North Queensland Toyota Cowboys players are used to a fast pace on the football field, but on Friday they'll experience a whole new level of speed.
Cowboys co-captain Johnathan Thurston, Lachlan Coote and Kyle Feldt will take part in a 'Hot Laps' event, which will see drivers from the Toyota 86 Racing Series take the boys for a spin around the Townsville Street Circuit, reaching speeds upwards of 190kmph.
Thurston and Coote received an early look at their Cowboys-themed Hot Laps rides at 1300SMILES Stadium on Thursday morning.
The Cowboys-themed cars will also compete in the Toyota 86 Racing Series events on Saturday and Sunday.
"The cars have come up really well. I'm doing a Hot Lap in one of them tomorrow and I'm pretty excited about that. It's going to be a fun experience," Thurston said.
"It's great that Toyota have a series for upcoming drivers and hopefully the Cowboys colours can give the drivers a little edge on the weekend.
"The Cowboys and Toyota have formed a great partnership since the association began in 2003."
The Toyota 86 Racing Series, which was born in 2016, was designed to identify new talent and to mentor and support up-and-coming drivers.
Thirty-four competitors will take part in the Townsville event over the weekend, with one-third of those drivers under the age of 21.
"The Toyota 86 Racing Series is to discover new drivers for the future and it has already achieved that in its short history," four times Australian Rally Champion and Toyota Ambassador Neal Bates said.
"The guys that have won the series in the first couple of years have either gone on to the development series or the Porsche Cup. It is incredibly well supported and gets incredibly good coverage.
"We are really excited to have a different look for the cars this weekend and even more exciting to be able to be involved with the Cowboys.
"We are really looking forward to having the Cowboys players in the cars tomorrow afternoon. It will be nice to be able to present our sport to top level athletes from another sport."
