Among those spotted checking out the striking machine were Team 18 chiefs Charlie Schwerkolt and Adrian Burgess, as well as star driver David Reynolds.
Their appearance in the Toyota garage has done little to dampen speculation that the Melbourne-based outfit is set to become the marque’s second team in 2026.
Toyota has announced Walkinshaw Andretti United as its homologation squad and says it will evaluate options for a second team midway through 2025.
Schwerkolt has strong links to Toyota through his forklift business and on Thursday publicly admitted his interest in the Supra project.
“I’d look at it for sure,” Schwerkolt said when asked if he is interested in the Toyota deal.
“Obviously, I’ve got a relationship with Toyota and all of that sort of stuff, but I think they’re going to go through a tender process, see what happens and we’ll see where it goes.”
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Burgess joined Team 18 at the start of 2024 following a five-year stint as Supercars’ motorsport boss.
While Toyota’s Supercars news took the industry by surprise last month, work had taken place between the car brand and the category for 18 months.
Reynolds broached Toyota’s impending arrival in the category during an appearance on Supercars’ Drivers Only podcast the week after the announcement.
“I’m really looking forward to it. I think it’s a really good move and I can’t wait,” he said, before clarifying: “I don’t actually know anything about it, I only found this out last week.”
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Reynolds declared his interest in having a look at the Supra at Bathurst, while Grove Racing’s Garth Tander cheekily asked if the car was going to the Mountain in Team 18’s truck.
Tander leant further into the speculation by linking the Toyota announcement to Team 18’s recent signing of Dick Johnson Racing driver Anton De Pasquale.
“I think it’s surprising that a pretty high-profile driver has left one of the Ford factory teams to go to what, at the time, seemed to be a small, two-car operation and maybe he had some intel that a big deal was in the wind,” he said.
“Maybe, ‘hey, if you come to our team, some good things are going to happen in the future…’.”
Team 18 currently runs a pair of Chevrolet Camaros for Reynolds and Mark Winterbottom, who is set to be replaced by De Pasquale next season.
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