The 2026 Supercars Championship will be the first season since 2019 with more than two brands, as Toyota is set to enter with its V8-powered GR Supra.
Competing against the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro, it’ll be the first brand outside the standard Ford and General Motors fold to race in the championship since the Nissan Altima last competed in 2019.
It’s been a long road to get here, with the shock announcement made in September 2024, and the GR Supra cutting its first public demonstration laps at this weekend’s Bathurst 1000, marking the first time the marque has had a product on track at the race since the early 1990s.
Speaking to Torquecafe in the lead-up to the race, Toyota Australia vice president sales, marketing and franchise operations, Sean Hanley, reiterated going racing with the Supra –which went off sale in August – is about boosting exposure for the new-car market leader, and its Gazoo Racing (GR) sub-brand.
“This car that we are putting into Supercars next year is 99.9 per cent about the Gazoo Racing brand, rather than the actual model,” Hanley said.
“And that’s why we’re doing what we’re doing in this program for 2026 and beyond. Right now, looking around today, I went up the top of the mountain, I went around the car parks, and the amount of Toyotas that I see parked in the car park tells me there’s a lot of Toyota people here that are looking for a team.
“There’s millions of Toyotas on the road in Australia. These are Toyota owners, of which a lot this weekend will tune into this race. They may not tune in every Supercars race, but their likelihood is they’ll have some contact with this race.
“Our message to those people is in 2026, when you tune into the race, you’ll be able to support two teams that drive the product that you drive. You don’t have to be an orphan to the sport anymore. You can come and be part of us. We think we’ll attract many, many new fans to the sport.
“When I was walking around the mountain today, there were people who were openly saying to us, ‘we can’t wait for Toyota to join’. We’re coming on board because they don’t have anyone to follow now. Whether it be the changes of brands over the years, whatever it might be.”
Toyota has been the market leader in Australia for the past 22 consecutive years, and looks set to continue with a 23rd in 2025. It sells more than double the number of vehicles than its next competitor, and its hybrids alone would be enough for it to keep the top spot.
There is a rising threat from more affordable Chinese brands, arguably one of the reasons Toyota is finally joining the travelling Supercars road show: to give it a point of difference compared to its emerging competitors.
It also provides Toyota a platform to market its vehicles directly against the brand which has taken away one of its crowns. In 2023 and 2024, the Ford Ranger dethroned the Toyota HiLux as the best-selling vehicle in Australia.
The 2025 sales race is coming down to the wire despite the HiLux being a decade old, compared to the three-year-old Ranger. With Supercars car parks filled with dual-cab utes, it’s clear to see why Toyota wants to follow Ford’s lead by marketing its brand rather than the race car itself in the series.
Discussion about this post