The old saying, “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” may not be as true in the United States as it once was, but it’s still very much the case in Japan. If you’re Subaru, and you’re looking to quickly establish a performance reputation for your upcoming BRZ sport coupe, there’s no better place to do so than the Japanese Super GT series.

Roughly the equivalent of Germany’s Touring Car series, Super GT showcases purpose-built race cars, based on production models, running wheel to wheel on road courses in Japan and Malaysia. The cars are divided into two classes, GT500 (those having up to 500 horsepower) and GT300 (those having up to 300 horsepower) which run simultaneously but are scored separately.

Subaru has campaigned a Legacy sedan in GT300 competition since 2009, but the automaker’s own motorsport website is reporting a change for the 2012 season. To draw attention to its upcoming Subaru BRZ coupe, Subaru and STI will run a BRZ in the GT300 class during the 2012 Super GT season.

Subaru is showing a BRZ STI concept at this week's 2011 Los Angeles Auto Show, but the production Subaru BRZ and Toyota FT-86 (or Scion FR-S) are set to be revealed at this month's 2011 Tokyo Motor Show. Expect a full report from Subaru on its motorsport plans for the BRZ then, and don’t be surprised if Toyota follows suit with a racing effort of its own.

You can find our complete coverage of this year’s Tokyo Motor Show here.