Subaru Corporation and its motorsport subsidiary Subaru Tecnica International (STI) announced an overview of motorsport activities for 2022. With regards to sports car and endurance racing, Subaru and STI will prepare programmes for the Autobacs Super GT Series, the Super Taikyu Series Powered by Hankook, and the 50th running of the Nürburgring 24 Hour race.
Super GT
In 2021, Subaru won their first GT300 championship as a manufacturer in 25 years of competition. They will return for the 2022 season to support reigning champion team R&D Sport, fielding the second-generation Subaru BRZ GT300 race car based on the ZD8 BRZ.
Subaru’s Masahiro Ozawa will continue as the General Manager, and champion drivers Takuto Iguchi and Hideki Yamauchi will return for their eighth consecutive season as team mates representing Subaru and R&D Sport.
“The [BRZ] race car for 2022 incorporates refinements including increased power output and improved reliability in Subaru Boxer engine, optimized chassis design and aerodynamics as well as improved roadholding performance,” the manufacturer stated in their press release. “With these refinements, Subaru aims to win the second consecutive series championship.”
Iguchi and Yamauchi drove the new BRZ to a win and four podium finishes en route to the GT300 Drivers’ and Teams’ Championships, while Yamauchi individually took four pole positions in 2021.
Nürburgring 24 Hour Race
Subaru and STI plan to return to compete in the Nürburgring 24 Hour race for the first time since 2019, after the ongoing effects of the novel coronavirus pandemic forced them to abandon their participation in the last two years.
The Subaru WRX STI NBR Challenge race car will be driven by Carlo van Dam of the Netherlands and Tim Schrick of Germany, who were on the crew that won the SP3T class and finished 18th overall in STI’s last entry in 2019. 2005 GT300 Champion Kota Sasaki of Japan, and Marcel Lasee of Germany, return to the team with previous N24 class victories as Subaru drivers. The team will be led by General Manager Hideharu Tatsumi, and Team Manager Takuya Sawada.
“Compared to the 2021 race car, the 2022 car wears wider tires, has the body rigidity balance been reviewed and received body stiffening. With the adoption of an electric power steering on top of these, the team pursues even better performance than the class winning 2019 race car,” remarks Subaru.
Super Taikyu
As announced in November, Subaru will prepare a special version of their latest BRZ sports car powered by biomass-derived synthetic fuel, similar to the GR86 being prepared by Toyota and ROOKIE Racing.
The BRZ that will compete in the ST-Q class of Super Taikyu will be prepared by members of the Subaru Driving Academy human resources initiative, and by Subaru employees from the Subaru Engineering Division, working together to develop and build this production-based race car with new technology.
Subaru’s championship winning Super GT drivers Iguchi and Yamauchi will feature in the driving lineup, alongside Subaru engineer Koichi Hirota.
Images courtesy of Subaru Corporation
