Honda is increasing its commitment to racing in 2012 by officially sponsoring teams entering the Pirelli World Challenge thanks to growing interest in both the U.S. and Canada.

Honda Performance Development (HPD) provides components and support to teams ranging from amateur to professional levels. In the past the company supported teams in the Grand-Am Continental Tire Challenge Series, but will move into the Sports Car Club of America’s World Challenge and B-Spec categories as well.

“With the development of the 2012 Honda Civic Si for Touring Car racing and the introduction of B-Spec for both professional and club racing, it’s been a very busy off-season for HPD,” said Lee Niffenegger, HPD senior engineer responsible for production-based racing.

“There has been a definite upsurge in interest from both the U.S. and Canada for this year, and we’re looking forward to exciting seasons in Grand-Am, World Challenge and Canadian Touring Cars,” he said.

According to Honda, the Civic Si is the car of choice this year with at least five teams taking part in the 14-race schedule in the World Challenge Touring Car class. Cars that run these races range from being almost factory stock to heavily modified based on the series. World Challenge Touring Car entrants run on the less modified end of that spectrum.

In the B-Spec segment, Honda will race their Fit cars, which represents and inexpensive, entry-level option for racers to get into the sport.

Compass360, a Toronto-based racing team has long used Hondas to compete in the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) and Gand Am series and claimed first place in the 2010 Canadian Touring Car Championship for Honda.

This year Compass360 will also enter the World Challenge for Honda with a multi-car effort in the SCCA Pirelli World Challenge and Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge.

GALLERY: Compass360 Civic Si

A grid of 58 vehicles at the 50th anniversary of the Rolex 24 at Daytona made this year’s event one of the most competitive races in the history of the franchise. It was so competitive, in fact, NASCAR star racing driver AJ Allmendinger of the Michael Shank Racing #60 Ford/Riley car only beat Starworks Motorsport’s pole-sitter Ryan Dalziel by 5.198 seconds after 24 hours of heated competition.

After Allmendinger had won the Rolex 24, he described his last stint as, “the most fun three hours of racing I’ve ever done.”

Struggling for a race win at the Rolex 24 ever since 2004, Michael Shank Racing’s remarkable victory got even sweeter when its second Daytona Prototype crossed the line to clinch third and close out the podium. However, the battle between Allmendinger and Dalziel in their last stint was so relentless that the Michael Shank No. 6 sister car driven by Felipe Nasr couldn’t stay with the battle and fell back, finishing the race almost a minute behind. The top-three finishers were all Ford/Riley prototypes.

The #60 Michael Shank Racing Ford Riley was brought to the checkered flag by A.J. Allmendinger and co-drivers Justin Wilson, John Pew and Oswaldo Negri Jr. Starwork’s impressive 2nd place finish was thanks to the valiant driving performed by Ryan Dalziel and co-drivers Enzo Potolicchio, Lucas Luhr, Allan McNish and Alex Popow. Finally, in third place, the sister Michael Shank car was driven by Felipe Nasr, Michael McDowell, Jorge Goncalvez and Gustavo Yacaman.

British luxury sports car brand Aston Martin will make its debut in the Grand-Am series on January 27th, as it prepares to take part in the 2012 Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge (CTSCC), which will be held at the Daytona International Speedway.

For its return to North American racing, Aston Martin has teamed up with Multimatic Motorsports, which are based in Toronto, Canada. The lead car in this endurance race will be driven by Scott Maxwell and Joe Foster, while the second car will be piloted by Hollywood star Patrick Dempsey, who has proven over the years that he is a very accomplished racing driver. For this inaugural event, Dempsey will be teamed-up with Chriss Porritt, Aston Martin’s chief engineer, who is very experienced with the Vantage GT4.

The first round of the CTSCC will be run in support of the 50th running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona, and this support race will run for two and a half hours, with a mandatory driver change. The Aston Martin team will be competiting in the Grand Sport Category, which features six and eight cylinder cars. Aston’s main rival will most certainly be the Audi R8 LMS, which is in the same class.

With experienced drivers and the combined talents of Aston Martin and Multimatic Motorsports, this team will certainly be among the favorites to take the race win. We only have to wait a few days to find out.

The Ford Focus ST-R will make its racing debut at Daytona International Speedway this coming Friday in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge ST class. Although the car resembles the stock Ford Focus, it has been purposefully designed by Ford Racing to be a track ready car.

The Focus ST-R will feature Ford’s 2.0L Ecoboost engine, a full FIA approved roll cage, updated brakes and track-tuned suspension to set it apart from the stock Focus and Focus ST models. The ST-R was developed by a partnership between Ford Racing and Multimatic Motorsports, who have a history together developing the performance line of Mustangs. “Having delivered the successful Mustang FR500C and Boss 302R production-based race cars, we have a well-established process with how to develop such cars with Ford Racing. We employ the same approach for each – we start with the production car and go through each subsystem on the car and change what is needed (and allowed) to provide a competitive race car,” said Larry Holt, the team principal at Multimatic Motorsports.

The Focus ST-R joins quite a few turnkey ready racers from Ford, it stands along side the likes of the Mustang FR500C, Mustang FR500S, Mustang Cobra Jet, Boss 302R and Boss 302S, all of which are available to order for the professional racer and amateur enthusiast alike. The director of Ford racing, Jamie Allison said “People who buy one will get a fully prepared race car that will only need communications equipment and the customer’s decals to go racing. Because of this, we’ve already had significant interest in this vehicle from numerous established race teams.”

Ford is making a push into the racing world with the Fusion running in NASCAR and the RallyCross racing Fiesta, with the Focus ST-R being the newest addition to Ford’s strategy to support motor sports development.

Watch a video here of the Ford ST-R out on the track.

Derived from the  highly successful GT3 class Le Mans sports racer that has won some 110 races and 15 championship titles across the pond, Audi‘s new R8 Grand Am has successfully completed its testing program and is now virtually ready to compete in the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car series for 2012, with the first cars slated to be made available to customers in January.

Given the different regulations between LMS and the Grand Am series, in order to compete in the latter, the R8 racer underwent some significant modifications, notably revised aerodynamic aids, including a smaller front splitter, slimmer rear wing and the adoption of a flat front undertray section. The reduced downforce also required changes to the suspension settings with re-valved shocks and softer springs, along with a slight increase ride height. In addition, as per Grand Am regulations, the European car’s traction control and ABS systems must also be deactivated.

Audi wrapped up testing of the R8 Grand Am car this past week at Daytona International Speedway in prepration for the Rolex 24 hours series opener at the circuit on January 28/29th.

So far, one official team has been confirmed as an R8 Grand Am customer for 2012, APR Motorsport based in Opelika, Alabama, which will run cars at Daytona and other races with its own team of drivers. Audi has a goal of providing cars to a maximum of four teams next year and says that with the APR deal confirmed, negotiations with three others are currently in the final stages.

Ferrari confirmed the debut of their 458 Grand Am would happen at this year’s Daytona 24 Hours, set to begin on January 26th at Florida’s Daytona International Speedway. Derived from the GT3 variant of the 458, the Grand Am race car was developed in collaboration with Michelotto and aimed at the American series.

For the Daytona 24 Hours race, Ferrari has their version of a dream team as a crew. Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip will be alongside Travis Pastrana, and endurance race veterans Rui Aguas and Robert Kauffman. Hopefully Ferrari will have better luck than all those other “dream sports teams” like the Philadelphia Eagles and Miami Heat. They’re clearly itching for a victory.

GALLERY: Ferrari 458 Grand Am

Set to compete in the 2012 Grand-Am Racing Series and making its debut at the upcoming Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona Race, Chevrolet’s Corvette Daytona Prototype was caught testing at Daytona and there’s plenty of videos showing what it can do.

The footage includes some fan-shot videos that really show off what the car is all about and loud its V8 rumble. Four different teams will be campaigning the new Corvette Daytona, and Chevrolet hopes that one of them will claim the 24 Hours of Daytona Race, where the last time a Corvette has won was back in 2001 with a C5-R.

Check out the videos after the break.

GALLERY: Corvette Daytona Prototype

[Source: Inside Line]

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The very first Audi R8 LMS race car to compete in America has been announced. APR Motorsport will be the first team to campaign the special Audi race car during the 50th Anniversary of the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January.

APR Motorsports, a division of the famed Audi tuning shop, is becoming known for its “firsts”, entering the new B8 designation Audi S4 in the GRAND-AM Continental Tire Challenge last seasons.

APR Motorsports and Audi go way back. Stephen Hoods, the President and CEO of APR, used to be an aspiring racing driver and is a long time Audi enthusiast who competed in the Motorola Cup, or what used to be the GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge.

While this will be the first Audi R8 LMS built for the Rolex Series, earlier examples of the race car have already made appearances in Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America, winning more than a 100 victories along the way. No doubt, expectations for APR in the upcoming season will be high.

GALLERY: APR Motorsport Audi R8 LMS

Roughly 24 hours after renderings of the C7 Corvette surfaced, Chevrolet has unveiled a Corvette of a different sort, one meant for competition use only.

The Chevrolet Corvette Daytona Prototype will compete in the Grand-Am Racing series in 2012 and make its debut at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona race. Four teams will run the cars, including the No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Racing,  the No. 10 SunTrust Racing, the No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing, and the No. 5 and No. 9 Action Express Racing teams. The last time a Corvette won Daytona was in 2001 with a C5-R.

Hit the jump to read the press release below

Gallery: Chevrolet Corvette Daytona Prototype

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Whether you’re an individual looking for a fun track toy, or a race team looking for a competitive platform, Nissan now has something for you. Based on the street-legal Z car, the new 370Z NISMO RC race car is now for sale and is already certified for use in the SCCA World Challenge GTS class, as well as any FIA GT4 class race series. In addition, Nissan claims that with minor changes the car can be adapted for use in the Grand Am Continental Tire Challenge GS class.

Weighing just 2,954 lbs the race car gets a full NISMO exhaust and NISMO tuned ECO, as well as a NISMO clutch, flywheel and Recaro racing seats. There’s also a roll cage, fire extinguisher, Sparco steering wheel and carbon-fiber switch panel.. The factory 3.7-liter V6 engine has been massaged slightly to deliver 355-hp and 276 lb-ft of torque.

But the best part? Transmission and differential coolers so the car doesn’t overheat and go into limp mode like the street car.

Interested parties can contact Nissan’s motorsports division at (888) 833-3225 or email nmc.race@nissan-usa.com.

GALLERY: Nissan 370Z NISMO RC Race Car