World class rating for NZ’s Toyota 86 Championship drivers
Matt Howson – vastly experienced Team Manager of the KCMG team that will run Tom Bewley and William Exton in the GR Supra GT4 EVO at the forthcoming GT4 Germany Nürburgring weekend – says drivers coming out of NZ’s domestic TR86 Championship are proving to be world class.
As well as having a successful driving career, Howson was a professional driver coach between 2008-2020 and worked with teams such as Fortec, DAMS and Prema. This meant he worked with some of the best of the best of the current generation of young drivers including Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc, Jake Dennis, Alex Lynn, Jack Aitken, Ben Barnicoat and Oliver Rowland.
He rates the drivers emerging from New Zealand’s Toyota 86 Championship as world class in every respect.
“Having the opportunity to run Rylan Gray and Brock Gilchrist in 2023 showed that the racing in New Zealand developed their speed, car control and adaptability in all conditions to a very high level,” he explained.
“Even more important is that through their racing experience, they were configured in exactly the way I look for. That is to learn and absorb new information and experiences, thereby immediately and without barriers gain the benefits from what they were being taught and advance rapidly through the learning curve. And they did that far faster than I expected!
“Based on last year I rate them as high as any from junior series around the world and certainly near the very top,” he said.
“The circuits in NZ are particularly challenging, technical and bumpy with little margin for error, and the Toyota 86 appears to teach the drivers more car control than they’ll ever need in a GT car with slicks and aerodynamics. Last year this allowed both Rylan and Brock to be immediately on the pace of the front-runners in the championship.”
He expects this year’s Overall Champion and Kaizen Award winner to excel in the same way.
“We know by their results to date that Tom and Will have proven speed and can race to a high level, so circuit and car familiarisation will be the main focus,” he added. “The Nürburgring GP circuit is technical so it’s all about getting 95% of the circuit learned quickly and then working on the remaining 5% whilst feeling the limits of the Toyota GR Supra and Pirelli tyre. But we do expect them to go well.
As was the case with Gilchrist and Gray in 2023, he says the main priority will be for Bewley and Exton to enjoy and learn from the experience and that in turn will produce their best possible result.
“We absolutely want them to enjoy the experience but also to have an open mind to take in the information and training they receive, and deliver the best performance they can under as little self-imposed pressure as possible.”
Bewley and Exton leave New Zealand on August 9th. As soon as they arrive in Europe they will head to TOYOTA GAZOO Racing’s major facility in Cologne for a session on the organisation’s bespoke simulator on Monday 12th.
They will then have a seat fitting session with KCMG in their workshop close to the Nürburgring. On track action begins the day after that with three one-hour test sessions on the DTM track. That takes the boys to the Friday when the race meeting gets underway, and they’ll get another two one-hour sessions which form Free Practice for the GT4 event.
On the Saturday there will be a 20 minute qualifying session and a one hour race, and that will also be the format for the Sunday.
