The announcement may be a clear display of faith on the capabilities of the 2010 4Runner. The Baja 100 is a 672 mile of racing far from being a joke. It is no grounds for any amateur even with the fiercest guts. The race is considered by all experts as very suicidal as drivers zoom over broken paths night and day.

The 22-time winner of the Baja 1000, Ivan Stewart is confident though that the 5th Generation 4Runner can handle the stress. He has no doubts that the 4Runner can make it and has enough under its hood and body to survive the grueling ordeal of Baja. Hopefully, any defects on the ride will not show midway through the race or it will be a disaster.

Last year, a Ridgeline from Honda won the Stock Mini class besting an H3 and an FJ Cruiser. The Toyota FJ Cruiser failed to finish the race and crashed a few miles from the finish line.

The 2010 4Runner has a V-6 under its hood which is said to be 34 horsepower more aggressive that the older brother. The chassis was also structured to withstand the toughest of off-road conditions. There is press release yet if the attempt at Baja will lead to an upgrade package for the 2010 4Runner like what Ford did to the Raptor with XT and SVT variants.

Toyota motors entered in the racing motor sports in the Australia motor sport trial in 1957. The company later made its roots in a Formula 1 team in 1972. In 1972, Anderson’s motor sport team, in the Formula 1 race, used Toyota Celica. The team was later named as Toyota Team Europe, which later was bought by Toyota in 1993.

In 2002, Toyota debuted in the Formula 1 race with Toyota TF102 used by McNish and Salo. In 2002, the Toyota racing team invested a heavy budget for the development of the racing team and scored two points over the year.

In 2003, Toyota racing team made several points over the year and reached the fifth place in the motor sport rating in Germany. The company signed Cristiano da Matta for the racing team and moved to the fifth position in Germany.

In 2004, Toyota retained the same driver line up, but the team was disqualified in the Canadian Grand Prix due to the illegal parts. The team replaced Cristiano Da Matta with Ricardo Zonda and further changed to Jarno Trulli.

In 2007, Toyota was introduced to the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series and is still a proven race car manufacturer with the Sprint Cup series in 2008.

With the struggles in the racing industry over the years with changes in the driver line, the Toyota racing team scored top points in 2008 with the latest Toyota model, Toyota TF108 was introduced in the racing team in 2008. More F1 at Ferrari Blog!