TOYOTA Racing can confirm it has expanded its plans for the 2012 season and has entered the FIA World Endurance Championship.

It was originally planned to enter only selected races, which would have fallen short of the number required to be considered a full-time entrant but due to the unexpected changes faced by the FIA World Endurance Championship, that plan has been revised.

The 24 hour race in Daytona remains Porsche territory: At the cliff-hanger 50th anniversary of the long distance classic in Florida/USA, the Zuffenhausen sports car manufacturer celebrated a convincing triple triumph in the GT class against strong opposition from the likes of Audi, BMW, Corvette and Ferrari. Victory went to Porsche works driver Richard Lietz (Austria) in the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup fielded by Magnus Racing with teammates René Rast (Germany) as well as Americans Andy Lally and John Potter. After a thrilling finale in front of record crowds on the Daytona International Speedway, Lietz saw the flag 9.412 seconds ahead of his factory pilot colleague Wolf Henzler. The previous year's winner from Germany shared the cockpit of TRG Racing's Porsche 911 GT3 Cup with Jeroen Bleekemolen (Netherlands), Marc Goossens (Belgium), Spencer Pumpelly (USA) and Steven Bertheau (USA). Scoring third place was Porsche works driver Marc Lieb (Germany) with Americans Hurley Haywood, Leh Keen and Andrew Davis in the legendary starting number 59 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup run by the Daytona-winning squad Brumos Racing.

"Today we all witnessed why Daytona is one of the world's most fascinating races," said Wolfgang Hatz, Board Member for Research and Development at Porsche AG. "For me that was a 24 hour sprint. The front-runners were incredibly close right to the flag. I'm very pleased to see that we had virtually no technical problems with our cars and the teams and drivers did such a magnificent job under difficult conditions. Congratulations and well done to you all."

TOYOTA Racing today completed a successful first full test of the new TS030 HYBRID car which will compete in the LMP1 category in selected races of the FIA World Endurance Championship. The team spent three days at the Paul Ricard circuit in southern France for the first full test of the TS030 HYBRID, following a three-day roll-out at the same circuit earlier this month.

Using the a configuration of the track which includes the complete Mistral Straight, all three race drivers - Alex Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Kazuki Nakajima - had the opportunity to test the new car, which features the THS-R (TOYOTA HYBRID System - Racing) powertrain.

Setting the fastest time in qualifying, Porsche pilot Andrew Davis (USA) secured pole position in the strongly-supported GT class at the Daytona 24 Hours. For the 50th anniversary of the long-distance classic in Florida/USA, he shares the cockpit of the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup fielded by the winning Brumos Racing squad with Porsche works driver Marc Lieb (Germany) and American Hurley Haywood. With five overall wins and six class victories, Haywood is the most successful pilot in the history of this race. On board the car with the legendary starting number 59 is Leh Keen (USA) as the fourth driver.

"The Brumos team managed to get me out on the track before any of the others. With a field of 46 cars, this would normally be a huge advantage," said Andrew Davis, who relegated Jeff Segal (USA) in the Ferrari to the second grid spot. "But my first lap wasn't so good. I actually set the top time towards the end of the session. My Porsche was prepared perfectly."