6. Toyota Wins In Third Race — After ramping up its commitment at the request of the ACO, amid the shock withdrawal of Peugeot, Toyota burst onto the WEC scene with impressive pace, briefly leading in the first race for its TS030 Hybrid at Le Mans. Two rounds later, the factory LMP1 entry notched its first victory in Brazil, the first of three wins in the final four races of the season for the Japanese manufacturer, which took the fight to juggernauts Audi, and won in convincing fashion. Had Toyota not missed the first two races of the season and not recorded a double DNF at Le Mans, they very well could have been walking away as World Champions in 2012.

7. Prototype Drivers Marred By Injuries — A series of high-speed accidents sent a number of prototype drivers to the hospital with broken backs, triggering concerns over the safety of LMP1 cars. Timo Bernhard suffered a fracture to his cervical vertebrae following a post-Sebring test in the new Audi R18 ultra, while OAK Racing’s Guillaume Moreau sustained a much more serious compression fracture that required emergency surgery following a shunt at the Le Mans Test Day in June. Just two weeks later, Toyota’s Anthony Davidson escaped with two fractured vertebrae following a high-flying accident in the 24 Hours of Le Mans after getting hit by a GTE-Am class Ferrari. Since the series of accidents, the FIA has opened investigations into finding possible solutions to this ever-increasing risk.

8. Michael Shank Wins Rolex 24 — 2012 kicked off in the best possible way for one of GRAND-AM’s stalwarts, as Michael Shank Racing captured a long-awaited first victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Ozz Negri and John Pew, full-season drivers of the Ohio-based team’s No. 60 Riley-Ford, teamed with open-wheel stars Justin Wilson and AJ Allmendinger for the historic win in the race’s 50th anniversary. While MSR would not revisit victory lane in GRAND-AM competition this year, the win was undoubtedly one of the major highlights of the sports car racing season.

9. FIA GT1/GT3 Championships Canned — Following low car counts in both series, promoters SRO announced mid-year that it has pulled the plug on the FIA GT1 World and GT3 European Championships, announcing a revised 2012 calendar to finish out the respective seasons. Series founder Stephane Ratel, instead, announced plans to create a new sprint-format GT international series, without the high sanctioning costs of the FIA, and to pair it with SRO’s burgeoning Blancpain Endurance Series to create a GT World Series title for 2013. The championship is set to kick off in Abu Dhabi in February.

10. GRAND-AM’s New Generation Cars — Seven months prior to the historic merger announcement, GRAND-AM made headlines of its own with new generation of machinery debuting at the 50th Rolex 24 at Daytona. New sleeker-looking Daytona Prototypes were in action, including five Corvette-bodied DPs, while GT3-based Audi R8s and Ferrari F458 Italias were part of the series’ extreme makeover in GT. Additional cars, including an Aston Martin Vantage V12 are expected to debut in 2013.

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