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3GT Racing Heads Across the Lake to Road America

July 31, 2018 by 3GT-Racing Leave a Comment

(EAST LANSING, MI) July 31, 2018 – The East Lansing, Michigan-based team, 3GT Racing, heads across Lake Michigan with the No. 14 and No. 15 Lexus RC F GT3 cars for the eighth race in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Road America in Elkhart Lake, WI.

Kyle Marcelli, driver in the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3, has stood upon the podium at Road America three times during his racing career. His focus right now is trying to get there again on Sunday, Aug. 5 in the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3.

“The faster the track, the better for our car,” Marcelli said. “And Road America is a fast track. We’ve proved over and over again that the RCF is fast when our tires are new relative to the competition. When our tires are old, relative to the competition, we struggle with it. I certainly think Road America is a faster track and the RCF likes to go fast. It likes the fast corners, the high downforce stuff. Hopefully we can find our way back to the podium.”

Marcelli and co-driver Dominik Baumann have secured a win at Mid-Ohio and a podium at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3. This will be a first time for Baumann at Road America, but nearly every track in the U.S. has been a first for the Austrian driver, and the legendary circuit in Elkhart Lake, WI is no different.

Baumann, who took the fastest lap in the GTD class at Sebring early in the season, said he’s been doing laps on his simulator at home and reviewing the video from last year to become acquainted with the four-mile track.

“It looks like it will be a good fit,” he said. “The size of it reminds me of Watkins Glen. And what I’ve heard so far, is that it’s a lot of fun to drive. As in all the sprint races, it could be possible to get to the podium if we can control the tire degradation.”

David Heinemeier Hansson returns to drive with Jack Hawksworth in the No. 15 Lexus RC F GT3. Both drivers have experience racing at the 14-turn track.

Heinemeier Hansson said he has very fond memories of Road America. He did his first ALMS race there in 2011 and won in an LMP2 at Road America in 2012.

“I haven’t been back since, but thankfully the SIM rendition I have is spot on, so I hope to show up with the track fresh in memory. It’s also a fast track that should suit the RC F,” he said. “We’ll see how much the weight that’s been added will end up mattering, but I have high hopes that we’ll be in contention.”
Hawksworth has earned three pole positions with record track times and recorded the fastest laps in the GRD class in four of the last six races (Mid-Ohio, Watkins Glen, CTMP and Lime Rock) in the No. 15 Lexus RC F GT3. He believes the high-speed corners at Road America will suit the Lexus.

“But we have to consider that there’s some tricky high-speed stuff and tire wear. So some things will suit our car, and some won’t,” he said. “It’s not a dominant track for us, but it’s a good one.”
The Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Road America will be Sunday, Aug. 5 and can be viewed on FS1 beginning at 2:30 p.m.

About 3GT Racing
3GT Racing was formed to race the Lexus RC F GT3. Owned and operated by five-time Trans-Am Series Champion, Paul Gentilozzi and his longtime partners, Tony and John Gentilozzi, the East Lansing, Michigan-based team principals have been involved in motorsports for more than 48 years and have claimed more than 75 victories and 15 manufacturer and driver championships.

Filed Under: Team PR Tagged With: David Heinemeier Hansson, Dominik Baumann, IMSA, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Jack Hawksworth, Kyle Marcelli, Lexus, Road America

3GT Racing Gets Top Five Finish at Northeast Grand Prix

July 22, 2018 by 3GT-Racing Leave a Comment

(LAKEVILLE, CT) July 21, 2018 — 3GT Racing earned a top-five finish with the No. 15 Lexus RC F GT3 (fifth place) at the Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, CT. The No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 finished seventh.

Jack Hawksworth, in the No. 15 Lexus RC F GT3, earned another fastest lap, (52:145) during the Northeast Grand Prix. Making this is his fourth fastest lap in the last five races (Mid-Ohio, Watkins Glen, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and Lime Rock Park).

Hawksworth said that this weekend’s practice sessions were a bit of a struggle for the No. 15.

“Then, it was a Hail Mary in qualifying and we got third, which was ok, but we honestly thought we weren’t going to do well in the race,” Hawksworth said. “But the pace was ok in the first stint, and then pitted early, got on the new tires, and it was ok. Our strategy was good, and we ended up fifth. I’m honestly quite happy because I really didn’t think we’d do that well.”

Mario Farnbacher, Hawksworth’s co-driver in the No. 15 Lexus RC F GT3 at Lime Rock, said the car was much better during the race than it had been in practice.

“We’re happy with a fifth-place result because this track was tough with traction issues for everybody,” he said. “We made the best out of it.”

3GT Racing’s Managing Partner, Paul Gentilozzi said the No. 15 employed a three-stop strategy to deal with the tire degradation.

“We chose to do a three-stop strategy based on our good young tire pace and our bad old tire pace. So, we knew that in combined we were out of sequence about 40 laps and in those 40 laps had we gone the full distance on the tires we would have been running five seconds off the pace. It was the only strategy available to us.”

Gentilozzi said that fifth place was a reasonable expectation considering the performance level during the practice sessions.

“We made a much better race car after qualifying,” he said. “Jack (Hawksworth) was very brave in qualifying and got us P3. Our engineer (Nicola Palarchi) worked out a much better car that performed ok. But the increased weight that we have is just killing the tires. We cannot run any distance. We saw it at Mosport; we saw it even worse here. Other people could run 60 laps we could run about 45 or 48 laps before tire degradation killed us.”

For the No. 14 team it was an even more difficult race.

First stint in the No. 14 was driven by Dominik Baumann, who qualified P2 in the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3.

“I started the race P2, lost one position to Jack but it was ok, I knew I needed to stay with the leaders,” Baumann said. “I tried to save some tires, but it failed. We struggled a lot with tire degradation.”

Baumann’s co-driver, Kyle Marcelli, had a very busy weekend. Marcelli drove in the Continental SportsCar race as well as the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship series.

“Overall it was a difficult race for us in many respects,” Marcelli said. “Personally, it was busy, busy weekend for me. My entire stint, for about two hours, was green flag. And so around here, a lap is only 52 to 55 seconds, so you do a heck of a lot of laps in two hours. My first stint was ok, my second was a handful and the last hour our Lexus was great.”

“At the end of the day we didn’t do as good a job as we could have with the car setup on the No. 14,” said 3GT Racing’s Technical Director, John Gentilozzi. “Full credit to the No. 15 car for their strategy that’s a pretty brave move adding a green flag stop like that and certainly Jack and Mario drove exceptional races. I know it was tough for Kyle and Dominic after the first pit stop we really couldn’t go forward too much. We needed a little bit of help. We needed a yellow, we needed something. And we just didn’t get it.”

“I think we definitely have a lot to put in our notebook for next year about this track and what we can do to improve,” John Gentilozzi said. “So, we’ll take that, and go off to Road America which is someplace that suits our cars a little better.”

Next race is Road America on Aug. 5 in Elkhart Lake, WI.

Filed Under: Team PR Tagged With: David Heinemeier Hansson, Dominik Baumann, IMSA, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Jack Hawksworth, Kyle Marcelli, Lexus, Lime Rock, Lime Rock Park, Northeast Grand Prix

3GT Racing Qualifies P2, P3 in Northeast Grand Prix

July 21, 2018 by 3GT-Racing Leave a Comment

(LAKEVILLE, CT) Jul 21, 2018 – When the checkered flag came out at the end of the 15-minute qualifying session at Lime Rock Park, 3GT Racing’s No. 14 and No. 15 Lexus RC F GT3 cars had claimed P2 and P3 respectively.

Dominik Baumann, who qualified the No. 14, completed seven laps before he returned to the pits. His fastest lap was 51:628, less than 2/10ths of a second behind the leader.

“I’m really happy with P2. I think it’s the first time this year during qualifying that the No. 14 Lexus is in front of the No. 15,” Baumann said. “This is a short track, but it’s not an easy track. We are all dealing with tire degradation and because there are just a few corners, and everyone is so quick, there’s no time to make a mistake. “

The No. 15 Lexus RC F GT3 got a late start into the 15-minute qualifying session while the crew made some last-minute changes.

Hawksworth, who qualified the No. 15, got started in time to complete seven laps. His fastest lap 51:705 earned him the P3 position.

“The car has been giving us struggles this weekend,” Hawksworth said. “In the end I got P3 and I’m ok with that for now, but it’s been a struggle.”

John Gentilozzi, 3GT Racing Technical Director, said it’s been a bit of weird weekend.

“I thought the crew dealt really well with qualifying right after warmup – certainly making that last-minute change on Jack’s car. And it obviously made some difference for him,” he said. “I don’t know that either of our drivers was happy in qualifying, but I don’t think anyone in the field is happy with their car. We’ll go into the race with a little bit of improvement based on what we learned in qualifying and it’s going to be a pretty good battle out there for two-hours and 40 minutes. And then we’ll see where we end up in the end.

The race begins this afternoon at 3 p.m. ET and will be televised on a delayed basis, starting at 4 p.m. on FS1. The race will be carried live by IMSA Radio on IMSA.com, RadioLeMans.com and SiriusXM Radio (Sirius 138/XM 202/App972).

Filed Under: Race Reports Tagged With: David Heinemeier Hansson, Dominik Baumann, IMSA, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Jack Hawksworth, Kyle Marcelli, Lexus, Lime Rock, Lime Rock Park, Northeast Grand Prix

3GT Racing Top Five in IMSA GTD, Heads to Lime Rock

July 17, 2018 by 3GT-Racing Leave a Comment

(EAST LANSING, MI) July 17, 2018 — 3GT Racing holds its rank among the top GTD teams as the last half of the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship series gets underway at the Northeast Grand Prix in Lakeville, Connecticut.

The No. 15 Lexus RC F GT3, with drivers Jack Hawksworth and David Heinemeier Hansson, holds the fifth-place ranking just two points from fourth and twelve points from third. Hawksworth’s tire problem the last two laps at CTMP dropped him from third to seventh in finish position and cost the duo a third-place ranking in the Drivers Championship.

Lime Rock Pre Race

The No. 14 took first place at Mid-Ohio and second on the podium at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Marcelli said it’s been great to have the success of two podiums and a win, but he and Baumann aren’t planning to slow down.

“Where we are in the point standings means it’s going to be difficult to get in the top three,” Marcelli said. “But we’ve got four sprint races and one endurance race to go this season and Dominik and I are eager to accumulate more victories. We’ve had some tough luck in the endurance races. But we are now approaching each race one at a time with the goal of finishing the best we can, ultimately to win.”
Each race is a new experience for Marcelli’s Austrian co-driver, who is racing in the U.S. for the first time this year.

“Another track that I have not been to,” Baumann said. “But I trust Kyle and what he tells me. And, I’ve been doing some SIM training and watching videos, which I hope gives me good direction on the track. I know in real life it is a short track, but I think it will be a quick learn for me.”

Hawksworth and Heinemeier Hansson in the No 15, are tied in points at fifth place among the GTD drivers. Heinemeier Hansson will not be at this Saturday’s two-hour, 40-minute race at Lime Rock Park due to a business commitment.

Mario Farnbacher of Germany, who partnered with the Hawksworth at the six-hour endurance race at Watkins Glen, will share the driver seat in the No. 15 Lexus RC F GT3 with him again at Lime Rock.
Hawksworth has earned three pole positions and recorded the fastest laps at three of the last six races, Mid-Ohio, Watkins Glen and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

“I enjoy working with David but obviously David is true gentlemen racer, a businessman who also races,” Hawksworth said. “He’s been doing really well. It will be different to be racing with Mario, a professional driver who’s been around a long time. We will probably be the strongest driver lineup on the grid. I’m really looking forward to it and to see what we can do.”

While Heinemeier Hansson has plenty to do in his other life, he said he’s more than happy to see how Jack will do at Lime Rock with Mario and he looks forward to being back at Road America in August.

Farnbacher, who has been racing in the IMSA GTD class in the States, has earned three wins in 2016, a win at Sebring in 2017 and at the Detroit Grand Prix in 2018. He said he’s happy to be back at 3GT Racing.

“3GT Racing is definitely a good fit for me,” he said. “It’s like a family and Lime Rock is going to be an important race. We will have good strategy. It’s an interesting track, the shortest on the calendar. Short time, short laps and pits are so important. It’s tough with only the GTLM’s around. Lime Rock is hard to over-take and we know you have to be careful letting a GTLM go by, they are always in packs and it’s easy to lose position.”

Nicknamed the “Bullring,” Lime Rock is the seventh of 11 races in the IMSA series and the first of two GT-only races. The track is 1.474 miles long with 6 right hand turns and one left. There will be 18 cars in the field, 10 GTD and 8 GTLM. The race starts at 3 p.m. (ET) on Saturday, July 21, and will be televised (delayed) beginning at 4 p.m. on FS1.

About 3GT Racing

3GT Racing was formed to race the Lexus RC F GT3. Owned and operated by five-time Trans-Am Series Champion, Paul Gentilozzi and his longtime partners, Tony and John Gentilozzi, the East Lansing, Michigan-based team principals have been involved in motorsports for more than 48 years and have claimed more than 75 victories and 15 manufacturer and driver championships.

Filed Under: Team PR Tagged With: David Heinemeier Hansson, Dominik Baumann, IMSA, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Jack Hawksworth, Kyle Marcelli, Lexus, Lime Rock, Lime Rock Park

Second Place Podium, Fastest Lap for 3GT Racing at CTMP

July 9, 2018 by 3GT-Racing Leave a Comment

BOWMANVILLE, ONTARIO (July 8, 2018) – The majority of the two-hour and 40-minute Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix at Ontario’s historical Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, found both 3GT Racing cars, No. 14 and 15 Lexus RC F GT3, running consistently first, second and third.

When the checkered flag dropped, it was second place for the No. 14 team and drivers Kyle Marcelli and Dominik Baumann, and 7th for the No. 15 with drivers Jack Hawksworth and David Heinemeier Hansson. Hawksworth, who had started on the pole, had the fastest lap of the race, 1:16:919.

3GT Racing’s Managing Partner, Paul Gentilozzi, said it’s a bit of a disappointing ending.

“When you’re first and second, first and third, pretty much throughout the race and you have 15 minutes to go, as a team owner I sit there – a little selfishly – praying for no bad luck,” Gentilozzi said.

“It was a good race between the 33 (Mercedes’ Jeroen Bleekemolen) and the 14; Kyle (Marcelli), did a magnificent job holding him off. The 33 car was good, passed us fair and square, Kyle got a little wide. I think if we had not had the last yellow he would have been able to stay ahead. It’s disappointing for the 15 car, because they certainly deserved the podium today with as much hard work as they put in. But it didn’t work out.”

Marcelli said he thinks it’s a good thing to be upset with second.

“Of course, we’re competitors and we want to win,” Marcelli said. “We had a fast car, but we really struggled at the end of this stint with our rear tires and we knew that. We just had to settle in second place.”

Hawksworth, who earned his third Motul Pole Award for the season at CTMP, held the lead since the start of the race. A solid pit stop and driver change put his co-pilot, David Heinemeier Hansson, in and back on track, losing only one position. But it was minutes before the end of the race, when things went wrong for the No. 15.

“I was anticipating the restart and when I went to go, still had too much track pick-up on my tires. I slid wide in the last corner, which allowed the 44 to catch me, and then slid wide in turn one, and that allowed him to pass me,” he said. “I actually went all the way off the track, catching a lot of debris that then caused the tires to slide off and allowed others to pass me. “

Gentilozzi said the team looks forward to Lime Rock. “We will celebrate second and then figure out how to turn 7th into a victory at the next race,” he said.

The next race in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season, will be Northeast Grand Prix in Lakeville, Connecticut on July 21.

About 3GT Racing

Filed Under: Race Reports Tagged With: Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, CTMP, David Heinemeier Hansson, Dominik Baumann, IMSA, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Jack Hawksworth, Kyle Marcelli, Lexus

3GT Racing Heads Across the Lake to Road America

3GT Racing Gets Top Five Finish at Northeast Grand Prix

3GT Racing Qualifies P2, P3 in Northeast Grand Prix

3GT Racing Top Five in IMSA GTD, Heads to Lime Rock

Second Place Podium, Fastest Lap for 3GT Racing at CTMP

Bittersweet ending to 2018 IMSA season for 3GT Racing

3GT Racing No. 15 Qualifies P2 for Petit Le Mans