Steve Hallam joins Toyota Racing Development in managerial role

The Englishman, who spent more than a decade with McLaren Formula One and most recently served as managing director of the TEKNO Autosports V8 Supercars team, will assume his new role as senior manager of vehicle support and team engineering for TRD next week.

In an interview Tuesday with Motorsport.com, David Wilson, president and general manager of TRD, confirmed Hallam’s hire and said Hallam would be based in TRD’s Costa Mesa, Calif., headquarters and report directly to Andy Graves, TRD’s group vice president and technical director.

Previous experience with Toyota

TRD had previous experience with Hallam during his tenure as director of race engineering for Michael Waltrip Racing between 2009 and 2011.

“It was during that stint with Michael Waltrip Racing that Steve really helped Toyota directly in developing some of our specialized tools. We really enjoyed the perspective he brought NASCAR from outside the NASCAR garage.

“When he and MWR parted company, we stayed in touch with Steve. If we had the opportunity at that time, we probably would have tried to grab a hold of him.”

Hallam, 63, guided the small TEKNO Autosports team to a runner-up finish in the V8 Supercars championship in 2014 after running the Holden Racing Team from 2012-13.

Wilson said Hallam will work with TRD’s team of engineers, supporting their work across multiple series in which Toyota is involved.

“Our intention is to use Steve’s very diverse set of skills and experience in motorsports to help us  in NASCAR, in NHRA, could be in off-road – we’re kind of leaving the opportunities very open-ended,” Wilson said.

“I believe Steve can help mentor a lot of our young engineers. That experience that he’s had internationally I just believe can help us. I’ve always been a big proponent of diversification.”