Toyota's historic connection to Mount Panorama and Bathurst 1000
Toyota to join Supercars with new GR Supra in 2026
2025 marks 60 years since Toyota first competed in the Great Race
A trio of Toyota Coronas were entered in Class B in 1965
Toyota has a long, deep history with Australia’s Great Race and its world-famous Mount Panorama circuit.
This year, 2025, marks 60 years since Toyota first competed in what was then known as the Armstrong 500.
It all also see the new GR Supra Supercar turn demonstration laps of the 6.213-kilometre circuit ahead of the car’s debut in next year’s Repco Supercars Championship and, indeed, Repco Bathurst 1000.
The purpose-built, V8-powered GR Supra is a very different beast to the very first Toyotas that competed in the early years of the Bathurst endurance classic.
A trio of Toyota Coronas were entered in Class B in 1965 – for cars priced between 920 and 1020 pounds at the time – and the entry of Des Kelly and Brian Reed finished second in class.
From there Toyota became synonymous with class wins at Bathurst with its smaller capacity cars.
Toyota’s first class win at Bathurst came in 1968, in Class A, with a Corolla driven by Bruce Hindhaugh (who later co-owned the 1975 Bathurst-winning L34 Torana) and Bob Morris (who won the race outright in 1976).
The Celica made its Bathurst 1000 debut in 1977 and became world-famous two years later via Sydney-based Toyota dealer/racer Peter Williamson, when it carried the very first RaceCam in-car camera.
Not only did Williamson become a household name as he talked viewers around the track live on air, but he and Mike Quinn finished ninth outright and won their class.
Toyota Team Australia, the factory-backed team, debuted at Bathurst in 1984 and set the standard for the ‘small car’ class for the remainder of the decade.
The feats of its Corollas were legendary in the hands of TTA and privateers, dominating the class at Bathurst over the remainder of the decade and into the start of the 1990s under Group A regulations.
Perhaps the most giant-killing effort came via John Faulkner and Drew Price in 1988.
Their 1.6-litre Corolla started 41st on the grid and beat home many more powerful and faster cars to claim an incredible ninth position overall.
All told Toyotas have taken 13 class wins in the Bathurst endurance classic with drivers including Bob Holden, Jason Bargwanna, Neal Bates and Paul Morris all writing themselves into the history books.
The Supra made its Bathurst debut in 1984, albeit a short one after Williamson was involved in a crash on the start line triggered by the Jaguar of Tom Walkinshaw.
The TTA squad moved into a TOMS-built Group A Supra in 1989, though the turbocharged car was too heavy and too underpowered to compete successfully against the Sierras, Commodores and Skylines of the period. The last Supra Bathurst 1000 entry came in 1992 with John Bourke and Keith Carling and retired after 94 laps with gearbox issues.
The introduction of two-litre ‘Class 2’ racing that later became known as Super Touring also saw Toyotas compete at Bathurst.
Four-time Bathurst 1000 winner Greg Murphy made his Bathurst 1000 debut in an ex-British Touring Car Championship Toyota Carina in the 1994 race.
Rally ace Bates and Mark Adderton raced a Super Touring-spec Camry in the 1997 AMP Bathurst 1000 before five Toyotas competed in the 1998 race spread across the Super Touring, Production Car and New Zealand Schedule S classes.
That 1998 race marks the last time a Toyota competed in the Bathurst 1000, though that drought ends in October next year, which marks the return of Toyota to the Mountain with the introduction of the GR Supra Supercar that will be raced by Walkinshaw Andretti United and Brad Jones Racing.
However, the Bathurst 1000 has not yet seen a Toyota win outright and finish on the outright podium. This time next year the GR Supra has a chance to change that when it takes on Chevrolet’s Camaro and Ford’s Mustang.
But it’s not just the Bathurst 1000 in which Toyota has history, given it also sits in the record books at Mount Panorama as a winner of the Bathurst 12 Hour.
The late Peter Fitzgerald, Allan Grice and Kiwi Nigel Arkell took a Supra to victory in the inaugural event at Easter in 1991.
The car had been Fitzgerald’s Australian Production Car Championship contender before the rules changed and he’d converted it for road use, a move that quickly changed when the 12 Hour race was announced and the Supra was eligible!
