The 2026 Supercars’ championship fires into action this weekend at Sydney Motorsport Park and, for the first time in years, the off-season storylines were real.
The big story has been the arrival of Toyota on the grid, followed by reshuffled power structures and a format designed to keep the points race alive all season.
The GR Supra debuts as the category’s third Gen3 shape, joining the Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang. A third manufacturer shifts the competitive maths, complicates the parity picture and gives the championship a fresh look for sponsors and fans who’ve been watching a two-brand contest for the past few years.
Reigning series champion Chaz Mostert starts the season with the No 1 plate on a Toyota for Walkinshaw’s rebadged operation, making him the face of the manufacturer’s debut in Supercars. That’s a lot of weight on one car. If Mostert’s 2025 campaign demonstrated anything, it’s that he’s the best closer in the business. He’s fast when the championship tightens and composed when races turn physical.
His biggest rival this year will be Broc Feeney. He was the quickest driver in the field for long stretches of last season, but couldn’t convert pace into a title despite 14 wins and 19 pole positions. Feeney missed out on the crown in heartbreaking fashion at Adelaide, spluttering home with engine issues after being turned around by Mostert’s teammate Ryan Wood.
There will be no love lost between the two Aussie and Kiwi drivers, as was evident at the recent pre-season launch event in Sydney. Feeney admitted he was “angrier than ever” and claimed there was “bad blood” over the clash with Wood.
“To be honest, looking back on it, we were deserving to be the champion last year. I’m extremely proud of what we did. I mean, we won 14 races, we got 19 pole positions. I don’t think anyone can take away that from us from last year.
“So albeit I don’t have the trophy with me, I feel like we did everything to deserve a trophy. There’s no reason why we can’t fight back and go again this year.”
However, Wood, the young Kiwi star, claimed he was “the best prepared I’ve ever been” after a string of strong performances in the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy in New Zealand last month.
Wood more than held his own against some of the brightest prospects on the road to Formula One, including former McLaren junior Ugo Ugochukwu and recently signed Audi junior Freddie Slater.
He claimed a win in the Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy at Taupō and a further two podium finishes to end fifth in the standings.
The other major talking point is Triple Eight’s jumping ship from Chevrolet to the Ford Mustang. When one of the sport’s most professionally run organisations commits to a change of manufacturer relationship, people take notice.
This weekend’s format is straightforward, with one race a day across the three days, but the broader season structure is different this year. The championship is divided into defined phases: a Sprint Cup, an Enduro Cup and a Finals Series. The message the organisers are hoping to get across is that there is no quiet mid-season stretch in which points gaps can quietly grow.
Every round is a potentially important scoring event, designed to keep the championship alive as long as possible. In Sydney last year, Cam Waters was the dominant force, and he arrives this weekend as a genuine top-five championship threat.
For New Zealand fans, this season carries real interest. Matt Payne has made the step from promising prospect to legitimate title contender. The composure he’s shown under pressure, particularly at Taupō last year when winning the Jason Richards Memorial trophy on home soil, suggests he’s a driver who is ready to mount a serious title campaign.
Wood enters 2026 with Toyota connections and the expectation of a breakout season, and is regarded in the paddock as one of the fastest drivers on the grid.
Don’t rule out Andre Heimgartner, who remains the kind of operator who can work a messy race into a podium finish when the field spreads out.
The big caveat surrounding Toyota’s debut is parity. Every new Gen3 car has arrived under intense scrutiny about how quickly it settles into the performance window. If the Supra is immediately competitive, there will be much wringing of hands and dark mutterings. If it struggles, the conversation becomes one about catch-up timelines and engineering resources. Either way, testing is just testing, and this race weekend is going to be a doozy to see what happens when the red mist descends and the elbows are out.
The five to watch will be Mostert, Feeney, Will Brown, Waters and Payne, with Wood hoping to be the one to upset the applecart.