SUBARU unveiled details of its 2012 team. Enthused to bring in the first win for the new car in spotlight.
On January 13th, SUBARU(Fuji Heavy Industries) and STI(Subaru Technica International) announced the detail of their motorsports activities in 2012 season at the venue of Tokyo Auto Salon. For SUEPR GT, the manufacturer will field new SUBARU BRZ developed by STI in the GT300 class for the 2012 season in place of LEGACY B4, which was used until last season.
The machine is equipped with a Boxer(horizontally-opposed) engine and FR(front engine, rear-wheel drive) layout, which is the same power-train layout as its based vehicle BRZ. SUBARU is looking straight ahead for a top place finish as well as a win by fine tuning even further its Boxer engine, which brought in 3 SUPER GT wins to the manufacturer in its exploration in the GT300 class since 2009, and maturing the new BRZ machine in early stage of the season.
Looking into team organization, R&D SPORT will continue to take on the maintenance and team operation. No change is seen in the drivers' line-up as Tetsuya Yamano and Kota Sasaki(in above photo), who were integral part of development of LEGACY B4 as well as the 3 wins, remain with the team to take the wheel of new car. Team will challenge a huge goal of 2012, "Early win," with the staff that know SUPER GT inside out.
Yamano, the team leader who also is involved with development of BRZ, revealed his great expectation for upcoming season, "I am very excited to be able to compete in the series with a car that is drawing attention from all over the world, SUBARU's new 'BRZ.' When I drove the production model of BRZ, I thought I encountered an exciting sports car for the first time in many years. But, in terms of developing a race car, it is a start from a scratch. Of course, there are rivals too, so I think there will be a lot of challenges ahead. Nevertheless, team staff and drivers are the same from LEGACY B4. I think we can bring in a good result early. Middle of the season is where we should aim to achieve the goal especially considering the team has been performing well at the Round 5 Suzuka with two straight wins."
SUBARU and STI continue to challenge the International rally and the 24 Hours Nurburgring in addition to SUPER GT's GT300 class in 2012 season.
Tetsuya Yamano and Kota Sasaki with their sweetheart of 2012, "BRZ GT300".
New 2012 BRZ and 2-time winner LEGACY B4 are displayed side-by-side at SUBARU/STI booth of Tokyo Auto Salon.
