The Japanese giant has already had a presence at Supercars meetings since 2016 thanks to the Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia GR Cup Series.
The one-make series has featured at a number of the high-profile races including Townsville, Sandown and Bathurst and provides a platform for young karters to progress to cars and begin their journey to Supercars.
Toyota Australia Vice President Sales, Marketing and Franchise Operations, Sean Hanley, revealed that the series was created not only to market the brand and the 86, but also provide a first hand insight into Supercars.
Hanley revealed forming the TGRA GR Cup Series was “very much with the view to have involvement with Supercars.”
The Toyota 86 Series has been a key Supercars support category since 2016.
“From a Toyota perspective, we were aware of Gen3 some years ago and we were watching carefully what that meant,” he told AUTO ACTION at the WAU Supra launch.
“In fact, we came into the 86 series with very much the view that we’d have some involvement with Supercars.
“So therefore, we could start to learn about the business, learn about the cars, potentially learn about the changes of the future and whether that would enable us to be a genuine player.
“So, when we looked at the Gen3 changes, we always knew there was a couple of cars that we could have put in, but we settled on the Supra.”
Having enjoyed massive success in WEC, WRC, NASCAR and ARC especially, Toyota is coming into Supercars with one goal in mind, winning.
“We certainly want to be competitive,” Hanley said.
“I mean, we’re not going into this race to be coming second all the time, but we know we’ve got to earn it.
A model of the Supra Supercar. Image: Glenn Hunt
“We know we have no rights to win this race. We’ve got to earn it and we’ve got to show our credentials.
“That’s why we’ve taken on what we think is the very best team in the Walkinshaw Andretti United racing team.
“I think we believe that we can do this and we have complete faith in this team.
“We think we’re good enough to have a crack and Walkinshaw Andretti United are the team to have and we have great faith in that team and their capability and we think that the product that they’re taking on is outstanding.
“So, winning, it’s important, of course, but we want to be able to show that we win because we do it well.”
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