Toyota Australia has just announced it is entering the Repco Supercars Championship from 2026, running four GR Supras under Walkinshaw Andretti United against the current Mustang and Camaro.

A clay model of the car that will be built to Gen 3 regulations was unveiled at the announcement this morning, with Walkinshaw to work closely with Toyota in Melbourne to develop it.

Toyota’s commitment to the Supercars championship will last for at least five years of on-track racing from 2026, with current Walkinshaw drivers Chaz Mostert and Ryan Wood said to be piloting two of the four Supras that will be entered.

Despite Supercars regulations theoretically allowing the use of the 3.0-litre, turbocharged B58 BMW inline six that the road-going production Supra comes with, the Gen 3 Supercars racer will use Toyota’s 5.0-litre, quad-cam 2UR-GSE V8.

On the road, that engine can be found in Lexus products like the LC 500, but it is also used in Toyota’s motorsport efforts in vehicles like the HiLux Dakar racing truck.

Toyota has been eyeing a factory-backed push into Supercars since the start of the century, according to Sean Hanley, Toyota Australia vice-president of sales, marketing and franchise operations, in a statement this morning.

“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,” Hanley said.

“I can tell you from my own experience that we seriously considered Supercars as we prepared to launch Avalon [a large sedan launched in 2000],” Hanley continued. “Ultimately, though, we decided the category back then was just a little bit too tribal. How times have indeed changed.”

Toyota is the third manufacturer to enter the hotly contested GM-versus-Ford category since the rule changes of what was then Group A in 1993. Those changes initially forced out dominant cars like the R32 Nissan Skyline GT-R to leave just Falcons and Commodores in the championship.

Nissan was first to re-enter the category in 2013, running V8-powered Altimas under the Kelly Racing banner (now Grove Racing). Sadly, the company again withdrew its support in 2019. Volvo also joined in 2014 with Garry Rogers Motorsport, that deal only lasting until the end of 2016. Erebus Motorsport did enter Mercedes-AMG E63 sedans from 2013 to 2015, but that was a customer-run effort with no factory backing from Mercedes itself.

The news also brings Walkinshaw’s second manufacturer change since losing the Holden Racing Team contract to Triple Eight at the end of 2016. Walkinshaw was closely linked to another deal with BMW pre-COVID, but the pandemic allegedly put an end to that.

Walkinshaw Andretti United currently runs S650 Ford Mustangs in the championship, having switched to the Blue Oval last year.

The addition of the Supra to the championship bolsters Toyota’s presence on the Supercars motorsport calendar, as the company already campaigns the GR86 in the one-make TGRA GR Cup at Supercars events.