Walkinshaw TWG driver Ryan Wood flew the flag for the marque with fourth on the grid and seventh in the race.
Both marked improvements from the Friday Toyota bests of 10th in qualifying and eighth at the flag, recorded by Brad Jones Racing’s Andre Heimgartner.
But it was Heimgartner’s Saturday fortunes that were the cause for concern – the #8 R&J Batteries Supra suffering engine failure on lap 9 of 52.
It’s the second failure suffered by a Supra on track after the test car dropped a valve at Winton last November.
While there were no immediate answers as to the cause of Heimgartner’s issue, the pool of oil behind the car when it stopped on track indicated major trauma.
The BJR crew set about changing the engine post-race, ready to take one of three spares available at the circuit.
“Not the best day but it’s all part of the journey,” surmised Heimgartner, who was placed 12th at the time of the failure.
“Unfortunately had some kind of motor issues. We were running pretty good there and in a decent spot and then the car went bang.”
Wood’s performance in the #2 Walkinshaw TWG Supra was meanwhile a source of encouragement, with the result coming despite losing several places with a poor start.
The Kiwi had earlier snuck into the Top 10 Shootout and was among those to benefit from changeable conditions in the one-at-a-time session.
“Today was pretty special, being a part of a milestone getting the Toyota Supra into the Top 10 Shootout was cool and to gain six positions on qualifying to start P4 for the race,” he said.
“As a whole, today was a very good day for us. We finished in the top 10 in the race and we were racing with the big dogs, still plenty of learning to come this weekend.”
Teammate Chaz Mostert also had an encouraging night, rising from 22nd on the grid to finish 11th.
“Today’s qualifying session didn’t show the pace we had in the car, we took a gamble to run early after the rain started but it wasn’t the right decision, how good is hindsight,” he said.
“The crew did a mega job tuning the cars up overnight, today’s package was a lot stronger than what we rolled out with at the beginning of the weekend and we don’t take that for granted.”
BJR’s remaining entries of Cam Hill and Macauley Jones were 13th and 23rd respectively, the latter three laps down following a trip to the garage to fix damage from an off-track excursion.
This article first appeared on Speedcafe.com, a sister site to MotorRacing.com.
