Weekly Racing Roundup (11.26.18)

Lexus LC Returns to N24 for Second Attempt

Toyota Gazoo Racing will enter the Lexus LC in the Nürburgring 24 Hours for the second year in a row and the company’s 13th consecutive year of participation.

It will use the same driver lineup as in this year’s race, with Takeshi Tsuchiya, Naoya Gamou, Takamitsu Matsui and Yuichi Nakayama, while Gamou will also be in charge of the car’s setup.

The car will compete in the SP-Pro class and the team will build on a difficult race last year in which it encountered issues with the powertrain, brakes, tires and electronics, forcing the car to spend four hours in the pits.

The car will incorporate advanced development technologies which Toyota aims to use in future production vehicles.

Macleod, Loggie Join RAM for Team’s British GT Return 

RAM Racing will return to the British GT Championship next season with a Mercedes-AMG GT3 driven by Callum Macleod and Ian Loggie.

The Silverstone-based team last entered the full British GT season in 2015 but made a one-off appearance at the Spa-Francorchamps race in July this year.

Macleod and Loggie have shared a Team Parker-run Bentley Continental GT3 for the past two British GT seasons.

“The British GT Championship is one of the world’s top national GT3 series and we’re delighted to be back on the grid in 2019,” said team principal Dan Shufflebottom.

“It’s extremely competitive but Callum and Ian have shown race and championship-winning pace over the last few years and both did a great job at the test earlier this month.”

High-Profile Drivers Set for 25H Thunderhill

Several high-profile drivers will take part in this weekend’s NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill, including the pair of all-female driver crews from Flying Lizard Motorsports and Shift Up Now.

Johannes van Overbeek, Wolf Henzler, Kenton Koch, Alexandre Premat and Derek DeBoer are all amongst the field, which includes Radicals, Norma prototypes and Flying Lizard’s 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR and Audi R8 LMS GT4. 

The pair of all-female driver crews include the likes of Christina Nielsen and Aurora Straus at Flying Lizard and Pippa Mann and Ashley Freiburg in the Shift Up Now entry.

The 25-hour race at the northern California track gets underway at 11 a.m. local time on Saturday.

Click here for the list of teams and here for the list of drivers.

News & Notes:

***Yas Marina Circuit will become the official home of Aston Martin in the Middle East, with the two companies signing an agreement during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend.

***Nicki Thiim was presented with the British GT Championship’s Allan Simonsen Award during the SRO awards ceremony on Saturday night, on account of two race wins, a stand-out pole lap at Snetterton and duel with Phil Keen at Donington Park.

***Beechdean AMR has confirmed it will run new Aston Martin Vantages in both GT3 and GT4 spec in British GT next season, with Marco Sorensen and Andrew Howard in GT3 and Martin Plowman and Kelvin Fletcher in GT4.