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Reigning two-time FIA World Rally Champion Kalle Rovanperä will make his endurance sportscar racing debut at this year’s Super Taikyu Series Fuji Super TEC 24 Hour Race on 25-26 May.
During a Sunday talk show at the Tokyo Auto Salon, Toyota Motor Corporation Chairman Akio “Morizo” Toyoda announced that Rovanperä will appear at the Fuji 24 Hours with Toyota works team ROOKIE Racing. Rovanperä will drive the #28 Toyota GR86 CNF Concept in the ST-Q class, an exhibition category for manufacturer-developed special concept vehicles.
Rovanperä has accomplished numerous milestones since joining the Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team in 2020. He became the youngest driver to win a WRC event in 2021, and the youngest World Rally Champion in 2022.
After winning his second consecutive title in 2023 at age 23, Rovanperä has elected to run a part-time WRC calendar this year in favour of participating in other forms of motorsport, before returning to full-time WRC competition in 2025. He made waves last May when he entered a Formula Drift Japan event at the historic Ebisu Circuit – and won on his debut in the discipline.
Rovanperä’s car for the Fuji 24 Hours will be the Toyota GR86 CNF Concept, a modified version of Toyota’s lightweight sports coupe which runs on carbon-neutral racing fuel. Instead of the 2.4-litre flat-four engine developed by Subaru, the GR86 CNF Concept is powered by the three-cylinder turbocharged engine used in the Toyota GR Yaris.
He’ll share the cockpit with the team’s four full-time drivers, including accomplished Toyota works drivers Kazuya Oshima and Sho Tsuboi. Oshima won the GT500 title in 2019 and also serves as the Team Principal of the #28 car. Tsuboi is the two-time and defending SUPER GT Series GT500 Champion with TOM’S Racing.
Joining them are Eisuke Sasaki, a Toyota Advanced Technical Skills Institute test driver who helped develop the current GR86 road car, and Daisuke Toyoda, the son of Akio and an experienced Super Taikyu driver.
Jari-Matti Latvala, the Team Principal of Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, will also drive for ROOKIE Racing at the Fuji 24 Hours – alongside “Morizo” in the liquid-hydrogen fuelled #32 Toyota GR Corolla H2 Concept. Latvala has run the Fuji 24 Hours in each of the last two years.
Images © Toyota Motor Corporation
Author: RJ O’Connell
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Kalle Rovanperä To Make Sportscar Racing Debut At Fuji 24H – dailysportscar.com
