Pit Viper Toni Breidinger poses next to the No. 25 Toyota.
ARCA Menards Series driver Toni Breidinger is about to take on a new challenge. She will compete in the inaugural season of Toyota Gazoo Racing North America’s GR Cup while running the full schedule.
Breidinger announced the news on August 12 and confirmed that she will soon compete in the single-make racing series. She will drive the Toyota GR86 for Nitro Motorsports, and she will battle with other Toyota Racing Development drivers over the course of seven race weekends and 14 total events.
Excited to join @ToyotaRacing’s GR CUP North America full time 2023 season with @racewithnitro @NickTucker70
The inaugural season of Toyota’s GR Cup will feature prizes for the top eight finishers in each race. The winner will receive $12,000. Additionally, Breidinger and her fellow drivers will battle for the season-long championship prize worth $50,000.
The field will feature GR86 cars that have undergone transformations at TRD’s facility in Mooresville, N.C. These GR Cup cars will all have “Bosch engine management, custom Borla exhaust, SADEV 6-speed sequential transmission, Alcon brakes, JRI adjustable shocks, OMP safety equipment, roll cage, carbon fiber rear wing, 22-gallon fuel cell, TGRNA designed MacPherson strut, Stratasys custom bodywork, a TGRNA designed splitter, and more.”
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The Inaugural Schedule Features a Crossover Weekend
ARCA RacingToni Breidinger will travel the country with the GR Cup.
Breidinger will compete at a variety of unique locations during her 14-race schedule. She will kick off the season in April 2023 with a trip to Sonoma Raceway before taking on Circuit of the Americas in May. The third race weekend will take place at Virginia International Raceway in June.
The biggest weekend for the new series will take place in August. The GR Cup drivers will head to Nashville for a crossover weekend with the IndyCar Series. They will compete on the streets of the Tennessee city as part of the Music City Grand Prix weekend.
Following the packed weekend in Nashville, Breidinger and the other competitors will head to Road America to close out August. They will take on the famed Wisconsin road course before closing out the season with race weekends at Sebring International Raceway in September and Indianapolis Motor Speedway in October.
Breidinger Will First Finish Out the ARCA Menards Series Season
sigh. went past the limit and made a rookie mistake last night. proud of the speed we had and the effort my @VenturiniMotor team made to get me back out there. learned a lot. on to the next one
The trips to America’s road courses will provide Breidinger with new racing opportunities and experiences in a unique vehicle, but it won’t happen until 2023. For now, she will focus on finishing out the 2022 ARCA Menards Series season, her first as a full-time driver.
Breidinger is fifth in the championship standings after the first 12 races of the ARCA Menards Series season. She has posted an average finish of 12.7 while securing top-10 finishes in four races. This run includes a ninth-place finish at Daytona International Speedway to kick off the season.
Breidinger currently has four ninth-place finishes in her ARCA Menards Series career, and she will have eight more opportunities to surpass this mark. This includes a trip to Watkins Glen International on August 19 and the Illinois State Fairgrounds on August 21.
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