Reigning Toyota Racing Series champion and Red Bull Junior Liam Lawson will defend his title in 2020 with M2 Competition.
Lawson was a sensational winner of the 2019 championship after a thrilling battle with fellow Kiwi Marcus Armstrong, which was only resolved in the final race of the championship, the New Zealand Grand Prix.
Following his breakthrough championship win, Lawson was snapped up by the Red Bull Junior programme and headed to Europe to compete in both the FIA Formula 3 Championship and the Euroformula Open.
Despite a challenging year – in which he still took two podiums in his debut season in F3 and four wins and seven podiums in his parallel Euroformula Open campaign – 17 year old Lawson’s circuit racing career statistics remain some of the best amongst the up-and-coming junior single seater drivers in the world with 36 wins from 144 races.
He finished his 2019 season on a high, with an impressive seventh-place finish on the streets of Macau.
Lawson will be backed in his 2020 title defence by long-time partners Turners and Porter Group and is looking forward to being the man to beat in the new-look series, which for 2020 uses a new Tatuus chassis, a 285bhp Toyota engine and Hankook tyres.
“I’m really excited to come back and do another season of TRS,” said Lawson. “To be coming back to race in New Zealand is awesome! A lot has happened in the last 12 months, and a lot of it off the back of TRS last season.
“It’s fantastic to have Turners and Porter Group back on board again, they’ve been huge supporters of us for a long time. Equally I’m proud to have all my other supporters on board and I’m really looking forward to representing them on the track.”
The 2020 championship will begin at Highlands Motorsport Park over the weekend of January 17-19. It stays in the South Island for the second round a week later, moving to Teretonga Park near Invercargill for round two.
The series then heads to the North Island for the remaining three weekends of racing. That will include the Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy at Hampton Downs, the New Zealand Motor Cup at Pukekohe and the final round, the New Zealand Grand Prix meeting over the weekend of February 14-16 at Manfeild.
