Toyota Boss Hits Back at Supra Rumours, Details Supercars Expansion

Toyota’s GR performance sub-brand is expanding rapidly in Australia, and according to Vice President of Sales and Marketing Sean Hanley, it’s no longer just about limited-run hero cars – with the GR Sport trim playing a major role in the company's line-up.

“GR Sport is going to continue. Oh yeah,” Hanley told CarSauce.

“It’ll be one of our best sellers.”

In recent months, GR Sport variants, available on models like the HiLux, Yaris Cross, C-HR and Corolla Cross, have become some of the strongest performers in Toyota’s local line-up.

“The addition of the GR Sport has been a real acceleration for us,” Hanley explained.

“Across all our grades, it’s doing very well.”

That expansion on the showroom floor is now mirrored on the racetrack.

Earlier this month, Toyota confirmed it will join the 2026 Supercars Championship with six GR Supra race cars. Four of those will be run by Brad Jones Racing under a multi-year agreement with Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia, joining the two GR Supra race cars already confirmed for Walkinshaw Andretti United, to be driven by Chaz Mostert and Ryan Wood.

“When I first met Brad and his team I was very impressed by their operation and the depth of experience the whole team has,” Hanley said.

“It was a huge moment when Toyota Australia announced it will be joining the country’s premier motorsport category last September, and today’s news solidifies our line-up and racing team partners.”

Hanley noted that entering Supercars was not a marketing-led decision, but a strategic move with broader implications for Toyota’s engineering and product development teams.

“When we went in with this proposal, our parent company – and particularly GR’s racing division – asked: What are we going to learn from this? What are the learnings that we can bring back to make better cars, cars that are more fun, more durable, easier to repair if something fails?”

Off-mic, Hanley added that the long-term plan is even bigger.

“We’ll get to eight cars,” he said. “We have to focus on development… slow and steady wins the race.”

That measured approach is something Toyota appears to be applying both to motorsport and showroom growth.

Brad Jones Racing, the only current Supercars team based in regional Australia, brings over 25 years of experience in the category.

“This is a massive moment in the history of BJR,” team principal Brad Jones said in Toyota’s announcement.

“Through this whole process Toyota have been incredible to work with. I cannot wait to see our team roll out four GR Supras in 2026. It’s going to be a ‘pinch me’ moment.”

The GR Supra Supercars will be powered by a specially developed version of Toyota’s 2UR-GSE all-aluminium, quad-cam V8 – an engine that’s already proven itself in high-performance Lexus models and in the Dakar-winning HiLux.

The cars were designed in Australia at Toyota’s Altona facility using digital modelling and clay prototype development, first unveiled at the 2024 Bathurst 1000.

Hanley described Toyota’s wider motorsport vision as a “university of motorsport”.

“We’ve got the GR Scholarship Program for young drivers, the GR86 racing series, and now GR Supercars. That gives us a natural progression through the ranks, and if they’re good enough, maybe they get a crack at NASCAR one day,” he said.

“The pyramid gets narrower at the top, but for the best of the best, we want to create that pathway.”

Despite speculation around the Supra’s future, Hanley was unequivocal.

“There’s a lot of speculation that Supra is discontinuing. My simple answer to that is the Supra brand will continue,” he said.

“We went into this with a very long-term view. We knew exactly what our product cycles were, and we believe that Supra is our entry vehicle because it’s exactly right. It will be around for a long time.”

While the current-generation Supra is entering its twilight years, the next-generation sportscar could be a collaboration between Toyota and Mazda – featuring Mazda's straight-six petrol engine, as reported by CarSauce.

When asked if this growing focus on performance conflicts with Toyota’s broader electrification goals, Hanley was clear: “We still know that people want performance cars.

"People still like V8s. They still like the thunder of a V8 engine or an engine,” he said.

“Yes, cars need to be safe, efficient, and support a carbon-neutral future, but people still want the feeling of driving. And we’re going to keep delivering that.”

The Toyota Australia executive emphasised that GR isn’t about building compliance-focused tech boxes: “We don’t see cars as becoming a commodity. We see cars as an important part of someone’s life. It’s about a relationship between the owner and the car, and GR is a big part of that.”

With GR Sport vehicles selling strongly, a Supercars campaign taking shape, and a full development ladder now in place from grassroots motorsport to national-level racing, Toyota is no longer just talking about performance.

“We race. We learn. You win,” Hanley said.

“That’s what it’s all about.”