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Drivers from Team Toyo notched several key victories in two different forms of competition this past weekend – drag racing and autocross.
Thomas Bayer raced on the company’s Proxes Drag Slicks to win the 2009 Bluemedia NHRA Opener at the Firebird International Raceway in Chandler, Ariz. In El Toro, Calif., Ken Motonishi relied on Proxes R1R extreme performance tires to win the Street Touring (ST) category of SCCA Solo regional competition.
Motonishi, from Orange, Calif., piloted his 1989 Honda Civic Si to a solid win in at the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. He beat the second place competitor, also on Toyo tires, by 1.827 seconds. This is a back-to-back win for Motonishi, having won the previous SCCA Solo regional event in San Diego.
Motonishi is a multiple SCCA Solo past champion; he made the switchover to Toyos at the beginning of this year’s racing season.
“I borrowed a friend’s set of Proxes R1R tires before switching to Toyo Tires and was pretty amazed,” says Motonishi. “It is an awesome tire and I think it will do very well this year.”
Bayer, of Thomas Bayer Racing in Fontana, Calif., took his Lucas Oil/Toyo Tires Super Comp dragster to the final (Round 7) of competition at the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Pacific Division race to defeat a field of 110 competitors by running an 8.890-elapsed time at 165.70-mph.
The car in the lane next to him lining up at the Christmas tree during the final run turned out to be teammate Rich Camou, resulting in both drivers competing on the Proxes Drag Slicks. By the time the chutes were deployed, Bayer had claimed a consecutive win after dominating the Feb. 21-22 NHRA Nationals.
Also making it to the finals on the Proxes slicks this past weekend at Firebird was Gary Forkner driving his Toyo Tires/Lucas Oil Pontiac GTO in the Top Sportsman class. Forkner ran a 7.341-second ET at 186.15-mph in the final, but “broke-out” to be defeated by Ray Martin in his Corvette. Russell Suyenaga qualified fifth out of 52 racers with a 6.691-second ET at 205.13-mph, only to drop out due to mechanical issues later in the event.
For more information, visit www.toyo.com.
