WC Vision and SCCA Pro Racing confirmed the eighth venue that will complete the 2012 Pirelli World Challenge Championships campaign. The season opener is scheduled for March 23-25 on the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla.
This is the third straight year the Pirelli World Challenge will begin its race season in Florida with a big doubleheader weekend as part of the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg IZOD IndyCar event. Round 1 is scheduled for Saturday, while Round 2 is on Sunday.
The 2012 season will mark the 23rd consecutive year of one of North America's top professional series for production-based sports cars. For the upcoming season, the series will have a new class, Touring Car B-Spec (TCB). The new class will run at three of the eight event weekends (Miller, Mosport and Infineon) for a total of nine races. During those three event weekends, Touring Car (TC) and Touring Car B-Spec will run separate races from the GT and GTS fields. In 2012, GT and GTS classes will compete in a total of 12 races, Touring Car 14.
2012 Pirelli World Challenge schedule:
March 23-25, streets of St. Petersburg (with IndyCar). St. Petersburg, Fla. (Rounds 1 and 2: GT, GTS and TC)
April 13-15, streets of Long Beach (with IndyCar/ALMS). Long Beach, Calif. (Round 3: GT, GTS)
April 27-29, Miller Motorsports Park (co-headliner, NASCAR West). Tooele, Utah (Round 4: GT, GTS; Rounds 3, 4, 5: TC; Rounds 1, 2, 3: TCB)
May 10-12, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca (with ALMS). Monterey, Calif. (Round 5: GT, GTS; Round 6: TC)
June 1-3, Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix, (with IndyCar/GA Rolex). Detroit, Mich. (Rounds 6, 7: GT, GTS)
June 22-24, Mosport International Raceway (Pirelli World Challenge Headliner). Bowmanville, Ont., CANADA. (Rounds 8, 9: GT, GTS; Rounds 7, 8, 9: TC; Rounds 4, 5, 6: TCB)
Aug. 3-5, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (with IndyCar/ALMS). Lexington, Ohio (Rounds 10, 11: GT, GTS; Rounds 10, 11: TC)
Aug. 24-26, Infineon Raceway (with IndyCar). Sonoma, Calif. (Round 12: GT, GTS; Rounds 12, 13, 14: TC; Rounds 7, 8, 9: TCB)