Lexus in motorsport 2019

[gdh300]

Lexus are back in action today at the VIR in the IMSA Weathertech chapionship. The two RC-Fs have qualified P2 and P3 so should be in good position for the 2h40m race. And it is just the GTLM and GTD cars taking part, so perhaps a bit more opportunity to see the AIM Vasser Sullivan run cars.

Usual drill for streaming at IMSA.tv, Race starts at 1.35pm local time, and I reckon they are five hours behind the UK in Virginia. 

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It's been a while but Lexus are racing in Europe again this weekend as the Blancpain GT World Challenge returns with two one-hour races at the Nurburgring (sadly confined to just the rather ho-hum GP circuit). Car 23 will be in the hands of Aurélien Panis and jack Hawksworth, again the sole RC-F in the field.  

The first race is today at 1430 local time, the second tommorow, also at 1430. Qualifying is this morning, and is live as I post on the Blancpain YouTube channel.

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A busy weekend of Lexus action ahead.

In Japan, it is the Autopolis 300km, with Lexus on a bit of a winning streak at the moment in SuperGT (kiss of death!). Streaming should be available on motorsport.tv if you are up early on Sunday morning. 

Meanwhile, at the Hungaroring, Blancpain has another double-race weekend with one hour races both today and tomorrow. Streaming will be on YouTube here, live timing is available here. Qualifying is a little later this morning. A single RC-F again this weekend, but at least the brilliant jack Hawksworth is behind the wheel. It'll be a struggle at the tight and twisty Hungaroring for the Lexus, which is bound to favour the mid-engined cars. 

Good luck, Lexus! 

[gdh300]

It's the penultimate round of the IMSA Weathertech series this weekend. THE AIM Vasser Sullivan RC-Fs will be competing in the 2h 40m race on Sunday at Laguna Seca, streaming available at imsa.tv. The #14 car will be in the familiar DayGlo yellow and black colour scheme, but the #12 is running a less obvious scheme, I guess for the remainder of the season. Qualifying is today (Saturday) and the race tomorrow. California of course, so quite a few hours behind the UK. I've even read some of the course cars are Lexus...

[gdh300]

It must be all downhill to Christmas now, as the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup has its final race of 2019 today, at Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona. Qualifying (3x 15mins) starts at 0730 local time, and the race 3 hours) at 1500 local time. Live streaming and timing is available here.

It's been a very low key season for Lexus, a long way from the glorious win at Paul Ricard last year for the Emil Frey run operation. If the RC-F disappeared next season from Blancpain, I'f not be at all surprised. 

[gdh300]

The 2019 Weathertech Sportscar series reaches its final round today with the 'Petit LeMans' at Road Atlanta. This is a ten hour race starting at 12.05 local time. Streaming should be available (outside the US) on imsa.tv.

It's not been going so well recently for the two RC-Fs, so the AIM Vasser Sullivan team might be grateful for the close of their first season running the Lexus! 

[gdh300]

Sadly, this weekend sees the last race of 2019 SuperGT season. And with that, the last competitive run of the LC500 in GT500 guise as next year, the Toyota empire will be represented in the top category by a Supra bodied variant. But Lexus do have a good chance of walking away with the big prize this year. as you can read here. Live streaming from Motegi will be available here. You will have a final chance to see the LC500s in action at the DTM/SuperGT mash-up race over the weekend of 23/24 November, when hopefully Japan will triumph over the Germans! 

[gdh300]

On 11/1/2019 at 10:21 PM, gdh300 said:

Sadly, this weekend sees the last race of 2019 SuperGT season. And with that, the last competitive run of the LC500 in GT500 guise as next year, the Toyota empire will be represented in the top category by a Supra bodied variant. But Lexus do have a good chance of walking away with the big prize this year. as you can read here. Live streaming from Motegi will be available here. You will have a final chance to see the LC500s in action at the DTM/SuperGT mash-up race over the weekend of 23/24 November, when hopefully Japan will triumph over the Germans! 

SPOILERS!

Excellent for Lexus, with the LC500 going out on a high as the #6 Wako’s car take the SuperGT crown.  

As you might have seen from my previous posts, the Motegi race was the swan sing for the LC500 in SuperGT. Its GT500 spec underpinnings for 2020 will be clothed in Supra shell. Strange the ways of the marketing people, replacing a car still in the first flush of production. 

[gdh300]

Apologies, a bit too late with this particular post.

Although SuperGT has concluded for 2019 (see my previous post), there are this weekend two 'Dream Races' at Fuji Speedway. These will see the final, final outing for the Lexus LC500s as the Japanese SuperGT field take on a healthy slice of the German DTM Series. Essentially, the two series run to the same specification nowadays (they did't a couple of years ago, but DTM do use silly DRS albeit disabled for these races), so it should be a competitive  show. As I write the first race has already been run, but should you be at a loose-end, it is available to catch-up here. The second race is tomorrow, early doors for us in the UK of course, but will be available on MotorsportTV as well. Good luck, Lexus!

By the way, no Lexus involvement but if you do want a bit more motorsport, the Kyalami 9hrs race will be streamed on GT World YouTube channel from 1030 today.