The Dynojet race team and star driver Frank Wrathall joined the motorsporting elite last weekend, demonstrating their BTCC Toyota Avensis at the world renowned Goodwood Festival of Speed.
More than 185,000 people attended the event over its three days and were treated to displays both static and moving of some of the world’s most exciting and desirable road and competition cars, including a host of famous cars from Toyota and Lexus.
Frank’s ‘Next Generation Touring Car’ Dynojet Avensis was one of only two current Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship machines in action at Goodwood, and Wrathall gave fire-breathing demo runs up the famous Goodwill hillclimb course twice a day.
When not in action, Frank’s Toyota was stabled alongside such exotica as Toyota Racing’s TS030 HYBRID sports car, fresh from its Le Mans 24 Hours debut, and the GAZOO Racing Lexus LFA and Toyota 86 which won their respective classes in this year’s Nürburgring 24 Hours.
“It was an amazing weekend,” said Frank. “As soon as we arrived on the Thursday we had a photo-shoot with my Avensis, the GAZOO Racing 86 and the TS030 HYBRID Le Mans car; that was incredibly interesting. On the Friday, Saturday and Sunday we took the Toyota up the hill, which was a great honour because ours was one of only two current touring cars to do so.
“I also made some appearances on the Toyota stand alongside Le Mans driver Stéphane Sarrazin and rally driver Bjorn Waldegard, so I was in some good company. Then of course there was the ball on Saturday night, which was incredible. The whole event is absolutely breathtaking.
“I must have signed hundreds of autographs. There were a lot of car-racing fans there, obviously interested in many different types of racing, but I have to say that the majority of them were BTCC fans and it was great to meet them.
“It was great also as a car and motorsport fan myself to see so many awesome machines up close. Probably the most stunning and complex car was the Toyota Le Mans car; it was unbelievable. I made a point of meeting the team manager and putting my name forward if he was ever in need of a driver.”
There’s still a month to go before Frank gets back on the BTCC trail (at Snetterton on 12 August) but he has a busy time ahead of him. This weekend he is off to the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, where he will be demonstrating Toyota’s new sports car, the GT86, to Radio Silverstone and ‘Toyota Tin Top Tuesday’ presenter Alan Hyde, and then two weeks later he will be back at Silverstone to race a vintage ‘super touring’ Cavalier at the Silverstone Classic meeting.
“After that we will have a couple of tests with the Avensis and then before we know it, it will be time for Snetterton. The month will fly by because we have so much planned.”
The Dynojet Racing team is backed by FUCHS Titan Race, Mac Tools, Klenzan, Angel Springs, K&N, Graphix and Autoglym
