Why we went racing: 35 years building Toyota’s TRD program and legacy in America

Some 35+ years ago, David Wilson, currently group vice president and president of TRD USA, was a considerable expert of feminine hygiene products. It comes off as one of those charming “interesting facts about yourself” that you’d share as an icebreaker — more on this in a moment.

But this conversation was more than just an introduction, even if it was the first time the two of us were able to sit in a room (or rather in the Lexus mobile race center) together. We were here to talk about Wilson’s career before his retirement in December, and his legacy in helping to build the TRD USA (Toyota Racing Development) program, across multiple series, over the last three and a half decades, beautifully bookended here by the IMSA finale at Road Atlanta.

With the sounds of a very active Petit Le Mans, with nearly eight hours left in the 10-hour season finale race, we sat in the cozy confines of the Lexus trailer and started at the beginning… .

Irresponsible decisions can get you places

Wilson prefaces that his journey began with a ‘really irresponsible’ decision, which he emphasizes a few times at the start of our conversation. In his first few years of adulthood, he served four years in the US Army 101st Airborne Division before seeking a degree in mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech. Post graduation, he began working with Johnson & Johnson, placed on a fast track management program for leading one of its plants in New Jersey — the one that specialized in feminine hygiene products. And 18 months in, his brother called him out of the blue with an interesting job offer.

“My brother ended up getting into racing in Southern California, working for this little, what amounted to a speed shop at the time, called ‘TRD,’” Wilson shared with Motorsport. Mike, his brother, said the shop needed someone like Dave, with mechanical engineering experience. But for Wilson, sure, he had the degree, but his experience was working with cars in his youth, not building racing engines. Mike reassured him that wasn’t an issue — “Just come out here.”

“It was a big fork in the road for me because I was leaving a Fortune 500 company,” Wilson recalls. “Stability. It was stability. Security. I could see my life in my vision and I made what at the time, was a really irresponsible, stupid decision. Because I went, I left all of that, and signed on to this rinky-dink company that had little or no benefits. They offered me $800 to relocate across the country. And that was the package I got.”

The package wasn’t the most enticing, but what it did offer was adventure. So, Wilson packed his entire life’s possessions into a truck and with a buddy, made the two-day trek from New Jersey to Southern California to start his new career at this tiny, unknown shop.

Green flag on backseat engineering with Dan Gurney

When Wilson started with TRD in the late ‘80s, TRD wasn’t even associated with Toyota. The California-based facility in Los Angeles was just a distribution center for TRD Japan, or more of a retail store used to import Japanese domestic parts for Celicas and Supras. Just before Wilson was brought into the fold, Toyota US thought participating in motorsports might be a way to garner American interest in the Japanese brand.

So, the American arm of Toyota began to partner with existing racing operations:  Cal Wells and PPI for its off-road racing endeavors, and another legend, Dan Gurney, with his All American Racers (AAR) for IMSA sports car competition. Wilson’s very first assignment with TRD was providing engineering support to those two outfits. 

“It was kind of a crazy period, because my brother and I used to work as a team. He was the mechanic and technician — I went as an engineer, and we used to share a room many times in these little rinky-dink hotels, motels and spent the season supporting these racing teams. I would chase Ivan Stewart down the Baja Peninsula with my laptop and a mechanic. It was crazy.”

The sports car side was just as chaotic, with Gurney finding the Wilson brothers’ work with his team to be a difficult sell. As per the agreement with Toyota, Gurney had to relinquish ownership of the engines, a real first for the Le Mans winner and former driver.

“Dan is one of the most charming men you could ever meet. It used to piss me off because he was so likable. […] I got the tougher side of Dan Gurney, and my brother did as well. 

“The relationship from that point was really contentious, in [that] Dan, the one thing he probably loved more than anything else was the engine, and tinkering with the engine. And when Toyota made the decision to take it away, guess who he took that out on? He took it out on me and my brother, because we were the two TRD guys that came to the racetrack and that were assigned to take care of his engine.”

David Wilson, tending to the engine of one of Dan Gurney’s All American Racer cars in the pit.

Photo by: Toyota Racing

That engine was the (eventually) famed Toyota 503E — a 2.1-liter, four-cylinder turbocharged powerhouse built for the AAR Mark II and Mark III GTP cars AAR ran in IMSA. “We struggled in [that] our engine was underpowered,” Wilson shares. “It was unreliable. It was uncontrollable. And ultimately, we fixed it, and we built and we developed an engine that won the Rolex 24.”

That 1993 Rolex 24 at Daytona was a big one for both Toyota and AAR. The No. 98 team of Rocky Moran, PJ Jones, and Mark Dismore cemented the Japanese brand into American racing history. Toyota put itself in the books having won with one of the smallest engines to compete in that type of endurance competition. 

It was, as Wilson would tell you, virtually unheard of at the time and almost impossible to do. TRD and AAR also won the 1992 and 1993 12 Hours of Sebring, a memory Wilson still pays homage to every time he visits the track and sees the banners hanging from the boxes along the pit lane commemorating those wins.

“We did it, and that’s why my first championship that I put on the list [of cherished races] is [winning] that IMSA GTP championship with our little four cylinder engine. The cool thing is, in the end, Dan and the team came to respect what we did. It took us a couple of years, but we finally felt like we were actually part of the team.”

David Wilson attending to the Toyota GTP car in an IMSA race.

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Toyota’s full send into American racing: IndyCar, NASCAR, NHRA

The US arm of Toyota started buying shares of TRD after the off-road and sports car successes, and by 1996, they owned 100% of their former ‘at arm’s length’ operation. TRD then expanded its facilities, with Wilson leading the charge on where its new home would be established. Relocated to Costa Mesa, California on the backside of John Wayne Airport in Orange County, the larger warehouse provided an ideal place to avoid noise ordinances while they did things like testing engines on dynos, as well as engine assembly and development, which was crucial for TRD’s next motorsport endeavor in CART and an Indianapolis 500 win — something both Toyota in Japan and the US arm had its sights set on.

Winning the Indianapolis 500? That idea started with Roger Penske, who owned one of the largest Toyota dealers in the country, and was also running in the CART series. Penske wanted to work with Toyota, and offered to build engines with the brand. Really, the original offer, as Wilson explains, was that Toyota would just need to provide the valve cover with the Toyota name stamped on there. But that wasn’t how TRD did things. Just like with the Gurney experience, TRD wanted to build the engines, and ultimately turned down the first offer to work with Penske. Without the experience or capabilities, they tried building a CART engine on their own. And as might be expected, the first few years competing were painful, awful.

“We could have quit, and there was actually a point where I thought Japan was going to force us to quit,” Wilson shares. “July 14, 1996 – our first season. We were racing up in Toronto, and one of our drivers, Jeff Krossnoff, was killed in a horrific accident. [It] still haunts me. I was standing in pit lane next to his wife and his car. Open wheel, you don’t have fenders and he was racing somebody and their wheels, his front wheel touched someone else’s back wheel and it launched him into a tree above the racetrack. TMC (Toyota Motor Company), were like ‘This isn’t why we went racing.’ It stopped everybody in their tracks.

“What I’m proud of is that we didn’t give in, because the reason that we rationalized and convinced Japan is that Jeff — that would have disrespected him. That would have dishonored him. His love and passion, he would want us to continue. So we gathered ourselves up and we kept fighting.”

That fight would land Toyota its first CART win in 2000 at the Milwaukee Mile with Juan Pablo Montoya. In 2001 they clinched six race wins, and in 2002 they won the driver championship with Cristiano da Matto, along with the manufacturer championship. When they switched to competing in the Indy Racing League (IRL) in 2003, they finally earned a spot on the Borg Warner with an Indy 500 win thanks to Gil de Ferran and Team Penske. That same year, Toyota won another IRL championship with Scott Dixon and Chip Ganassi Racing.

“I expected there to be applause when we sat down [with Toyota’s board] because of all the success we had had, and again, 2003, we won. We won most of the races. We won all the championships. And instead the reaction was ‘Are we done yet?’”

87th Indianapolis 500, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Speedway, Indiana, USA 25 May,2003As he climbs from his car, Gil de Ferran and Team Penske celebrate.World Copyright-F Peirce Williams 2003 LAT Photographicref: Digital Image Only

Meanwhile, TRD had also started dipping its toes in NASCAR.

“We talked about how big IndyCar was back in the day,” Wilson explained, “but if you were to put a pin on the calendar and chart the rise of NASCAR and the fall of IndyCar, you could put 1996 as that pin at that intersection. And guess where we started racing in 1996? [The CART/IRL split] fractured the fan base. A lot of fans went to NASCAR.”

At the time, Wilson says there wasn’t a more powerful sport in the US, and NASCAR is still considered the biggest American racing series today. TRD started in 2003 with the Goody’s Dash Series, working to build relationships within the industry and learn the ropes. Truck racing came in 2004, and with it, recognition beyond just the track, but in their own facilities.  

“The folks that worked in the plants and our dealers, their question was ‘Hey this is great. When are we going Cup racing?’ They really pulled us to the next level. Their enthusiasm,” he shared. “I was just like ‘wow,’ we, our team, actually cares about this, because we never saw any of that. You felt like sometimes you were the only ones that cared.”

NASCAR was the next major era for TRD, but also for Toyota, as it seemed to be the key in establishing the brand among Americans. They finally made the jump to Cup racing in 2007. Around that time, they were also taking comprehensive surveys to understand their involvement in the series and fans’ perception of the brand because of it.

“We learned early on that the drivers have a tremendous amount of influence,” Wilson explained. “First question [in the survey], ‘What do you think about Toyota racing and NASCAR?’ And the answer is either ‘we hate it’ or ‘those f’ whatever’ or ‘we love it.’ But there was very little in-between. You asked the next question, ‘what if Jeff Gordon drove a Toyota in NASCAR?’ And then the answer changed. ‘Well, if Jeff Gordon says they’re ok, then I guess they’re ok.’ And that shaped our strategy.”

That strategy was partnering with two brand new teams: Michael Waltrip Racing and Red Bull Racing, along with with an older school team in Bill Davis Racing. Fans were quick to recognize Toyota was trying to earn their way in the series as TRD was bringing in new teams. Sure, as Wilson shared, they were getting their butt kicked, but they were striving to earn every win.

David Wilson with Kyle Busch when he won his second NASCAR Cup Series championship in 2019

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Then there was the matter of racing in a Camry. In a series rife with performance cars, Toyota opted for the Camry — because NASCAR’S rulebook explicitly required that the vehicles that competed had to be American made. The Camry, still one of the most American-built vehicles produced to this day, was eligible. 

“So most people just have no idea the actual performance potential of a bone stock Camry,” Wilson explains. “I remember one year, we were in Kansas. We had George Brett as a guest of ours. And George Brett was my hero. He was my boy. And Matt Kenseth gave him a ride, and I sat in the backseat. George sat in the passenger seat. Matt has one hand on the steering wheel — he’s talking to George doing 135 miles an hour, six inches from the wall. Brett is like [freaking out], and I’m just in the backseat laughing. And again, stock tires, stock engine, just like that, you just have no idea what the cars are actually capable of.”

If you ever wondered why Toyota didn’t replace the Camry with the Supra when it returned, Toyota did at one point ask itself that same question. According to Wilson, some of the decision lay in the fact that the car was built in partnership with BMW. Part was staying true to the American roots it had already built in NASCAR with the Camry. However, hidden away in Toyota’s archives are sketches of what could have been the Supra Cup car. Wilson says it looks really good.

TRD’s experience with NHRA landed similar results to NASCAR, but the journey starts slightly earlier. Although Wilson argues the path to acceptance in NHRA was easier than achieving it in NASCAR. At times, he believes maybe fans saw what they were trying to do on the NASCAR side, and that helped. But TRD had again entered uncharted territory. There was a more diverse fanbase in NHRA, and certainly a lot more DIYers. These were folks used to modifying their race cars for more power and performance on their own. How could a manufacturer come into the picture and build something just as good, or better?

To find their way and understand the sport, TRD opted to audit it. Then it went about sponsoring a team or two, eventually bringing in some engineers. And soon, they won over teams with their more humble approach. TRD was able to find a few areas where they could contribute some technology that would enhance performance of some of the cars. When it worked, they kept racing with it. Many never stopped.

It’s the philosophy that continues in every series and endeavor TRD encounters. “I said before, [it’s not our way] just to write a check and put our name on the car,” Wilson said. “If we don’t have some tangible IP, if we’re not learning something, then we shouldn’t be there, right? And that’s where you get the credibility with the fans. And that’s something that has ultimately changed even the way some of our competitors race.”

“Back to the NASCAR side — when we came into the sport, we were the only manufacturer that also built their own engines. And today, by the way, we still are. We’re the only manufacturer that builds our own engines and that’s taking on a huge responsibility. Our teams can’t go racing without our engines [and] when our engines fail, that’s on us. And yet, that’s something I’m incredibly proud of, because when we win, it’s as much because of what we bring to the table and what our teams bring to the table. And when we celebrate, you know, a win or a championship, it’s because we’re in the trenches with our teams working shoulder to shoulder.”

Tyler Reddick, 23XI Racing, The Beast Killer Sunrise Toyota Camry

Photo by: Andrew Coppley / NKP / Motorsport Images

Lexus and TRD’s return to sports car racing in the US

Now, Lexus getting into racing wasn’t on many bingo cards back in the 2010s. But the birth of its RC F (a 2015 model), its sportiest, highest-performing car offered, inspired the unexpected pursuit. 

“[It’s] like one of those company secrets that maybe will never be revealed,” Wilson shared. “But who decided that we were going to race this car? You know, some theories. There’s the chief engineer, I don’t know, but somewhere along the line, it was decided, ‘Hey, this is a cool little sports car. Why don’t we race it?’ And again, as we were saying earlier, that’s not the way you go GT racing. You decide you’re going to go racing, and then you design a car to go racing.”

Building a race car from a production car made for a bumpy ride for the newly minted Lexus racing program. The initial team tapped to carry the program struggled to make the RC F road car a fighting racer. TRD offered its assistance, but was frequently turned away. When TRD was officially brought in, it was from the top with the directive to ‘Fix this.’ They partnered with Jimmy Vasser, who had history running in a Toyota in the CART series in 2000 and 2001, and his partner James ‘Sulli’ Sullivan. Both had together run Team KVSH in IndyCar from 2011-2016, which with limited resources managed to make a significant impact in the series. Combined with Lexus and TRD, the three built what would become a factory-backed championship-winning program in IMSA.

Wilson in an emotional hug with the team including James “Sulli” Sullivan after winning the 2023 IMSA Championship at Road Atlanta.

Photo by: Toyota Racing

That win came with the 2023 IMSA GTD Pro Championship title, won with the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus. Wilson lists it as one of the most special championships he’s been a part of winning, despite an already long list of incredible wins on his resume. “When I was listing the most special championships, the last one, was the ‘23 Championship because of what we had to overcome to win.

“We’re racing a car right now that was never intended to be a race car. It’s still very fragile. It’s not a good endurance car because it’s difficult to service. But to be able to overcome all of that and win a championship is just all the more special.”

Wilson says it’s a testament to the entire organization, especially in a homologated series. These are cars that have to be perfect and manage BOP. Drivers can’t make mistakes. The team has to call the right strategies — everything has to line up for a successful car… season… a championship. “I said my expectation is to bring a championship to Lexus and be a part of that before I retired. It means a lot to me. Filling your bingo card… Jimmy and Sulli and I were joking this morning, last year was just like a dream.”

#14 VasserSullivan Lexus RC F GT3: Jack Hawksworth, Ben Barnicoat, Kyle Kirkwood

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

TRD today and its legacy

As profoundly humble as Wilson is when talking about his involvement with TRD’s US arm, he was a vital key in its growth, helping to take Toyota’s TRD USA program from about 25 people working in 15,000 square feet of space to over 300 people working in facilities four different facilities spanning nearly 300,000 square feet across the country, including a mini factory where they build the GR 86 single-make series cars — you know, the car that Keanu Reeves ran at SRO’s Indianapolis race just a few weeks ago. Wilson even wrote TRD’s first ever employee manual. He pushed to hire more experienced engineers and the further bringing on key people that made all of TRD possible and successful — a brand many Americans recognize today.

“The legacy — I will sleep well at night because I generally do believe that TRD is in a really good place,” Wilson exclaimed. TRD USA has won championships in every series it has touched, from its early days in sports car racing and off-roading, to conquering open-wheel racing’s crown jewel, the Indy 500, and America’s most beloved racing series, NASCAR. Every move helped to further bolster Toyota in the US, and today you can see proof of the partnership TRD has forged with Toyota, from its champion wins to its bold initials on the likes of Toyota’s production vehicles like the Tacoma, Tundra, 4Runner, and yes, even Camry. 

“It sounds crazy, because it’s been 35 years, and I don’t know that I’ve ever felt like this is going to be a forever thing, or that I’m going to have the security or I’m going to be able to call my shot,” Wilson shared earnestly. 

“The nature of this business wears on you. But what I love about it is that I get my report card every week, just about. [But] I also hate that because the expectations are high. It’s just like stick and ball, and the coach. You know, if you’re not getting the job done, guess who the first to go is? The coach, right? And so, I’m the coach and somehow I managed not to screw it up.”