Toyo has sponsored off-road
Trophy Truck drivers including
Robby Gordon,
Kyle LeDuc, BJ Baldwin,
Tavo Vildósola,
Gus Vildósola, Andy McMillin and Bryce Menzies. As well as rally and stunt driver
Ken Block. Meanwhile, Nitto has sponsored the
King of the Hammers rock crawling race, and drifting drivers
Vaughn Gittin Jr. (since 2013),
Chelsea DeNofa (2017-2024),
Ryan Tuerck (2019-2024),
Fredric Aasbø (2020-2024), and Adam LZ (2021-2024). In
1988, Toyo began an exclusive sponsorship deal with legendary Australian
rally and
touring car driver
Colin Bond who was running a
Ford Sierra RS500 in the
Australian Touring Car Championship. Using largely experimental tyres as at the time Toyo were relatively new to making
Racing slick tyres compared to their opposition (in Australian touring car racing the other tyre manufacturers of the time were
Dunlop,
Bridgestone,
Yokohama,
Pirelli and
Avon), Bond would finish 3rd in the championship in
1988 as well as winning the
Amaroo Park based
AMSCAR series. He then teamed with
Formula One World Drivers' Champion and former
Network Alfa team mate
Alan Jones to finish 3rd in the
1988 Tooheys 1000 at
Bathurst before finishing 2nd outright in the
Asia-Pacific Touring Car Championship. After a lean year in
1989, Bond and the Toyo's returned to prominence in the
1990 Australian Touring Car Championship, winning the
Lakeside and
Mallala rounds of the 8 round series to eventually finish the title in 4th place. Bond continued to run Toyo tyres on his teams cars (the Sierra's were followed in
1993 by
Toyota Corolla Seca AE93's) until shutting his team down at the end of 1993. Bond and team mate John Smith had placed 3rd and 2nd respectively in the Corolla's in the
1993 Australian 2.0 Litre Championship. The company has also sponsored the
Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed martial arts promotion from 2006 to 2008 and later since 2011. Since 2012, the company has been sponsoring
Toyo Tires F1600 Championship Series, an
Ontario-based
Formula Ford racing series. ==Gallery==