Why Toyota is finally getting into supercross racing

You would think that Toyota The brand doesn’t need any further promotion in Australia, but the Japanese giant said it saw an opportunity in entering the Supercars Championship to promote its products.

The Toyota emblem has never appeared on the Supercars Championship grid and has been absent from its predecessor since 1993.

That will change in 2026, when the company launches a V8 version. Above into the net, execute Ford Mustang And Chevrolet Camaro with the guidance of the historic team Walkinshaw Andretti United (WAU).

Toyota has not competed in what was then known as the Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) since 1993, with the brand focusing its recent racing efforts on the Australian Rally Championship (with GR Yaris) and the GR Cup, where future stars compete in the same GR86s.

The last time the company really looked into entering the V8 Supercars class was in 2000 with the new Avalon, but decided against pitting the new sedan against the VT Commodore and AU Falcon at the time.

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By 2024, Toyota was delivering near-record numbers of vehicles and outselling its second-place rival by more than two to one.

You’d be forgiven for asking why it now wants to race on Australia’s biggest stage, but the answer is simple: it wants to sell sports cars under the Gazoo Racing (GR) brand.

“GR, there’s nothing more to it than that. It’s just presented,” said Sean Hanley, Toyota Australia’s vice president of sales and marketing.

“When we started selling the GR Yaris, Corolla GR and GR Sport (HiLux), GR has just gained traction and it reminds us at Toyota [that] Despite everything going on in the world today, there is still a huge following for performance cars.

“People still want them now. They can change in the future and come in many different shapes. Even supercars have evolved – it’s not the tribalism of 20 years ago.

“But we saw an opportunity to really put Toyota’s stamp of authority back into Australian motorsport. We wanted to show the world, we wanted to show Australia, we can actually do this. We can be a competitor in this field.

“We do very well with all our other products, but we have only been in the market for a short time with GR, and now we want to prove to the world that this is a real racing and performance brand.“

Toyota’s Supercars stop, however, has a bigger appeal, with thousands of fans attending each event – and in the case of the Bathurst 1000, tens of thousands – arriving by car and likely looking for another event.

“Another reason we were drawn to Supercars is because it appeals to the Australian heartland. As such, it will showcase Toyota’s passion and our excitement to more Australians than ever before,” Mr Hanley said.

“Supercar fans tend to come to the track and spend a lot of time there. That makes it ideal as a touring car show, allowing us to promote our range of cars and really draw in the crowds.

“As we know, this is a driver-oriented sport. So if some of the best drivers in the country are driving our cars, people will support us. That will bring more people to Toyota dealerships who wouldn’t normally go there.

“Last but not least, Supercars is the ideal showcase for our GR (Gazoo Racing) range of cars. These are fun-to-drive sports cars, with a truly passionate fan base.

“They incorporate the latest Toyota technology, gained from our six decades of racing history. Importantly, the knowledge gained on the track is also used to improve all the other Toyota vehicles you see on our roads every day.

“We race, we learn, and in the end our customers win.”

When Toyota enters the series in 2026 – at least with WAU, and possibly with another team if successful – it will use the Supra, with a 5.0-litre V8 rather than the BMW-sourced 3.0-litre turbocharged six-cylinder under the hood.

We have seen manufacturers run Supercars with powertrains not found in regular cars.

The front-wheel-drive Nissan Altima has gone rear-wheel-drive with a V8 engine from a Patrol from 2013 to 2019, and the Volvo S60 Polestar raced with a V8 engine based on the XC90’s engine.

Even today, the Mustang and Camaro competing for the title have different engine capacities to those in showrooms, with the Camaro having been discontinued in Australia for years before it was raced.

What Toyota hopes to do is gain further exposure beyond what it currently achieves through its sponsorship of the AFL, Adelaide Crows, North Queensland Cowboys and Cricket Australia.

THAN: Everything Toyota