Toyota Development Driver Trio Test Lexus RC F GT3

Photos: Gresham Wagner/SRO/IMSA

A trio of Toyota Gazoo Racing North America development drivers recently tested a Lexus RC F GT3, in what Lexus senior motorsports manager Jeff Bal emphasized was indicative of Toyota’s growing sports car racing ladder system.

Former Toyota GR Cup North America champions Gresham Wagner and Tyler Gonzalez, as well as fellow development driver Kiko Porto, all turned laps in a Vasser Sullivan-run Lexus at Road America shortly after the recent IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship round at the Wisconsin circuit.

The two-day test served as the first chance for all three drivers to get seat time in the manufacturer’s current GT3 car, although Bal downplayed that it could lead to any significant change in its WeatherTech Championship lineup for next year.

“We’re always looking for potential,” Bal told Sportscar365. “That is not indicative of our entire effort. But collectively in a public setting, it’s the first time we had drivers observed without advertising them.

“With the development and expansion of our sports car program, from [GR] 86 Cup through GT4 and now with the path to a GT3 successor, it’s important.

“This is not the first; we’ve been developing and keeping tabs on drivers, including those three.

“But this was a great opportunity with them and their success early in 86 and some GT4, to have a look at them properly that the sim may or may not otherwise suggest their potential.

“It was nice. We’ll do it again, maybe with some other drivers. No decisions made on it but it was a good opportunity, formally for the first time, for us to see how they would do.”

Vasser Sullivan currently campaigns Lexus machinery in both the GTD Pro and GTD classes, the latter category which enforces a Silver-rated driver, which is currently occupied by Parker Thompson for the full season and Frankie Montecalvo as the third pilot for the Michelin Endurance Cup races.

Wagner, Gonzalez and Porto are all Silver-rated by the FIA.

Bal said the testing opportunity was made possible due to a greater overall collaboration within the Toyota motorsports family as well as the manufacturer’s recent long-term commitment to top-level GT racing with its yet-to-be-announced GT3 car.

“I think the final piece was getting to the commitment for the GT3 successor,” he said. “For the six seasons with Jimmy [Vasser] and Sulli [Sullivan] and the two before that with 3GT, we were racing year-to-year.

“We didn’t know if we would have a successor. Even this year we had people ask us if they could get a RC F GT3 to race, but it’s probably for a different reason now than it was two years ago.

“We’ve been racing it on a shoestring and now with confidence of a new car in development, which we’re obviously as excited as everybody else to get hands on it, it’s time.

“Now we can build a proper, fully-functioning sports car program and ladder that comes in from an entry level at [GR] 86, and maybe even below 86 at some point, and beyond GT3.

“We’re not far away from being able to make some announcements that will really help answer a lot of questions that we don’t have the ability to answer yet.”

Toyota/Lexus’ ‘GT3 Successor’ which made its public debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed last month in a camouflaged livery, has been completing an extensive testing program, including at North American circuits alongside Vasser Sullivan’s current RC F GT3 program.

An exact timeline for the car’s race debut, or whether it will be known as a Lexus and/or Toyota, has not yet been communicated, but is expected to eventually replace the RC F GT3 in both the WeatherTech Championship and FIA World Endurance Championship as well as a full customer racing program in other GT3 championships worldwide.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John