Reviving a classic Corolla for the track

With a red Toyota emblem on the front of his home garage and another early-model Corolla parked right beside it, motorsport is a family affair for the Richardsons. Even his full name 'Ayrton Senna Richardson' is an ode to the legendary Brazilian driver, three-time Formula One World champion who passed away the year before his birth.
Your TOYOTA GAZOO Racing correspondent spoke to the local legend to learn more about life on the track, and what it is about classic Corollas.


Tell me about your early love of cars and motorsport. Where did it all start?

Dad was racing Speedway on the clay before I was born. So I grew up around motorsport events; going to the track, walking up and down hills all day, chasing cars. There're photos of me as a kid, crawling around event stages and the pit stops at Targa. It just stemmed from there - I was brought up around it so naturally I was going to fall in love with it. Once I was old enough to get my own vehicle and drive, I was straight into it.

Tell us about your first car.

My first car was the blue Corolla I've got now: a little KE35 coupe. I'd previously been driving my Dad’s Corolla KE70 that we got out of a friend's backyard for about $300 (it was a bit of a bomb). I got it registered to learn in, then I purchased the coupe.

For my licence, I actually ended up using one of the driving school's cars to do my test. I had my cousin sit beside me while I drove my coupe into town on L-plates, sat my test then drove it home on P-plates.


It sounds like a great car, can you tell us more about it?

It's a blue 1975 Toyota Corolla KE35 (Hardtop). It's virtually a mockup of how they came in Japan, so it's got the 2T 1600 single cam, the fast-speed gearbox and the TA22 Celica engine that came here as well (and the running gear out of that). I think they called them an 'SR Corolla' in Japan. So it's the mockup from a Japanese-delivered spec but it's still an Australian car.

It was manufactured in Victoria but the person I bought it from had done most of the conversion to get it to be like a Japanese-delivered one. He originally built it for his son but for some reason, the car had to be sold almost finished. I bought it and finished it off – changed the suspension, re-did the interior and wiring and then tried to make it my own with a Levin bonnet, grille and taillights.

So really, it’s a mockup between a Japanese Corolla and the Corolla Levin TE37 which was the high-end in Japan. A lot of stuff was from a JDM supplier in the States. Most of it’s Celica; it’s all period correct. There’s no late-model stuff in it apart from the brake pads which were designed for a Mazda RX-7, but we cut them down to fit in the Corolla callipers. So yes, it’s virtually factory-period correct.


How did you get into race driving?

I started out in go-karts like a lot of people do, and I started pretty late when I was about 14 – around 2009. I did that right up until 2014, then in 2015 I got my own Corolla and really wanted to go to Baskerville.

We've lost a lot of tracks due to housing and infrastructure, but Baskerville Raceway is still one of Australia’s best and longest-running tracks. Us Tassie guys call it 'the mini Bathurst' because it's quite steep and there’re blind corners. It's a real driver’s track and everyone that comes here falls in love with it.

So I did my first track event in my first car! It was still a standard Corolla, so in photos it looks like a boat that’s going to roll over going around corners.

After that, I decided I was going to purchase an Aussie racecar, so my first official Toyota racecar was a blue 1975 Toyota KE35 coupe which I raced for over two years. But unfortunately I just couldn't come up with the funds to keep it going. It's really hard in Tassie to get good sponsors because they don't really get much out of it; they get their name out there but there’s no real financial gain.

At the end of the day, we couldn’t afford to keep it so we bought the two-door that we’ve got now.

I wish we didn't sell it, but at the time I’d just bought a house as well as the Aussie racecar, and I couldn't race two things. So I'm forever going to miss that car, but it's still here in Tassie so I see it sometimes. Which makes it worse I think! I won the Under 2L Championship in the KE35 coupe and I finished third in the Outright Championship, so I had a lot of good times in it. But I'm looking forward to getting into the new one and hopefully doing just as well.

Tell us about your newest (classic) Corolla.

It’s a white 1974 Toyota Corolla KE30 (two-door), running a 3SGTE engine in full racing trim, with HiLux rear discs – it’s super strong and easy to get parts for. Plus a W58 with a gear set and Mazda RX-7 front and rear brakes.

That one was a South Australian car and had been a racecar for about 20 or 25 years. I’d had my eye on it before I bought the Aussie racecar, but I wanted an Aussie racecar right or wrong, so picked that. Then the car eventually came to Tasmania; one of the local guys bought it. I was still deciding whether to sell the racecar when I spoke to the guy that had the Corolla at the time, and we started up a deal that once the Aussie racecar sold, I'd purchase it.

It needed a lot of work, so for the last four months I’ve been flat out getting it ready.

What did you have to do to get it track-ready?

We went with a full nuts-and-bolts restoration. The engine was out of it, the gearbox, everything was all out. Then pulled down, checked and put back together.

The brakes were replaced, just the normal fluid that you do anyway. But things were changed just to bring it up a bit and make it safer, because it's from 1974 so it’s quite old.

It’s been bushed and badged, pillar to post and raced every weekend like they used to. So now it’s gone back to how it would have been when they first built it as a racecar.

It’s amazing that you have the skills to do all of that. How did you learn to become an automotive engineer?

I guess I’d grown up watching Dad doing it, so when school came around I left high school and went to TAFE to study automotive and picked up my apprenticeship from there. Then I worked for one of our local dealerships down here for a bit and it all stemmed from there.

It does make it quite easy being able to use my skills at home, too. You see a lot of people that have these nice racecars and they've got to send them off somewhere if something goes wrong. With my cars, I’m lucky because I don't have to wait for someone to fix them for me.

What is it that you love about Corollas?

Growing up we had a little white KE55 sedan. The house we were living at – it was just there in the paddock and Dad got it going. We used to stack wood in the boot, up over the roof. We were probably only nine or ten years old. So we’d see this little car coming through the bush with the wood on it, and then we learn to drive in it. I've loved Toyotas ever since.

Most of the cars I’ve had have all been Toyotas. I've had a couple of Commodores but everything else was Toyota. Now I've got the two Corollas and a brand new SR5 HiLux, and my wife’s got a Corolla Sport as well. They’ve just launched the new GR Corolla, so we might see if we can trade her Corolla in for one of those!

What’s interesting is a lot of people still don’t see Corolla as a performance car, even though it’s got that rich motorsport history.

Yes, exactly. Toyota did the TRD Aurion and the TRD HiLux but they never really had anything that had punch. You just had the Corolla and stuff like that, but you never had your sporty versions. So it's so good to finally see the GR Corolla.


And you’ve got some rare Toyota collectables, too.

I've got a lot of early Corolla brochures and a couple of really rare Corolla VIN models. When Toyota first opened their plant and started building engines in Victoria, I’ve actually got a coin (I’m assuming it’s brass or bronze) that was given to employees by the prime minister at the time which was Mr Fraser, back in 1979. And no one I know has seen anything like it. So that’s one of my prized items. I’ve also got a lot of the old TRD jackets and racing jackets from Japan, a couple of overalls from the newer Bates rally team, probably ‘06 or ‘07.

Can you tell us about the local motorsport scene in Tasmania?

We've only got two circuit tracks. Symmons (Symmons Plains Raceway) is more known because of the supercars, and Baskerville’s not really heard of because we don’t get big events or supercars. It’s owned by Motorsports Tasmania; I thought we were going to lose it for a little while but there’s since been money raised for it, so that’s very lucky. They’ve just started doing Race Tasmania too, which I’m hoping they’ll bring to Baskerville next year.

As far as spectators go, Tassie is small but I think we get quite a good crowd at our state rounds. And when we have our big meetings (Pepsi Max Baskerville Historics), it’s normally packed. It’s like an amphitheater there at Baskerville; we’ve got a big hill on the side of the race track. Everyone parks up top, and you can sit in your car and watch the races from there.


At this point in the interview, we’re interrupted by the reverse siren of a tow truck dropping off a little car with clutch problems. ‘A mate rang me this morning’, Ayrton apologises. He greets the driver and instructs him on where to deliver before we continue our chat).

What are your plans for racing in the future?

I'd love to get back into an Aussie racecar. I just bought a house in August last year so once everything settles down and we get some more equity back in the house, we’ll go from there. I wouldn’t mind doing a couple of rounds in the Toyota 86 Series if I can find a drive. If they do a Tassie round next year with the supercars, getting a drive for that will definitely be on the cards.


What do your kids think of all the racing?

Family means a lot to me so we do a lot of things together. My little daughter loves cars and so do both the boys. They’re always in the shed and at the track. They’re a bit like me, they’ve grown up around it so I wouldn’t be surprised if they follow in my footsteps.

A huge thanks to Ayrton Richardson for allowing us under the hood, and congratulations on an epic win in the Corolla KE30 at the 2023 Tasmanian Circuit Racing Championship (improved production over 2L).