One race into his weekend as a Toyota GR Cup competitor, actor Keanu Reeves acquainted himself admirably with wheel-to-wheel competition at Indianapolis’ famed road course layout.
While pushing on later in the race, Reeves half spun his car, keeping it off of Indy’s inner barriers. Finishing 25th, last of the runners — after successfully dodging earlier incidents that happened ahead — the 60-year-old racer duly brought his Eagle Canyon Racing-prepared GR86 home in one piece, a few spots ahead of where he’d began the day in 31st.
“Hi, I’m Keanu Reeves, I’m #92, the first [session] today was a blast,” Reeves said in an interview on the series’ social media account earlier in the weekend. When asked why he was taking part, the actor stuck to his lines.
“I don’t know, it’s fun. Racing is fun…it’s fun. Everyone says it’s fun, and it’s fun,” he said.
For Race 2, Reeves starts in 29th with a qualifying lap some six seconds adrift from the pole position lap of 1:39.595 set by Spike Kohlbecker. The recently-crowned 2024 GR Cup Champion, Gresham Wagner, starts alongside him on the front row.
Another celebrity rookie making his series debut is Cody Jones from the Dude Perfect YouTube channel. Consistently running a little faster than Reeves for much of weekend, Jones finished Race 1 at Indy in 23rd.
“Racing is fun”
It may seem illogical for Reeves to make a series debut at the final weekend of the season, however, the GR Cup series’ standings are largely settled and the speed of the cars are a significant step above his last outing in a Toyota. When “fun” is the goal, finishing without major incident is a fine result.
Do you recall the media drum that was the annual one-off Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race in Long Beach, California, last held in 2016? Reeves was the celebrity winner of the race in 2009, racing a front-drive Scion tC coupé in a confined street circuit — a long way from the performance of a GR Cup car at Indianapolis.
Reeves’ return to racing reminds us of several other celebrities who have successfully taken up racing as a hobby — some more serious than others. Younger readers may not know much of Paul Newman; but Patrick Dempsey, Eric Bana, Caitlyn Jenner, and Tom Cruise have all done well in wheel-to-wheel competition.
Newman, who was successful as a racer and team owner, wasn’t involved with motorsports until his late ’40s, competing regularly at the front of the pack into his ’80s.
Whether or not Reeves’ continues with professional motorsports in his ’60s is perhaps less important than knowing there will undoubtedly be a series ready to host his next debut.
Toyota GR Cup series
Across 7 tracks and 14 races, the Toyota GR Cup North America series debuted in 2023. Each GR86 begins as a stock vehicle, which is then heavily modified at TGRNA facilities in Mooresville, North Carolina.
There, the identically-prepared coupes are fitted with performance and racing-specific modifications, including Bosch engine management, Borla exhaust, SADEV 6-speed sequential transmission, Alcon brakes, JRI suspension components, OMP safety equipment, roll cage, fuel cell, and GR Cup-specific body kit including a front splitter and rear wing.
