2019 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Series, Round 1
Rolex 24 At Daytona

The 24 hours at Daytona is one of the foremost endurance races in the United States, dating back to the 1960s, and in recent years it has served as the first race in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The Florida circuit, in the style of many US-based races, takes an oval shape as the basic layout of its course, which means that the high-speed races strain the competing vehicles, in spite of this being an endurance race. The LEXUS RC F GT3 has competed since 2017 in the GTD class, in which the GT3 regulation vehicles are classified. This year, the newly formed AIM VASSER SULLIVAN (AVS) team entered with two LEXUS RC F GT3 cars, painted with an appealing two-tone, neon yellow and black finish. The team came fully prepared, with Nick Cassidy among their roster of drivers, who also serves as driver for the LEXUS LC500, competing in the GT500 class of the SUPER GT series in Japan.

A total of 23 cars ran in the GTD class. The AVS team's LEXUS RC F GT3 cars stared with car No. 14 in 12th position on the grid and car No. 12 in 14th position. Moving steadily up through the pack in the early stages of the race, car No. 14 found itself battling for 5th position in the middle stages of the race. But in the latter stages of the race, rain began to fall and cause trouble in what had been a smooth race. On the track now cars were spinning out or crashing frequently. But, even as the bad conditions forced out the red flag to stop the race a number of times, the LEXUS RC F GT3 cars drove on strong and steady to close on the leaders. Car No. 12 moved up to take the checkered flag in 3rd place, wile Car No. 14 finished the race in 6th place., but due to a penalty levied on the 2nd-place finisher, the two AVS team cars eventually finished in 2nd and 5th places.

Speed is certainly an important factor in an endurance race, but even more important for the cars competing is the kind of reliability that prevents machine trouble from occurring. This year's Daytona 24-hour race the AVS team's two cars were able to work their way up through the field and show no signs of trouble even when rained plagued the race. And finally, in the team's first entry in this race, they managed to both finish in the top five. This can be said to be solid proof of the LEXUS RC F GT3's great reliability and outstanding handling performance. But this is only the start of the AVS and LEXUS combination. As they compete in the 2019 championship series their LEXUS RC F GT3 will surely evolve into an even stronger car.