3GT Racing’s No. 14 Qualifies P2 at Road America
ELKHART LAKE, WI (Aug. 4, 2018) — 3GT Racing’s No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 will be in the front row, starting P2, in Sunday’s Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Wisconsin’s historical track, Road America.
Dominik Baumann drove the No. 14 and qualified P2 with a fastest lap of 2:06:850, just 0.257 seconds from the leader.
Baumann and co-driver, Kyle Marcelli, earned the second spot on the podium at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and Baumann won at Mid-Ohio in the No. 14 in May after starting P2. Baumann said he wants nothing more than to do the same thing tomorrow. But he’s not sure that’s what will happen at tomorrow’s race along the 4-mile, 14 turn-track.
Qualifying at Road America
He said the crew worked hard to prepare the car for qualifying, but it wasn’t quite perfect. A red flag shortened the normally 15-minute qualifying session, impacting the strategy for the No. 14.
“We couldn’t get to the peak performance window of the tires and I only did one lap,” he said. “Maybe a second lap could have been better, but I don’t know. I’m happy with the second place because it’s just qualifying and not the race. Now, we work to have a better race car tomorrow.”
3GT Racing Technical Director John Gentilozzi said it was a strange qualifying session.
“We were actually going to wait longer (to send him out) because we were afraid there was might be a red flag or something that could ruin our session. We sent him sooner and sure enough that’s what happened,” he said.
Gentilozzi thought Baumann might have, with another lap, had the pace to be on the pole. But he won’t complain about second.
The No. 15 Lexus RC F GT3 didn’t participate in qualifying due to an engine change.
“Unfortunately, they had to make an engine change after TRD (Toyota Racing Development) spotted some information in the engine data that they weren’t comfortable with,” Gentilozzi said. We missed qualifying but we’re glad to be doing the work now rather than tomorrow or in the race. This really was the best option.”
The team expects the No. 15 will start in the race at the back of the 12 cars participating in the GTD class. Gentilozzi said David Heinemeier Hansson will start from the back on new tires.
“We’ll have to see what happens. But I guess we’ve got both ends of the field covered,” he said.
The CTRRS at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin will begin at 2:35 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 5 and can be viewed live 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.
3GT Racing Heads Across the Lake to Road America
(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.
3GT Racing Gets Top Five Finish at Northeast Grand Prix
(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.
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.
3GT Racing Qualifies P2, P3 in Northeast Grand Prix
(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).
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.
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