Brothers In Arms

27-year-old Miguel will make his prototype racing debut this weekend at the 4 Hours of Le Castellet in the DKR Engineering Norma-Nissan, but he has plenty of GT experience, winning the Spanish GT Championship in 2011 and taking a class win and a further podium in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup.

21-year-old Alex won the 2017 Michelin Le Mans Cup LMP3 driver’s title with DKR Engineering and Jean Glorieux and has stepped up to the ELMS, racing with his partner from 2017 and now with his brother joining the DKR Engineering team.

Miguel Toril explained how many time the brothers have raced together.  “Alex and I have raced together in 2015 in the VLN and once last year in Spa 12 hours.  I’ve been racing for 18 years, and Alex 14 years, and in reality we haven’t met many times on track.  We’ve raced against each other in the Dubai 24 Hours in the same category.  We’ve been very separate in our racing careers.”

When asked if being brothers will give them an advantage the answer from both drivers simultaneously was ‘no it will be a disaster’ but it was also accompanied by laughter and big smiles. 

“I think it will be an advantage because we already know about each other,” Miguel answered.  “When he was doing single seaters I was already doing endurance racing and then he jumped into an endurance car.  I was able to give him advice on what to do, change procedures and now we can put all that experience together.  So we understand each other already.”

“Miguel is the engineer,” Alex continued.  “I have one year experience with this LMP3 car and I showed him how to do this and that. He starts to explain to me the technical stuff and I would say I had no idea about that. ‘And you have been racing this car for one year’ he would ask me.  It is actually funny.  Seriously we compliment each other very well.  I have the experience and the speed, he is more the endurance guy, which is a positive advantage.”

“I have not raced with Jean (Glorieux) before,” said Miguel. “I know him through my brother but not as a race driver on track, so this will be my first race with him here in Le Castellet.  I have seen how Alex and Jean worked together last season and my job is to introduce myself this year in the best possible way.”