Auto maker Toyota has revealed that its new race car for the 2022 NHRA Funny Car season will be based on the GR Supra, replacing the long serving Camry body shape. The manufacturer claims that the switch to the Supra shape marks the most significant implementation of production styling characteristics on a Funny Car shell.
“After 10 years of fielding the Camry in NHRA Funny Car competition, it’s really exciting for us to be moving to the GR Supra and ultimately the next generation of Funny Cars for NHRA,” said Paul Doleshal, group manager of motorsports for Toyota Motor North America. “Our team at TRD (Toyota Racing Development) along with the design team at Calty worked hard to incorporate as many features from the production GR Supra into the Funny Car that JR Todd and Alexis DeJoria will drive in 2022.”
In addition to the augmented styling characteristics of the Supra Funny Car, safety enhancements were also made during the development process, Toyota notes. These included giving the driver more visibility while sitting behind the wheel and adding more room around their helmets along with additional safety foam in the driver’s cockpit. TRD says it worked closely with Toyota Champion Funny Car driver, JR Todd, on many of the safety enhancements during the nearly two-year development process.
“It’s been a really unique experience getting to work with the engineers at TRD on the new GR Supra Funny Car,” said Kalitta Motorsports Funny Car driver Todd. “To be a part of the work to try to make these cars as safe as possible for us as drivers means a lot to me. We all worked together on some of the issues we’ve faced for some time including visibility. That said, I’ve had some big moments in my DHL Toyota Camry including my first US Nationals win and championship. Toyota’s support of NHRA, Kalitta Motorsports and myself specifically means a ton, and I hope we can deliver even more success to them with this new GR Supra.”
