrification plan, where the firm still puts faith in carbon-neutral alternative solutions such as hydrogen fuel cells (FCEV) and plug-in hybrid (PHEV), rather than going full-blown electrification like most of the big players do.

The Idemitsu 1500 Super Endurance 2022 is taking place at Chang International Circuit in Buriram Thailand. As the Kingdom’s most premier racing circuit, the FIM Grade A circuit has hosted numerous international motorsport events, including the MotoGP’s Thailand Grand Prix, last held in the 2022 season.