In an announcement at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, California USA, Toyota revealed the GR Supra it will campaign next season, replacing the Camry which Toyota has competed with in Funny Car competition since 2012.

Prior to the Camry, the Toyota Celica and Toyota Solara were run. The 2021 season marked the 20th anniversary of Toyota’s official involvement in NHRA with competitors in both Top Fuel and Funny Car.

“After 10 years of fielding the Camry in NHRA Funny Car competition it’s really exciting for us to be moving to the GR Supra and ultimately the next generation of Funny Cars for NHRA,” said Paul Doleshal, group manager of motorsports for Toyota Motor North America.

“Our team at TRD (Toyota Racing Development) along with the design team at Calty worked hard to incorporate as many features from the production GR Supra into the Funny Car that J.R. Todd and Alexis DeJoria will drive in 2022.”

Gallery: NHRA Toyota GR Supra Funny Car

Toyota’s commitment to race vehicles that closely resemble production vehicles continues with this GR Supra. With the new body on the Funny Car for 2022, it marks the most significant styling characteristics of any previous Funny Car.

In addition to the augmented styling characteristics of the new GR Supra Funny Car, safety enhancements have also been made during the development of the new car. These include giving the driver more visibility while sitting behind the wheel and adding more room around their helmets along with additional safety foam in the driver’s cockpit of the GR Supra.

TRD worked closely with Toyota Champion Funny Car driver, J.R. Todd, on many of the safety enhancements during the nearly two-year development process.

“It’s been a really unique experience getting to work with the engineers at TRD on the new GR Supra Funny Car,” said Todd, who competes with Kalitta Motorsports. “To be a part of the work to try to make these cars as safe as possible for us as drivers means a lot to me.

“We all worked together on some of the issues we’ve faced for some time including visibility. That said, I’ve had some big moments in my DHL Toyota Camry including my first US Nationals win and championship.”

Toyota drivers have won 137 Top Fuel and 43 Funny Car races along with six Top Fuel and three Funny Car championships during its tenure in the series.