Toyota: Confidence for the start of the season 🎥
DRIFT-MEISTER MEYER Toyota Gazoo Racing Switzerland is looking forward to the start of the European Drift Championship in Spain. A first test with the self-developed Toyota GR Supra gives the team reason for optimism.
Over the past few weeks, the newly occupied premises of Toyota Gazoo Racing Switzerland in Emmetten have been a hive of activity. On the one hand, the staff took care of customers' wishes, while on the other, the focus was on preparing for the racing season. As in the previous year, The Drift Force team, founded by Yves Meyer and Joshua Reynolds in 2020, will focus on the European Drift Masters, where it will field two Toyota GR Supra cars prepared in its own workshops. Meyer will compete as the official brand ambassador for Toyota Switzerland and Reynolds will also be looked after by The Drift Force.
Optimal schedule
After a difficult 2023 season, the team from Nidwalden set about setting a new course over the winter. The main focus was on the technology of the complex drift car with more than 1000 hp. Everything happened so quickly and efficiently that the first test with the improved vehicle took place on the third weekend in January. "Last year, we were only able to test a week before the first race. Now we also had eight days of testing in February and four more in March," enthuses Yves Meyer.
Test winner Yves Meyer
As a dress rehearsal before the start of the Drift Masters European Championship 2024, the drivers from Central Switzerland took part in the first event of the Italian Drift Championship in Prato near Florence on the last weekend of April. This final test under competitive conditions fully confirmed the good preparatory work - Yves Meyer emerged as the overall winner.
Yves Meyer: "Of course, the standard wasn't as high as in the European Championships," says Meyer, assessing the comparison, "but there were a few competitors from the European Championships and the best from Italy at the start. My last opponent, Michele Landolfi, was Pro 2 champion in 2023."
Toyota Gazoo Racing Switzerland will therefore soon be traveling to the first round of the 2024 European Drift Championship, which will take place on May 10/11 at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia. Only 42 drivers were selected from more than one hundred applications for a starting place. The power density will therefore be enormous, which is why Yves Meyer is keeping his cool.
Yves Meyer: "Although we feel well prepared, we know that the unexpected can always happen in an emergency."
