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Toyota will have a new but familiar face when Robby Gordon makes his debut in the Panasonic/Duskin Reynard Toyota at the upcoming Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix presented by Toyota, April 26.
Gordon, a two-time CART winner, returns to the series after spending last season competing in NASCAR. The Orange, Calif.-native will be rejoining the manufacturer that helped him begin his racing career as the 1989 Mickey Thompson Off-Road Stadium Truck Champion. Gordon will be reunited with owner Cal Wells, who also campaigns Toyota's desert racing program with Ivan "Ironman" Stewart.
"Robby adds another young, exceptionally talented driver to the Toyota ranks," said John Koenig, Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A. vice president of motorsports and TRD president and chief executive officer. "We're looking forward to having him with us, especially at Nazareth where he has run extremely well in the past."
Gordon sat on the pole for the 1995 CART race at Nazareth and has qualified in the top four in each of his last two races at the track. Chassis set-up is the key to solving the one-mile Pennsylvania oval, therefore, his past experience at the track should prove extremely beneficial for both he and Arciero-Wells teammate Max Papis. In addition, one of Gordon's two CART wins was on the one-mile oval at Phoenix in 1995.
But Gordon isn't the only one of Toyota's drivers to taste success at Nazareth. All American Racers (AAR) rookie Alex Barron won last year's KOOL/Toyota Atlantic Championship race from the pole on the way to both the series' driver's championship and Rookie of the Year honors. Barron is expected to make a strong run at the Jim Trueman Award as the FedEx Championship Series' Rookie of the Year in 1998. The Vista, Calif.-native will team with long-time Toyota pilot PJ Jones, who scored Toyota's first points of the season with an 11th at Long Beach, in a pair of identical Castrol/Degree Reynard Toyotas.
A key to the race for all four Toyota drivers may be the ever-improving reliability of this year's Toyota RV8C engine.
"We spent a lot of time in the off-season working on reliability, and it has paid off in the season's first three races," Koenig said. "It's given us the opportunity to build up sufficient quantities of the current spec, which will allow us to put a great deal more time and emphasis on development and improving the power. We've already made some power gains, but there is a substantial amount yet untapped. Hopefully, we'll begin to see a significant increase soon." Following the Nazareth, Pa. race, the next stop on the FedEx Championship Series schedule is Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the Hollywood Rio 400 at the Nelson Piquet Raceway, May 11. The South American race will mark the third continent that CART has raced upon in the season's first nine weeks. 
Source: Toyota
