Exec who ushered Toyota to NASCAR set to retire.

[Daryl Z71]

Exec who ushered Toyota to NASCAR set to retire

By Official Release

March 4, 2008

07:05 PM EST

TORRANCE, Calif. -- Jim Aust, who has been responsible for Toyota's motorsports activities in the United States for the past 10 years, has announced his retirement. Aust will step down on June 30 as vice president of motorsports for Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. and president and chief executive officer of Toyota Racing Development, U.S.A.

Toyota's racing programs in the U.S. flourished under Aust's leadership and included a victory in the Indianapolis 500, multiple series championships and the expansion of the company's racing activities into NASCAR.

AustBeginning in 2004, Toyota began competing in the Craftsman Truck Series with the Tundra and last year Toyota entered the Camry in the Cup Series, the premiere race series in the U.S.

"Jim has played an integral role in the growth of Toyota's racing activities in the U.S.," said Dave Illingworth, TMS senior vice president, chief planning and administrative officer. "From the high banks of NASCAR to short track midget racing, drag racing, sports cars and off-road trucks, Toyotas are now racing and winning at tracks across the country."

Aust joined Toyota in 1987 and held various management positions in the Toyota Motor Credit Corporation/Toyota Motor Insurance Services division before moving to motorsports in 1998.

"There are a lot of great memories, made possible by the hard work of the people at TRD and the great teams and drivers running with Toyota power," Aust said. "There was Toyota's first CART win by Juan Pablo Montoya, Gil de Ferran's Indy 500 win, a CART championship for Cristiano da Matta and an IRL championship for Scott Dixon, Johnny Greaves' multiple championships in CORR, Todd Bodine's championship in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, and the three-peat by Ganassi Racing in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.

"Seeing a Camry compete in the Daytona 500 last year for the first time was very special and I expect to see Toyota's first Sprint Cup victory before I retire in June."

Aust's replacements at TMS and TRD will be announced closer to his retirement date.

What a joke about how special it was to see a Camry in the 2006 Daytona 500. Im tired of people acting like Toyota is so American! Wake up people they are not made here they are ASSEMBLED here! They are still Japanese vehicles!!!

Edited March 5, 2008 by Daryl 83

[FUTURE_OF_GM]

LOL.

Yep... It's "so special" to buy your way to victory lane!

(We all know that Toyota buys all of it's racing technology)

[Duncan]

So if racing improves the breed, then where are all of the sporty Toyotas?

[ShadowDog]

So if racing improves the breed, then where are all of the sporty Toyotas?

Well, first you buy your tinker-Toyo-hum-drum and then spend eleventy-thousand dollars putting stickers and non-functional holes on/in/under/through it. VIOLA! You now have a SPORTY tinker-Toyo-hum-drum!

[Intrepidation]

LEFT!

[Satty]

LEFT!

[gm4life]

Exec who ushered Toyota to NASCAR set to retire

By Official Release

March 4, 2008

07:05 PM EST

TORRANCE, Calif. -- Jim Aust, who has been responsible for Toyota's motorsports activities in the United States for the past 10 years, has announced his retirement. Aust will step down on June 30 as vice president of motorsports for Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. and president and chief executive officer of Toyota Racing Development, U.S.A.

Toyota's racing programs in the U.S. flourished under Aust's leadership and included a victory in the Indianapolis 500, multiple series championships and the expansion of the company's racing activities into NASCAR.

AustBeginning in 2004, Toyota began competing in the Craftsman Truck Series with the Tundra and last year Toyota entered the Camry in the Cup Series, the premiere race series in the U.S.

"Jim has played an integral role in the growth of Toyota's racing activities in the U.S.," said Dave Illingworth, TMS senior vice president, chief planning and administrative officer. "From the high banks of NASCAR to short track midget racing, drag racing, sports cars and off-road trucks, Toyotas are now racing and winning at tracks across the country."

Aust joined Toyota in 1987 and held various management positions in the Toyota Motor Credit Corporation/Toyota Motor Insurance Services division before moving to motorsports in 1998.

"There are a lot of great memories, made possible by the hard work of the people at TRD and the great teams and drivers running with Toyota power," Aust said. "There was Toyota's first CART win by Juan Pablo Montoya, Gil de Ferran's Indy 500 win, a CART championship for Cristiano da Matta and an IRL championship for Scott Dixon, Johnny Greaves' multiple championships in CORR, Todd Bodine's championship in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, and the three-peat by Ganassi Racing in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.

"Seeing a Camry compete in the Daytona 500 last year for the first time was very special and I expect to see Toyota's first Sprint Cup victory before I retire in June."

Aust's replacements at TMS and TRD will be announced closer to his retirement date.

What a joke about how special it was to see a Camry in the 2006 Daytona 500. Im tired of people acting like Toyota is so American! Wake up people they are not made here they are ASSEMBLED here! They are still Japanese vehicles!!!

He was a bastard trying to put a forigen car company in an American sport. Stupid f@#ker. Because it was Toyota they could do it. :twocents:

[Intrepidation]

Hard Left

[Satty]

draft.....left.....crash into wall!!!

[Intrepidation]

Yellow Flag

[Satty]

......Sorry, I was having sex with my cousin while waiting in line for nachos, what did I miss?

[Intrepidation]

2 left turns.

[Satty]

Damn, I'll only get to see 798 left turns, I'm not going to get my money's worth.

[Intrepidation]

I'm sorry man, I know it hurts missing two of the 800 most exciting parts of the race.

[Satty]

LEFT!

[BrewSwillis]

LOL.

Yep... It's "so special" to buy your way to victory lane!

(We all know that Toyota buys all of it's racing technology)

Don't be so sure that they "bought" all of it's technology:

Roush claims sway bar stolen by a Toyota team last year

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Team owner Jack Roush says that an undisclosed Toyota team stole a front sway bar from his team at Dover International Speedway in 2007, and that he is seeking relief from NASCAR, or possibly through legal channels, for subsequent research with that part.

Roush says that the team's toolbox was next to that of a Toyota team last fall at Dover. The teams stored what he described as uniquely-painted bars, each labeled with a serial number, under the toolboxes.

“The ... nondescript Toyota team, went behind my toolbox and took my bar out of my inventory and put it in their inventory and took it home with them,” Roush said Friday at Martinsville Speedway. “That is a fact. It has not been refuted and it has been discussed with the team involved.”

In a story published Wednesday on ESPN.com, Jim Aust, president and chief executive officer of Toyota Racing Development, said that the Toyota team had returned a Roush Fenway part to that organization, though Aust said the part in queston was a spring.

"I don't understand the whole procedure when a teardown happens," Aust said. "The only thing I know is it wound up with parts we had and [we returned it] to Roush. It's unfortunate it happened the way it did. It wasn't anything intentional. There's no reason to be done intentional. I have no idea how it happened to begin with."

Roush said that there is no way the part was accidentally given to the wrong team as part of an inspection tear-down since the front sway bar is not a part of that process.

Roush said a vendor that makes proprietary parts for teams was contacted in January by the Toyota team about reproducing the part. The vendor contacted Roush Fenway Racing and the team officials discovered the part was missing.

At about the same time, Roush says his organization hired someone who had been with the Toyota team and they claimed to have seen the part there. Roush Fenway Racing was investigating on its own as well.

“I found out about it, I wanted to go supersonic,” Roush said. “[i thought,] ‘We’re going to get a search warrant, industrial espionage is going on … They’ve had an opportunity to see what it does … We’ve been damaged, we’ve been harmed by this theft.’”

But, he said, before he could take action, one of his team managers contacted the team in question without Roush’s knowledge. He said that the manager of the Toyota team involved said he didn’t know anything about a Roush part being in his possession – a claim Roush said he believes – and that the two arranged to hand deliver the part back to Roush Fenway and the transfer was made early one morning.

Roush said the part had been sandblasted and worked on, but that the serial numbers were still intact.

Dissatisfied, he decided to go to NASCAR instead of through the legal system to get what he deems “relief” for what this cost his team. He said conversations are ongoing and that those are and should remain private.

Roush says he’s had three discussions with NASCAR officials “as I’ve attempted to work my way through this with an appropriate sanction and relief could be given to me for the theft that occurred.”

“We are still considering legal action,” he said, adding that if his team discovered it could make the case, it could seek a restraining order against the team to prohibit use of similar parts.

Roush refused to name the team involved, saying that he did not want to embarrass either the sponsor or the team, many members of which he believes did not know this had happened.

Asked what it would take to satisfy him, Roush replied: “Show me something. I’ll know what I like when I see it.”

He said that a public apology could be issued and that he’d like a guarantee that “somebody on the team won’t misuse the information.”

Roush said that the issue might not have become public if not for a comment he made at Atlanta Motor Speedway. At that time, the investigation was ongoing, but Roush Fenway’s Carl Edwards was penalized for an oil tank cover that was not attached to his car at Las Vegas. The following week, Toyota’s Lee White questioned whether Roush intentionally skirted the rules.

In a lengthy rebuttal of that, Roush says that he mentioned this parts issue and the potential for a restraining order against a Toyota team, a comment that was published this week and brought the issue to the forefront.

Daimler-Chrysler wins suit against Bill Davis:

DaimlerChrysler won a $6.5 million judgment Thursday against Bill Davis Racing in a breach of contract dispute in U.S. District Court in Detroit. A 7-member jury deliberated 4 hours after a 17-day trial before awarding the judgment to the Auburn Hills carmaker, which alleged that the North Carolina-based race team violated a six-year contract in 2003 by passing confidential Dodge Motorsports technology, parts and information to Toyota. The automaker said Bill Davis Racing helped Toyota develop a prototype Tundra racing truck for NASCAR's Craftsman Truck series at the same time Davis was under contract to prepare DaimlerChrysler stock cars for the Winston Cup Series, now the Nextel Cup Series.