ROOKIE Racing Co., Ltd., also known as Rookie Racing (stylized as ROOKIE Racing) is a Japanese racing team that competes in Super Formula, Super GT & Super Taikyu. Rookie Racing is a sister team of

Toyota GAZOO Racing Toyota Gazoo Racing (or Toyota GR/TGR) is a motorsport/performance brand of the Japanese automaker Toyota. Many divisions in various racing disciplines use the branding, including Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, Toyota's World Rally Championship t ...

and based close to Fuji Speedway.

History

In 2017,

Tatsuya Kataoka is a Japanese racing driver. Racing record Complete Formula Nippon results ( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) Complete JGTC/Super GT Results ( key) (Races in bold indicate pole pos ...

launched a private team "T's Concept" for the purpose of training young and gentleman drivers. T's Concept participated in the Super Taikyu ST-4 class with two

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's sponsored by Ogura Clutch. Drivers such as Ogura Clutch's President Yasuhiro Ogura and

Miki Koyama is a Japanese female racing driver. She is currently competing in the 2022 season of Formula Regional Japanese Championship, where she prematurely clinched the title with three races to spare. Biography Having started racing in karts, Koyama ...

competed with T's Concept on the team's inaugural season on Super Taikyu. T's Concept continued to field two cars for the 2018 season and signed Masahiro Sasaki to compete alongside Ogura in the #29 team while Tohjiro Azuma and Daisuke Matsunaga competed in the #28 team. One of the T's Concept cars was later rebranded into "ROOKIE Racing" in 2019 with Daisuke Toyota, son of Toyota president Akio, and former GT500 champion

Akira Iida is a Japanese racing driver currently competing in the Super GT series in GT300 class with , one of the teams under Toyota Motorsport's GAZOO racing arm. Iida won the 2002 All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship GT500 class with Esso Toyot ...

joining the team as Rookie's lead drivers in the 2019 Super Taikyu season. In 2020,

Akio Toyoda is a Japanese business executive and the current president of Toyota Motor Corporation. He is the great-grandson of the Japanese industrialist, Sakichi Toyoda, and the grandson of both the founder of Toyota Motors, Kiichiro Toyoda, and the found ...

purchased the team in its entirety and entered both Super Formula and Super GT after

Team LeMans Le Mans Ltd., headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo is an automobile parts manufacturer founded in 1967. The original company name was Le Mans Chamber of Commerce. The company is mainly engaged in the development and sales of motorsport parts and the ...

left from both series at the end of the 2019 season. While the team had previously entered rookie drivers that was part of the Toyota Young Driver Programme, Rookie's name was taken from Akio's pet dog "Rookie". In the team's first year on Super GT, Rookie's entry was run as part of Team Cerumo.

Kazuya Oshima is a Japanese racing driver, currently racing in the Super GT Series and the Super Formula Championship for Toyota Gazoo Racing and ROOKIE Racing. Oshima is one of only two drivers that have won championships in both classes of Super GT: He wo ...

drove in both the Super Formula and Super GT championship with

Sho Tsuboi is a Japanese racing driver for Toyota Gazoo Racing. He currently competes in the GT500 class of the Super GT Series for TGR Team au TOM's, where he is the 2021 series champion. He also competes in the Super Formula Championship for P.mu Cerumo ...

acting as Oshima's teammate in Super GT. In 2021, Rookie took full charge of the team from Cerumo. Oshima stays with the team and compete both series and was paired up with

Kenta Yamashita is a Japanese racing driver, known for his successes in single-seater junior categories, including winning the 2013 Formula Challenge Japan and the 2012 Motegi Championship Formula Super FJ. He currently races in the Super Formula Championship, ...

for

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

Super GT season. For 2022, the team set up new factory base close to Fuji Speedway.

References

{{Reflist Japanese auto racing teams Super Formula teams Super GT teams Auto racing teams established in 2017 Toyota in motorsport