Toyota are to decide whether or not they will return to the WRC some time next month (August).
Toyota withdrew from the WRC at the end of 1999. In their WRC campaign, Toyota took 3 manufacturers championships, 4 drivers championships and scored 1881 manufacturer points. Some notable drivers who drove for Toyota are Juha Kankkunen, Bjorn Waldergard, Ove Andersson, Didier Auriol, Carlos Sainz, Hannu Mikkola, Armin Schwarz and Marcus Gronholm.
Senior Toyota members were present at the Rally Portugal, and think that a reduced programme would be a better bet, possibly a European rally calender.
"Toyota wants to be engaged in motorsports in Europe and rallies have the highest media exposure." siad Toyota Motorsport chairman Tadashi Yamashina. Tadashi also said that the decision would be made 'after the summer holidays'.
Toyota withdrew from F1 last year and have been looking for another way to re-enter the motorsport arena.
Toyota's only set-back would be their finances. Toyota recorded a loss of US$4.2 billion on the 8th May 2009. on the 16th May 2009 they applied to the Japan Bank bailout of a reported $3 billion, the first time a Japanese car company had applied for a bailout from a state-backed Japanese bank.
South Africa's arm of Toyota developed some of the S2000 cars, the base cars being the RunX (South African version of the Corolla) and the Auris. In South Africa, Toyota Castrol Team campaign the Auris with Johnny Gemmell and Mark Cronje as drivers. Team Total run two RunX' (Corolla's) and have Jean-Pierre Damseaux and Fernando Rueda as drivers.
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