TOP 5 GT DRIVERS:

5. John Edwards — Teamed with Liddell, the open-wheel turned sports car star continued to impress, with wins at the Six Hours of the Glen, Montreal and Lime Rock, all coming after missing two early season races due to a torn ACL. If for not the dominant form of the Ferrari and his skiing mishap, Liddell and Edwards could very well have been joint GT champs.

4. Jeff Segal — The 2012 GT class champion enjoyed a dominant year with eight podiums in 13 races, including three wins, all with Pro-Am racer Emil Assentato. As the lone full-season Ferrari 458, the AIM Autosport Team FXDD squad appeared to have a distinct advantage all season, in what almost looked to be a walk in the park rather than a hard-fought fight with the other makes.

3. Andy Lally — Returning to Rolex Series competition after a stint in NASCAR, Lally didn’t waste any time getting back up to speed in the GT ranks. A year highlighted by the highs of class wins at the Rolex 24 and Indianapolis, were met with the lows of multiple DNFs through the middle part of the year, which dropped he and co-driver John Potter out of the title race.

2. Dane Cameron — One of America’s rising stars again showed his strength in 2012, leading the underdog Team Sahlen’s Mazda outfit to three podiums, including the team’s first GT class victory at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Teamed with Wayne Nonnamaker, the duo impressed on more than one occasion, though, and ended the season sixth in the championship, ahead of some big names.

1. Robin Liddell — Like Dalziel, Liddell came up short on the GT championship but put in an impressive performance at the wheel of Stevenson Motorsports’ Camaro GT.R. Having earned three victories and seven podium finishes, the Scotsman enjoyed a rather consistent season, but was outdone by the new Ferrari 458, which some would say arguably had a performance advantage over the competition.

TOP GT AM DRIVER:

Emil Assentato — Having bagged his second GT class championship with three wins and eight podiums, the 63-year-old businessman was clearly in a league of his own in 2012. While the Ferrari may have been “hooked up” on more occasions than none, Assentato still had to pedal the Prancing Horse and did a mightily fine job for the majority of the season, proof by his multiple front-row starts.

John Dagys is SPEED.com’s Sportscar Racing Reporter, focusing on all major domestic and international championships. You can follow him on Twitter @johndagys or email him at