Photo: M2 Competition team matesProducing a fast car in the Toyota Racing Series is all about chasing the conditions, and having the right car for the time of day. This is the approach of the new M2 Competition team competing in the 2011 TRS with three young drivers.
M2 Competition is the team behind international drivers Kataro Sakurai (Japan), Ivan Lukashervich (Russia) and Jordan Skinner (Australia) competing in the 2011 Toyota Racing Series (TRS).
Mark Pilcher and Jonathon Moury founded the team after a successful 2009-2010 season with Triple X Motorsport in TRS that saw them winning the New Zealand Grand Prix twice (Daniel Gaunt 2009; Earl Bamber 2010) and finishing second in the drivers’ championship with Bamber.
Pilcher has been working in motorsport for twelve years with time in ChampCar, GP2 and A1GP. He joined A1 Team.NZL after a five-year stint in the American motorsport scene - a period where he worked alongside leading drivers such as Scott Dixon and Paul Tracey.
The Hamilton-based mechanic started with Conquest in 1999 and stayed in America until 2004, when he was with Forsythe Racing. He moved on to working with Suzuki Motor Corp in their first season in the WRC and APRC classes.
Moury teamed up with Pilcher after a record breaking season in LMP2 with Strakka Racing, including a win at Le Mans 24h in the LMP2 category, and a pole position as well as an outright victory at the Hungaroring in front of the LMP1 cars.
He also ran drivers such as Giorgio Pantano and Sebastien Bourdais in AutoGP and Superleague Fornula, and helped Status GP in their preparation for the new GP3 series.
In 2009 Moury worked in GP2 for Supernova Racing, finishing third in the team championship, following two successful years in A1GP with A1 Team.NZL.
Prior to linking up with A1 Team.NZL he worked as a support engineer for Pi Research for 18 months. During that time he was involved in A1GP, LMES, WTCC and FIA-GT.
Along with the team this season in New Zealand are a number of engineers out of Europe.
“Obviously it is winter time in Europe and you can get lots of good personnel to come out,” commented Pilcher.
“We’ve teamed up with a team called Status Grand Prix in the UK and both engineers we have here work for that team. They run a GP2 and GP3 team which follow the F1 calendar (nine rounds only).”
Status GP previously successfully ran the A1GP Team Ireland.
Both Sakurai and Lukashervich will drive in GP3 in 2011 and will be run by Status GP with the two engineers currently with them in NZ.
They ran Lukashervich in GP3 last year. “He didn’t do so well but the class lacks track time and this is the beauty of TRS – they get more track time in 2 months than what they would get in 8 months in Europe,” said Pilcher.
“We aren’t going to win the championship but we are going to coach these drivers so that they can go further (in Europe).”
And the key to being fast in a Toyota?
“Chasing the conditions; you have to have the right car for the right conditions. Ride height and wing angles are vitally important.”
