Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. (FHI) and Subaru Tecnica International Inc. (STI) today announced an outline of SUBARU Motorsport activities for 2012.

SUPER GT Series
SUBARU, with its newly developed ‘SUBARU BRZ GT300’, will participate in the SUPER GT series, widely regarded as Japan’s top motorsport category. This new JAF GT vehicle has been built by STI under the supervision of Hideharu Tatsumi, Deputy General Manager of STI Motorsport Project Office, and bears the same FR layout as the base car. The BOXER turbo engine mounted on the front had been developed while it was used on the Legacy GT300 until last year. As in previous years, the team will be operated in conjunction with ‘R&D SPORT’ from Kanagawa led by Director Shinji Motojima. Tetsuya Yamano and Kouta Sasaki will be driving for the team which will be aiming to improve the car at an early stage to fight for class wins.

SUBARU Challenge Award
Following on from 2011, the ‘SUBARU Challenge Award’ will be offered, and prizes will be awarded to the top-three finishers of each event, as well as the season overall, as part of support from SUBARU for its customers who partake in the FIA Production Car Rally Championship (PWRC). The award gave a positive effect on SUBARU customers including those who finished first and second in the PWRC series ranking in 2011. This year, the total amount of prizes will be increased by 20% in the hope of further extending its consumer base.

Registration as a manufacturer in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge
SUBARU will once again register itself as a manufacturer in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) as it has been doing since 2010. This will enable its customers who enter the series to acquire points. Toshi Arai won the Production Cup in the IRC in 2011 driving a Group R4 WRX STI and SUBARU will be looking for back-to-back titles this year. In addition to Arai, SUBARU will be supporting Jarkko Nikara from Finland and Andreas Aigner from Austria in 2012.

Nürburgring 24-Hour Race
STI will take part in the Nürburgring 24-Hour Race as it has done since 2008 from 17 to 20 May with a vehicle whose performance has been enhanced from its base car - the S206 (four-door sedan), which is an STI Complete Car. This year, features from the S206 have been utilised and further weight saving has been realised in the vehicle which won the SP3T class in the 24-hour race in 2011. The car will be run in a short race in the VLN series in April at Nürburgring for settings to be made before it goes into the 24-hour final race on 19 and 20 May. Like last year, Hideharu Tatsumi will take the helm of team operations as team manager, in addition to the development of the car. As for team drivers, Toshihiro Yoshida, Kouta Sasaki both from Japan, Marcel Engels from Germany and Carlo van Dam from Holland have been the line-up since 2011. As in previous years, service personnel selected from SUBARU dealers will be dispatched to the race as part of the team crew.