Norem: GR Cup ‘Huge Propellant’ for Toyota’s Driver Development

Photo: Fred Hardy/RAFA Racing Team

Toyota GR Cup North America has been a “huge propellant” of the brand’s driver development system, which has been taken to new heights this year according to TRD customer racing manager Mike Norem.

The single-make series, now in its fourth season, has seen all three previous champions move up Toyota’s sports car racing ladder, into GR Supra GT4 EVO2 machinery.

Inaugural series champion Tyler Gonzalez teamed up with 2024 title winner Gresham Wagner in last year’s Pirelli GT4 America campaign, where they finished runner-up in the Silver class following multiple wins.

Gonzalez is now paired with 2025 champion Westin Workman in RAFA Racing Team’s Supra GT4 EVO2 this year, with Workman also combining his first season of GT4 America with a campaign in IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge.

The pair kicked off their GT4 America season with overall victory in Friday’s opening round at Sonoma Raceway (pictured above).

Karl Forman, meanwhile, is also competing in GT4 America this year with Precision Racing LA.

In addition, GR Cup graduates Jaxon Bell, Ford Koch and Lucas Weisenberg have all moved into Michelin Pilot Challenge competition, driving for Koch-Copeland Motorsports and BSI Racing, respectively.

“GR Cup has been a huge propellant of that,” Norem told Sportscar365. “This year alone, we have six GR Cup alumni that are running GT4 Supras in championships across the U.S.

“They’re all directly out of GR Cup. Having a ladder system where you can go from GR Cup to touring car or GT4, giving the competitors a pathway has been huge.

“That’s really what GR Cup was developed to be, a development series.

“The cars are meant to be simple in terms of setup. We don’t give the drivers too many options in terms of ABS and traction control settings and setup options.

“So the car is a good platform for learning.”

Norem said there have been no major changes to the GR86 Cup car, which is built at Toyota’s ‘GR Garage’ in Mooresville, N.C., alongside its GR Corolla TC that competes in TC America presented by Skip Barber Racing School, since its debut in 2023.

More than 80 of the single-make cars have been built to date.

“Year one, we really found a model that worked,” said Norem. “Since then it’s just been copy and paste. Our competitors have been happy with what we’ve built.”

Toyota Innovating with Driver, Team-Based Software in GR Cup

While there have been few physical changes to the GR86 Cup car, Norem said Toyota has been focused on providing numerous software innovations to help drive development forward.

“We’re continuing to provide tools for competitors,” he said. “Year One, we had an application we released to all GR86 Cup owners, called ‘GR Setup.’ It allows them to track and log their setups.

“We have a parts lifing program for them to help monitor when parts are being mileaged out.

“Last year we unveiled something called ‘Apex Driver Log’ which are tools we pulled from some of our other programs that helps drivers learn how to put notes down on how the car felt, pre-race, post-race, during the race, corner entry, corner exit, etc, and be able to work with their team to provide better feedback.

“This weekend we’re testing a new application called ‘GR Driver Compare.’

“These cars, the GR86 Cups, are all feeding data into the cloud. That data is being captured, and post-session, they’ll be able to take their data and compare it to any other drivers’ data in the field to see what they’re doing.

“It will have all the driver inputs, throttle pedal position, steering angle, gear, RPM, etc.

“It’s just another tool where you can say, ‘This driver out-performed me in this corner. What did they do that I did not do?’

“We’re trying to build more tools to build that foundation and give [drivers] what they need to work their way up the motorsports ladder.”

Source: Sports Car 365