Team Lexus Introduction

With the debut of the Lexus IS 300 in June of 2000, Team Lexus initiated an aggressive development program to prepare this new sport sedan for competition. Drawing on its success with the GS 400, the team campaign 3 IS 300’s in the 2001 Motorola Cup North American Street Stock Championship. With its distinct style and muscular character, this pure bred racer will be a formidable opponent at many of North America’s most famous racing facilities. Team Lexus debuted two GS 400’s in the Motorola Cup in 1999. As a unique racing platform, the GS 400 luxury sedan, with four doors and an automatic transmission, is powered by a potent 4.0 liter V8 which produces nearly 300 horsepower. This powerplant, coupled with the vehicles’ inherent balance and handling attributes, proved to be a successful racing platform almost immediately. In its sixth race ever, the team gave Lexus its first victory, truly a historical achievement. That victory in 1999 was the cornerstone of an extremely successful inaugural season in which the team secured four podium finishes in nine races. Team Lexus also held two track records and received the A.N. Deringer award for most positions gained and the Sony Sound Performance award for outstanding team management.

Team Lexus continued to build upon its success during the 2000 Motorola Cup season. The team produced another victory, two podiums and three top five finishes. In every race the GS 400’s completed, they did so in the top ten. As the 2000 season ended, Team Lexus finished third overall in the manufacturers championship, quite an accomplishment considering they were the sole entrant campaigning Lexus vehicles. Three of the teams’ drivers placed in the top 15, out of 62 overall, in the drivers championship and they finished fifth, out of 14, in the team championship in 2001