Bathurst unveiling for Supercars Supra
Toyota plans to aggressively market its brand through its Supercars involvement.
Toyota Australia Vice President Sales, Marketing and Franchise Operations Sean Hanley has told Mark Fogarty on the Road To Bathurst podcast that the Australian arm of the Japanese manufacturer will put the full might of its marketing prowess behind its Supercars program.
Toyota recently announced that it would enter the Supercars Championship in 2026 and the company already has ideas and plans to leverage its involvement in the sport, and that will start with the unveiling of a full-scale mock-up model of the Supercars Supra at this year’s Repco Bathurst 1000 in just a few weeks time.
“You can bet we will,” Hanley enthused when asked if Toyota will back its Supercars program with a full marketing campaign.
“We showed our dealer network [at Toyota’s recent dealer convention] on the Gold Coast what we had planned. We had 800-plus of our dealers in one room and we had it on the big screen and when we started up our V8 engine on the audio I can tell you that room rumbled,” Hanley said.
“We are excited. Our dealer network is excited and you will see the might of Toyota marketing in the next few years. We have a lot of great ideas.”
Toyota has announced Walkinshaw Andretti United as its homologation team, but Hanley told RTB that there would be at least four Supras on the Supercars grid in 2026, if not more. He said negotiations with a second, and possibly a third, Supercars team would be completed by June 2025.
In the full-extended interview with Foges on RTB, Hanley also discusses Hybrid and other future proofing options for Supercars.
Click the on the link above for the full interview.
