The GT Daytona (GTD) class in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship has been a manufacturer showcase this season with nine OEMs making at least one start, and debut wins from Acura and Mercedes-AMG in their first full season in the class, joining Porsche and Audi in the win column.
One manufacturer looking to add its name to that list is Lexus, which is amid its inaugural campaign with the RC F GT3 and has been knocking on the door of its first win, as evidenced by the most recent WeatherTech Championship race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
In that event, Sage Karam scored the TOTAL Pole Award in the No. 14 3GT Racing Lexus RC F GT3 and led for the entirety of his 47-minute stint before pitting from the class lead. Unfortunately for the team, a pair of drive-through penalties following that stop knocked the team out of victory contention before rebounding to finish fifth.
Karam’s co-driver, Hall of Famer Scott Pruett, couldn’t help but look at the positives coming out of Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
“We were plagued by some of our own issues,” he said. “However, I couldn’t be more proud of our guys on our recovery. Sage did a great job, the team did a great job getting everything turned back around and now that’s our best finish.”
It was the second consecutive top five for Lexus with the No. 15 RC F GT3 entry of Robert Alon, Jack Hawksworth and Austin Cindric finishing fifth one race earlier at Watkins Glen.
Lexus now will look to roll that momentum into its first podium, or possibly even its first win, in the GTD class this Saturday as the WeatherTech Championship heads for the 1.5-mile Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut. The two-hour, 40-minute Northeast Grand Prix will be televised live at 3 p.m. ET on FS2 and FOX Sports GO with FS2 authentication, with live coverage also available via IMSA Radio on IMSA.com, RadioLeMans.com and SiriusXM Radio.
One thing is for certain, Lexus will have plenty of speed after having one of its cars post one of three fastest race laps in each of the last three races, including Hawksworth, who posted the fastest lap in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.
“We’re inching there,” said Lexus Motorsports manager Mark Egger. “There’s no question about that. When the Lexus is on pole for how strong it is and when the (No.) 15 car was being worked on overnight and was P1 in the morning warmup [at CTMP], it says we know we’ve got a good car. We’ve just got to put all the pieces of the puzzle together to get to that podium and then the next step.”
Practice and qualifying for the Northeast Grand Prix are on tap for Friday, July 21, with the race slated for 3 p.m. ET Saturday, July 22. Also on this weekend’s card are the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge, which will feature a two-hour race Saturday morning, and the IMSA Prototype Challenge Presented by Mazda, which will have a single, 45-minute race on Saturday afternoon.
Tickets are available now at LimeRock.com.
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