Toyota takes first win in Supercars

Toyota, who made their debut in the Repco Supercars Championship this year, are race winners already. The breakthrough victory for the GR Supra came just nine races into Toyota’s rookie season. Ryan Wood of Toyota’s homologation team, Walkinshaw TWG Racing, delivered the win, after earlier providing Toyota’s first podium and first pole in the category.

Long Run-Up

In September, 2024, Toyota went public with their intention to enter Supercars in 2026 with the A90 Supra, but the project actually started almost three years ago. Once the Supra was selected as the car, and Toyota’s 2UR-GSE 5.0-litre V8 as the engine, development work ramped up in what proved to be an international effort.

Body styling at Toyota Design Australia’s facilities in Melbourne required stretching the Supra body to fit the longer wheelbase (by 250mm) and longer overall platform (by around 400mm) of Supercars’ Gen3 chassis. Toyota’s FT-1 concept that preceded the production A90 Supra formed the basis for these modifications that also required accommodating the rollcage and other control components.

Wind tunnel testing of the Supra was conducted at Windshear in the USA (alongside the Mustang and Camaro to ensure aerodynamic parity), with engine development done at Swindon Powertrain in the UK.

Walkinshaw. . . and BJR

While Walkinshaw TWG Racing (nee Walkinshaw Andretti United) was part of the Toyota Supercars project from the beginning, an expansion of Toyota’s presence on the 2026 grid was confirmed in May, 2025, when Brad Jones Racing announced they would switch from Camaros to the Supra for a three-car entry this year.

Path to Victory

On debut at the season-opening Sydney 500, the Supra’s performance was less than encouraging. Andre Heimgartner’s (BJR – R&J Batteries Racing) eighth was the best placing in the opening race of the triple-header, although Walkinshaw team mates, Chaz Mostert (Mobil 1 Optus Racing) and Ryan Wood (Mobil 1 Truck Assist Racing), finished fourth and fifth in the round’s final race.

At Round 2, the Melbourne SuperSprint supporting the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix, Wood delivered the Supra’s first podium (third), then repeated the result in the opening race of Round 3, the Taupo Super 440.

For the second race at Taupo, Wood secured Toyota’s first Supercars pole with a strong 1m25.873s lap. What would be the final race at Taupo due to the arrival of Cyclone Vaianu the following day saw the 22-year-old Kiwi hold off rivals that were led by Red Bull Ampol Racing’s Will Brown and Broc Feeney.

Despite some very close attention from Brown, Wood held the lead going into the first round of pit stops, then built it in the laps that followed, while Mostert had advanced from sixth on the grid to third midway through the 60-lap race. The second round of pit stops saw Mostert overtake Wood, then hold his team mate at bay until the final ten laps.

Once Wood regained the lead, he extended it. In the end, Wood won by 3.1 seconds over Feeney, who had made a late pass on Mostert to deny Toyota a 1-2 finish.

“I’m so incredibly proud of our team, what we’ve done with this beautiful car, and to win in our third round is pretty special,” an emotional Wood said. “This is incredible. I can’t believe it.”

Toyota’s win – in just their ninth race - is the quickest success for a new manufacturer in the Supercars era. Volvo’s first win came in their 14th race start, and Nissan took 25 races, while Mercedes-AMG didn’t win until their second season in Supercars.

Neil Crompton, a Toyota ambassador and key driver behind the Supra Supercars project, was even more emotional about the breakthrough victory: “What an incredible moment. Three years - and a lot of hard work. This [win] is a great thing for the sport.”