A YORK manufacturer has won a multi-million pound contract to help put Toyota firmly into Formula 1 racing by the year 2002.

Pocklington Coachworks, of Osbaldwick, has beaten two major rivals to win a £2.5 million contract to build a 45 ft long articulated hospitality trailer for Toyota Motor Sport, based in Cologne, Germany.

The deal, which represents more than half the Osbaldwick firm's £4 million turnover, secures the jobs of its 68 workers and augurs well for an extra seven jobs to be taken on later in the year in time for the completion deadline of October 2001.

Another contract for trailer building - a team motor home - is thought to be in the offing by Toyota, which, as the second biggest car manufacturer in the world, intends to make both engine and chassis for its new Formula One cars.

The initial Toyota deal follows hot on the heels of the Pocklington Coachworks' order from Jaguar for two trailers completed on April 15 in record time in readiness for the British Grand Prix.

The new trailer will have a full commercial kitchen and offices and will be capable of being extended sideways like a glorified conservatory. It will be equipped with luxury furniture and gadgetry, including plasma-screen televisions to follow the race.

Fran Johnson, Pocklington's co-director, said: "This underpins our order book for the next year. We won the contract against pitches by two rivals, one from the UK and one from Germany - and in spite of the strong pound.

"We were told that we clinched the deal not purely on price but because of our professionalism."

Another reason was that in the racing world news as well as cars travels fast - and the word was out that Jaguar had been particularly impressed by Pocklington's efforts.

In order to produce the Jaguar trailers on time, Pocklington had employed an outside design company, Conestoga, of Andover, but its Toyota project will be designed by Pocklington's in-house engineers.

The York firm has managed to counter the effects of strong sterling in the past - last year winning a bid to build a £300,000 540-ft long trailer form California-based Hilton Motorsports for use in Series Formula Atlantic.

It has also completed two trailers for BMW in Portugal and received numerous website inquiries from as far away as Australia and Brazil.

The company also works in the disabled transport sector, in which it has designed three vehicles and carries out conversions of standard vans into legally-specified mini-buses.

PICTURE: On the trail of a fortune - Pocklington Coachworks' Jaguar trailer. Now Toyota is seeking the company's help