Toyota Australia To Enter 2026 Repco Supercars Championship With GR Supra

September 18, 2024

Toyota Australia is set to shake up the Repco Supercars Championship when it enters Australia’s premier motorsport category in 2026 with its GR Supra.

Toyota will field a minimum of four GEN3 GR Supras. Two 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 significantly extends its commitment to supporting Australian motorsport that already includes its one-make grassroots TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Australia (TGRA) Scholarship Series and GR CUP, and the TGRA Rally Team alongside Neal Bates Motorsport, that currently leads the Australian Rally Championship.

Toyota Australia Vice President Sales, Marketing and Franchise Operations Sean Hanley said Toyota’s participation in Supercars was a dream come true that would provide both a showcase for its GR performance cars and an extended career opportunity for talented drivers and the design and engineering crews that support them.

“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,” Mr Hanley said.

“This is truly an 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.

“It will also provide an opportunity for a continuous career pathway for drivers and teams that we first established when we launched the one-make Toyota 86 Series nine years ago as an affordable grassroots circuit-racing category run as a support series at select Supercars Championship events around the country.

“It has been the perfect environment for up-and-coming drivers to learn and hone their racecraft, and such has been its success, that it is well recognised as a career pathway into the top tier of Australian motorsport.

“For proof, you only need to look at this year’s Supercars grid with Broc Feeney, Will Brown and Cameron Hill all having cut their racing teeth in Toyota 86s, with many more 86 alumni racing in Super2.

“With our entry-level Scholarship Series, and what is now branded the TGRA GR CUP continuing as a support category for Supercars, our joining the Supercars Championship was a natural extension of our support for Australian motorsport at all levels.

“And 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 said he welcomed Toyota’s announcement that would bring a new level of competition to Australia’s premier motorsport category.

“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.

“It’s a testament to the immense popularity and international appeal of our sport that a powerhouse like Toyota has chosen to join our grid.

“We congratulate Toyota on its commitment to Supercars and are proud to be in such esteemed company as it continues its global motorsport legacy.

“There couldn’t be a more fitting time to make this historic announcement than in the lead-up to the Repco Bathurst 1000, our premier event that captures the attention of fans around the world.”

As a team that brings together support from some of the biggest names in global motorsport, Walkinshaw Andretti United (WAU) has a long and successful history in Supercars with seven Bathurst 1000 wins, six Drivers Championships, and 191 Championship race wins.

Team directors Ryan Walkinshaw, Zak Brown and Michael Andretti said they were thrilled to partner with Toyota as its homologation team and build on the growing partnership.

WAU Director Ryan Walkinshaw said: “To announce our future with Toyota Australia, as it enters the Supercars Championship from 2026, is a fantastic honour and privilege for everyone at Walkinshaw Andretti United.

“Toyota’s commitment to our team and to the sport is a historic moment, and one that shouldn’t be underestimated.

“We have developed a fantastic relationship with Toyota Australia through the Walkinshaw Group, and we are delighted to extend that partnership into Walkinshaw Andretti United – we can’t wait to share success together in 2026 and beyond.

“While the future is certainly exciting, our immediate focus is on the remainder of 2024 and the 2025 seasons, winning races, and sending off our relationship with Ford the right way.”

Zak Brown, Director of WAU and CEO of United Autosports said: “Today is a huge day for Walkinshaw Andretti United and for Supercars, and we are delighted to be partnering with Toyota Australia as it enters the sport in 2026.

“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.”

WAU Director Michael Andretti said: “We are incredibly excited to announce our future with Toyota Australia, and it’s a great honour to be the homologation team working with it and Supercars to bring it to life.

“Being a homologation team is huge part of our DNA and history, so this next chapter ahead of us is enormous, not only for us, but for the sport. We can’t thank Toyota Australia enough for its belief in us.

“Having said that, we also need to acknowledge Ford, and thank it for its partnership to date, we are all committed to ending on a high note.”

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 that has featured in a range of performance production cars, as well as the 2019 Dakar-winning HiLux, as its baseline engine.

Toyota is committed to racing in the Supercars Championship for five years.

Further details on the racecar will be announced in due course.

In addition to providing opportunities for Australian motorsport enthusiasts, Toyota’s participation in Supercars will provide valuable knowledge for the further development of its GR road cars.

Underpinning the brand’s GR performance arm is a philosophy that takes the learnings from its motorsport activities to develop its exciting range of GR performance cars including the GR86, GR Yaris, GR Corolla and GR Supra.

The development of these cars has been underscored by Toyota’s participation in major international and national series including the World Endurance Championship (WEC), the World Rally Championship (WRC), the Dakar Rally, NASCAR in the US and a raft of national GT, rally, and circuit racing series in countries around the world.

Toyota Motorsport in Australia

Toyota has a long history of motorsport participation in Australia stretching back to the Japanese brand’s first foray into international competition when a Toyopet Crown competed in the 1957 Mobilgas Rally (Round Australia) with two Japanese drivers and an Australian navigator.

In 1968, the same year Toyota started manufacturing the Corolla at its plant in Altona, it took a class win in the Corolla in the Hardie-Ferodo 500, the forerunner to the Bathurst 1000, and followed it up with a second class win the following year.

Between 1985 and 1990, the factory-backed Toyota Team Australia competed in the Australian Touring Car Championship – the precursor to the Supercars Championship – taking several class-wins with the Toyota Corolla including an eight-year run from 1985 to 1992 at Bathurst.

Following this, Toyota Australia’s motorsport focus shifted to supporting factory teams in the Australian Rally Championship (ARC) with Neal Bates and Coral Taylor taking the title for three years running in 1993, 1994 and 1995 in the legendary Toyota Celica GT-Four.

Toyota was once again on the winner’s podium in ARC with Simon and Sue Evans driving a Corolla Sportivo in 2006 and 2007, with Bates and Taylor making it a hattrick in 2008 in the Corolla S2000.

In 2015, Toyota brought its global motorsport activity under the one TOYOTA GAZOO Racing banner, and locally, Toyota was again supporting circuit-racing with the launch of the one-make Toyota 86 Series running across five rounds of the Supercars Championship.

With packed grids of about 30 Toyota 86 racecars, the series delivered tight exciting racing action for drivers and fans alike and quickly generated a strong following.

In late 2018 Toyota launched TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Australia to align with the global branding and announced it would again support a two-car factory backed team to compete in the 2019 ARC season.

With two new Toyota Yaris AP4 rally cars developed by Neal Bates Motorsport and driven by Bates’ two sons Harry and Lewis, Toyota Australia was again a dominant force in local rallying with Harry and co-driver John McCarthy taking the 2019 ARC title.

COVID-19 saw no ARC championship title awarded in 2020 but in 2021, Harry and John were back on the top of the podium with the all-new GR Yaris AP4 for the first of three back-to-back titles for Toyota.

Harry’s brother Lewis and co-driver Anthony McLoughlin took the title in 2022 with Harry and Neal’s former co-driver Coral Taylor winning in 2023.

The ongoing success of the TGRA 86 Series also saw the introduction of a new second-tier Scholarship Series in 2023 to cater for the increased demand for young drivers wanting to get into Toyota 86 racing.

That series continued in 2024 while the main one-make Toyota 86 series was renamed the GR CUP, reflecting the introduction of new GR86 racecar in 2024.

The TGRA Rally Team also started the year campaigning a pair of new cars in the ARC with both Harry and Lewis driving the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing factory-built GR Yaris Rally2 car.

Toyota is committed to supporting the TGRA Scholarship Series and GR CUP through to at least the end of 2026, and now with the brand joining the Supercars Championship, it is continuing to provide a pathway for talented young drivers through to the highest echelons of Australian motorsport.