Toyota brings Walkinshaw Andretti United “back to where we should be”
By Thomas Miles
Date posted: 18 September 2024
Ryan Walkinshaw believes becoming the official homologation team for Toyota’s Supercars assault is bringing the team “back” to where it belongs.
Toyota has rocked the Supercars world by announcing it will finally race in Australia’s premier racing series in 2026 with four V8-powered Gen3 GR Toyota Supras.
Joining Triple Eight (Chevrolet) and DJR (Ford) as homologation teams will be WAU, responsible for bringing the Supra to the grid.
A model of the Supra Supercar. Image: Glenn Hunt
The bombshell announcement means WAU’s time racing with the Ford badge will be limited to just three years after making a high-profile deflection from long-time partner Holden.
WAU has a proud history racing with close ties to a manufacturer, starting life as the Holden Racing Team in 1990, which led to one of the most dominant periods of the sport from 1996-2002.
However, the team lost factory backing at the end of the 2016 season and especially since becoming Walkinshaw Andretti United two years later, has held ambitions on being a flagship team once again and had been in discussions with the likes of Jaguar before ultimately settling with Ford.
The final win under the Holden Racing Team name was the 2016 Sandown 500 steered by Garth Tander and Warren Luff. Image: Peter Norton EPIC Sports Photography
WAU boss Walkinshaw believes the Toyota announcement gives the team the status it deserves.
“I think what it does is just get us back to where we believe we should be and should have been for a long period of time,” he told AUTO ACTION’s Bruce Williams at the Gold Coast announcement.
“Since losing the Holden Racing Team contract back in 2016, we’ve been adamant that we want and can be a leading homologation team again.
“Our performance over the last five years in particular, since becoming Walkinshaw Andretti United, has put us in a position where we’re an attractive team to partner with for any manufacturer.
“Then when the opportunity came when Toyota approached us and asked if we’d be interested to represent them in supercars for 2026, obviously it was something that we grabbed with both hands.
Chaz Mostert in WAU’s first race with Ford at Newcastle 2023. Photo: Peter Norton – Epic Sports Photography
“Who wouldn’t want to work with a company like Toyota?
“It makes sense as well, even though Walkinshaw Andretti United is a partnership between myself, Michael Andretti and Zak Brown, from a Walkinshaw perspective, already being a trusted partner of Toyota, evidently in these situations, they’re going to come and speak to someone that they already have a relationship and trust and know does good work for them.
“So it was a very easy, simple fit and very quick discussion.”
WAU and Toyota have an existing relationship through running Matt Hillyer in the one make TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Australia GR Cup support series where the Academy driver took a timely clean sweep at Sandown last weekend.
Shane Howard, Ryan Walkinshaw, Barclay Nettlefold and Toyota’s Sean Hanley.
But the pressure and weight of being the homologation team for the most popular car brand in Australia is something not lost on Walkinshaw.
“I’ve been talking to several people about it this afternoon (and) it’s probably one of the largest, if not the largest, announcement in this sport for a number of decades, maybe since the creation of the Holden racing team back in 1990,” he said.
“So for us to be in a position where we’re announcing the entry of Australia’s largest automotive manufacturer in a brand that has got such an enormous rich heritage in motorsport globally in almost every single category you can imagine, for them to enter Supercars and to compete and to do it in the way that they’re trying to do it, it’s a very, very special moment for the sport.
“It’s an enormous privilege for my team to be part of that and a very, very exciting announcement for the sport and for the motorsport community in Australia and for all of our fans.
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