His grandfather, Edward Toleman founded the Toleman company in 1926. Ted took over as Chairman in 1966 before founding the racing team in 1977. Toleman Motorsport made its first appearance at a motorsport event in British Formula Ford before making the step up to Formula 2 in 1978 running a March chassis. A year later the team switched to Ralt cars and came close winning the ’79 British F2 championship with Brian Henton.
Over the next 12 months, the Toleman team began to bring together a group of young and talented engineers. Among them Rory Byrne and Pat Symonds, the latter would remain with the outfit throughout his career as the team transformed to Benetton and then Renault, with whom he won the world championship with Fernando Alonso. By 1980, Toleman was building its own cars to race in European Formula 2. With drivers Henton and Derek Warwick, the team finished first and second in the championship.