Toyota Drag Racing Program Makes Big Splash at NHRA Winternationals
The Toyota Racing Development-backed Corolla Drag Car driven by Scott Kelley had the opportunity to run against an assortment of domestic V8’s at last weekend’s NHRA season opener Winternationals. This historic event is one of the original National Events and the second oldest event on the tour next to the U.S. Nationals held at O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis. Scott plugged the TRD Corolla in the ultra competitive class of Competition Eliminator running in the L / Altered class. “The class was not designed to accommodate our vehicle” Scott explains, “but we have been working with NHRA to create a class just for our front-drive four cylinder setup so we can compete on a level playing field with the domestic V8’s. We knew our chances to qualify were slim as the competition is fierce but we wanted to show that we were serious about our commitment to running POWERade National Events as well as the NHRA-sanctioned Sport Compact events.” To compete in this class Scott had to convert the TRD-built power plant back to race gas from its normal methanol go-go juice and add a few extra safety items. This did not stop the lone Toyota door car on the racetrack from turning heads running high 9’s in the quarter mile at over 137 mph! This was good enough to qualify in the top 32 cars and compete in the big show starting on Saturday. “Just qualifying for this field was stellar and overall the event was a huge success for Toyota Racing” Scott says, “not only did we get to showcase the Corolla in front of over a hundred thousand race fans over the four days but we got an e-mail Monday morning from NHRA saying they were so impressed with our performance and professionalism that they are going to fast track our request for our own class. Mission accomplished!” So look for Scott and his TRD-backed Toyota Corolla at an NHRA National event near you, he will not be hard to find just look for the lone Toyota beating up on the domestic V8’s.
