3GT Racing drivers Jack Hawksworth and Scott Pruett finished 13th in the GTD class behind the wheel of the No. 15 Lexus RC F GT3 in Sunday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Laguna Seca.
The No. 15 Lexus went off course into a sand trap in turn six of the 11-turn road course during the final warmup prior to the race, and the team was able to fix the front end damage on the RC F GT3 in time to compete in the event.
The No. 14 RC F GT3 ended the day with a 14th-place result for drivers Sage Karam and Robert Alon at the 2.238-mile California road course.
Karam started the two hour and 40 minute event fifth in class, moving up to as high as second place, however the No. 14 had an incident during a pit stop and went a lap down for the remainder of the race.
The debut season of the Lexus RC F GT3 competing in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship concludes at the season-finale, 10-hour endurance race at Road Atlanta on Saturday, October 7.
Lexus Racing Quotes
JACK HAWKSWORTH, No. 15 Lexus RC F GT3
How would you evaluate your race today?
“I just really struggled for speed today. I couldn’t get, for whatever reason, whether it was me or it was the car or maybe a combination I just couldn’t get the speed today and I don’t really know what the answer is. It was just a tough day. We’ll look at it, figure it out and then come back to Road Atlanta which is my favorite track. This is the first race all year really where we didn’t have the speed. It’s just one of those things where we will look at it, analyze it, figure out what went wrong and make it right the next race which will be a very good track for myself and the Lexus RC F GT3. Scott did a great job in the first stint and a great job in qualifying. The guys did a good job this morning so it’s just a shame. We’ll get them at the next one.”
SCOTT PRUETT, No. 15 Lexus RC F GT3
How was your stint in the Lexus RC F GT3 today?
“The start of the race was pretty solid. The 14 and 15 RC F GT3s were running in the top five and just having a solid run and things were going well. Then we came in and did a driver change and got things going again. Jack (Hawksworth) jumped in and I’m not sure what happened after that. Jack just really struggled with the car looking for grip getting around and unfortunately we just kind of slid back and certainly finished further back than we expected. Our pace was reasonable when I was in our Lexus and I was running competitive times so the guys can take a look and see what they can find.”
SAGE KARAM, No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3
Can you talk about your race today?
“I had a great first stint. I went from fifth to second and I had our Lexus in a great position. On the first lap, I made up a position in turn one and then another position in turn four so I was up to third and then another car had to pit for damage so I was able to move up to second and run our RC F GT3 there. I was just kind of cruising around and saving my tires as best as I could. Everybody seemed to be struggling with tire wear. It was basically who could keep their tires under them the longest so I just tried to pace myself. I felt pretty good, but lost the tires there a little bit at the end. I did everything I thought I could do during that first stint and I was very pleased. After we got Rob (Alon) in the car unfortunately the yellow flag came out at the worst time possible – about two minutes before his drive time was up –and we knew we were going to go to the back anyway. But, then we had some trouble in the pits and we ended up going a lap down and we weren’t able to recover from that. It was a shame because I felt like we had a good opportunity today. It turned into a little bit of a fuel race today and at VIR I did a lot of fuel saving, so I learned a lot about how to save fuel in our RC F GT3. I felt like if we had to save fuel I think we could’ve been there at the end and been competitive. We just need everything to go right and we’ll be there at the end.”
ROBERT ALON, No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3
Can you talk about your time in the Lexus RC F GT3 today?
“We had a good race and we didn’t get the result. Sage (Karam) drove really, really well and brought the car up from fifth to third on the first lap and then to second before I took over in the second stint. From there, I had a good first stint. I think I brought it in around fifth place when the caution came out. We were running pretty strong and then it all kind of went downhill from there when I came in for the pit stop. The car in the box behind us ran a little bit long basically and the 15 was in their box so there wasn’t enough room for me to fit in there, so I had to run a little bit diagonal and they had to push me back and it wasted a lot of time. Basically, it’s kind of what caused me to stall the car, because I tried to get going and I couldn’t get the car out of there. I made a mistake and kind of stalled while they were rolling me backwards and then after that we couldn’t get it started again and eventually we had to bump start it.”
Source. Toyota
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