2020 SUBARU Motorsport Activities
Tokyo, January 10, 2020 — Subaru Corporation and its motorsport subsidiary Subaru Tecnica International Inc (STI)*1 announced an overview of Subaru motorsport activities for 2020.
SUPER GT Series
Subaru will compete in the GT300 class of the SUPER GT Series with the “SUBARU BRZ GT300” race car. The SUPER GT series is widely regarded as Japan’s top motorsport category.
The Team General Manager will be Makoto Shibuya of STI, while team operations will be managed by R&D SPORT*2. As with previous years, Takuto Iguchi and Hideki Yamauchi will be driving for the team.
The 2020 race car received refinements including improved reliability and thermal efficiency in Subaru’s signature Boxer engine, optimized balance between chassis design and aerodynamics as well as improved roadholding performance. With these refinements, Subaru aims to win the class championship.
Nürburgring 24-Hour Race
The 48th Nürburgring 24-Hour Race will take place in Germany on May 21-24, and Subaru will compete in the SP3T class*3 with the WRX STI NBR Challenge 2020 race car.
Hideharu Tatsumi of STI will lead the team as the Team General Manager and service technicians selected from Subaru dealers in Japan will provide onsite technical support as a part of team crew along with STI engineers. As for drivers, Carlo van Dam (Netherlands), Tim Schrick (Germany), Hideki Yamauchi (Japan) and Takuto Iguchi (Japan) who have achieved back-to-back class win last year, will be driving for the team again.
STI will develop the 2020 race car to realize the performance exceeding the class-winning 2019 race car with various enhancements including a full revision of aerodynamics, a new shark skin paint, stronger drive-train, optimized brake system, etc. With the enhanced overall performance, Subaru aims for third consecutive win in the SP3T class and best-ever overall ranking, above 18th recorded in 2019, for the team.
Japanese Rally Championship
Subaru supported drivers Toshihiro Arai (2018-2019 back-to-back champion in the top class*4), Norihiko Katsuta, Takuma Kamada and Hiroki Arai (2019 runner-up in the top class) will compete in 2020 Japanese Rally Championship with WRX STI rally cars.
Service technicians selected from Subaru dealers in Japan will provide maintenance support on site for the competition cars.
SUBARU BRZ One-Make Racing
STI will dispatch its technical service team to each round of GAZOO Racing 86/BRZ One-Make race and provide technical support to the participants driving the SUBARU BRZ.
*1: Located in Mitaka, Tokyo, the company manages motorsport activities of Subaru
*2: Located in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa
*3: Class for sub-2.0 liter turbocharged vehicles
*4: Class for over-2.5 liter vehicles (For vehicles with a turbocharger, the displacement is calculated as x 1.7)
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| SUBARU BRZ GT300 2019 | WRX STI NBR Challenge 2019 |
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