Mike Conway will continue his championship fight at Fuji Speedway, Japan, this week as he and his TOYOTA GAZOO Racing team look to defend their remarkable home record in the 6 Hours of Fuji this weekend in the penultimate race of the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season.
Having scored three race wins in 2023, including last time out at Monza, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, and José María López in the #7 GR010 HYBRID have put themselves back in a three-way World Championship battle. They are currently second in the standings heading to Fuji, 23 points behind their TOYOTA GAZOO Racing teammates in the #8 GR010 HYBRID.
Mike boasts an impressive record at the Japanese circuit, having scored victory twice as well as reaching the podium on six occasions. TOYOTA GAZOO Racing, the reigning World Champions, have won eight of the nine WEC races in Japan since returning to top-level endurance racing in 2012, including a run of five consecutive victories since 2016, making Fuji Speedway the team’s most successful circuit.
The historic racetrack, located 100km west of Tokyo, is very much a home race for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing and the GR010 HYBRID, whose hybrid powertrain is designed, developed and built at the nearby Higashi-Fuji Technical Center,
TOYOTA GAZOO Racing aims for a fifth victory in 2023, which could secure the manufacturers’ World Championship for a fifth consecutive season. The team leads Hypercar rivals Ferrari by 26 points and will secure the crown if it outscores the Italian marque by 13 points in Fuji.
Mike and the team will begin their challenge on Friday when free practice begins with two 90-minute sessions. A final one-hour practice on Saturday morning sets the scene for the grid-defining qualifying, before the 6 Hours of Fuji begins at 11am local time, 4am CEST, on Sunday 10 September.
Mike Conway:
“Our home race is always special and a real highlight of the season. We have a lot of experience of Fuji, unlike some of our competitors, so we should hit the ground running on Friday. In the past the weather has been a big factor at Fuji but we’re there a little earlier than normal this year, so hopefully that means we’ll have a dry weekend. After the win in Monza, our car is back in the World Championship fight so we’re looking to keep that momentum going in Fuji.”
