Toyota Australia has announced that it will enter the Australian Supercars Championship in 2026 with the Supra as its base platform.
This news means a third manufacturer will be added to the Supercars championship, with Toyota set to compete against Chevrolet and Ford with a minimum of four GEN3 GR Supras.
Two Supras will be run by Toyota’s homologation team partner Walkinshaw Andretti United, with Supercars drivers Chaz Mostert and Ryan Wood behind the wheel.
The brand’s entry into the Supercars Championship, for a minimum of five years, extends its commitment to supporting Australian motorsport.
It also adds to its one-make grassroots TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Australia (TGRA) Scholarship Series and GR CUP, and the TGRA Rally Team alongside Neal Bates Motorsport.
In a wider sense, it also adds to Toyota Gazoo Racing’s flagship WRC, WEC and Super GT programmes.
“At Toyota, we have been toying with the idea of competing in Supercars for more than 20 years and now with the right car, the right team, and a very strong partnership with the Repco Supercars Championship, the time is definitely right,” said Toyota Australia vice president Sales, marketing and franchise operations Sean Hanley. “This is truly a historic moment!”
“Our GR brand and performance cars were built on the knowledge that we gain from participating in top-level motorsport and our entry into the Supercars Championship will cement that connection and give us the opportunity to showcase TOYOTA GAZOO Racing excitement to a wide audience of passionate fans,” Mr Hanley said.
“With our strong and ever-growing partnerships with Walkinshaw Andretti United and Supercars, we are in it, to win it,” he said.
Repco Supercars Championship CEO Shane Howard welcomed the announcement.
“This is an incredible honour, to welcome Toyota to the Repco Supercars Championship from 2026,” Howard said. “This is a landmark moment for Supercars, solidifying an iconic global automotive brand on our grid from 2026.”
Zak Brown, Director of WAU and CEO of United Autosports added: “To have a third OEM enter into Supercars shows the strength of the sport now and into the future, and it’s going to be pretty special to see all three manufacturers battle it out.
“We’ve got some races to win with Ford before that, they have been fantastic to work with and we are fully committed to finishing that relationship the best way.”
In preparation, Toyota Australia has already begun initial design work on the GR Supra racecar through its own in-house design team, based at Altona, with the design team using CAD and VR technology to produce a scale clay model.
The GR Supra will use Toyota’s 2UR-GSE all-aluminium, quad-cam V8 which has featured in a range of performance production cars, as well as the 2019 Dakar-winning HiLux, as its baseline engine.
Image courtesy of Walkinshaw Andretti United
