WRC leader Elfyn Evans to drive at SpeedWeek

Toyota’s World Rally Championship ace Elfyn Evans will be piloting the new Toyota GR Yaris at Goodwood’s one-off motorsport spectacular, SpeedWeek presented by Mastercard. It’ll be the car’s first full-on run in front of public eyes, so who better to shake it down than the man behind the wheel of the rally car on his nine-to-five.

Evans, current leader in the World Rally Championship, will be putting the homologation special GR Yaris through its paces in the Super Special Stages. Seven runs will take place across two days, with the first four from 18:00 on Thursday 15^th October. Stages five to seven will happen at around 13:10 on Friday 16^th October.

While much of the Super Special Stages at SpeedWeek will feature a range of legendary machinery from the history of rallying, the GR Yaris is a peak into the future. The model is by now familiar – a near-bespoke widened, lowered, two-door variant of the humble Yaris city car, putting 260PS (191kW) and 360Nm (265lb ft) to all four wheels. It exists to homologate a future bespoke entrant to the WRC from Toyota that, like the GR, will be wider and lower.

The Super Special Stages are comprised of Northern and Southern loops, created within the confines of the Goodwood Motor Circuit. These will incorporate the track infield area, perimeter road and the tunnel under the track.

The GR Yaris with Elfyn Evans at the wheel, along with its modern and historic classmates at SpeedWeek, will be pushed to the limit, in everything from high-speed sections, to tight hairpins, swapping between tarmac and gravel. It’s sure to be a gruelling challenge for Elfyn’s new company car.

Goodwood SpeedWeek is a one-off event you can stream from home, taking place between 15^th-18^th October.

Source: goodwood.com. Images: motorsport images, and Peter Summers