flipside909

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla (Jan. 28, 2007) – Scott Pruett, Juan Montoya and Salvador Duran teamed to give Lexus and Ganassi Racing their second consecutive Rolex 24 at Daytona victory as their #01 Telmex/Target
Lexus-Riley won in dominating fashion this weekend.

The winning trio led 468 of the 668 laps, while overall Lexus-powered cars led a total of 504 laps – good for more than 75 percent of the laps run over the 24 hours. Over the past two Rolex 24 races, Lexus-powered cars have now led 971 laps – approximately 70 percent of the laps run over the past two years at Daytona.

After starting 12th, the winning #01 Lexus moved to the lead for the first time on Lap 68 and would go on to dominate the race – never putting a wheel wrong as both the Lexus engine and car ran flawlessly, never pitting for more than brake pads, fuel or tires.

The victory was a record-setting seventh Rolex 24 class victory for Pruett, the series all-time leader in wins. It also marked the second win in a row here for Chip Ganassi Racing, which became the first team in 20 years to repeat a Rolex 24 overall victory after Scott Dixon, Dan Wheldon and Casey Mears drove to victory in their #02 Lexus-Riley a year ago.

While the Ganassi team was one of the pre-race favorites heading into the event, the AIM Autosport #61 Exchange Traded Gold Lexus-Riley might have been the biggest surprise. In its first full season of Daytona Prototype, the squad earned a fifth-place finish with Mark Wilkins, David Empringham, Brian Frisselle and Burt Friselle piloting the car in just the second Rolex Series event for the team. After starting 18th, the Canadian-based team moved into the top 10 during the night and never dropped below eighth from there on out.

Michael Shank Racing (MSR) made it three Lexus-powered cars in the top-10 as the #60 Fresh From Florida Lexus-Riley placed ninth. After an early half-shaft problem, team drivers Oswaldo Negri, Mark Patterson, Helio Castroneves and Sam Hornish Jr. charged from 40th to earn a second consecutive Rolex 24 top-10 showing after earning runner-up honors a year ago. Things didn’t go as well for the second MSR entry, though. An alternator problem negated a spectacular early run by A.J. Allmendinger that saw him stretch out a 12.5-second lead through the race’s first 66 laps. Teammate Ian James later would lead a pair of laps, but mechanical woes thwarted any hopes for victory. After falling as low as 56th, that pair along with Paul Tracy and Henri Zogaib regrouped to earn a respectable 26th.

Things didn’t go as well for the two remaining Lexus-powered entries. The #02 Ganassi Lexus-Riley of Scott Dixon, Dan Wheldon and Memo Rojas ran in the top-five for much of the race, but crashed heavily into the tire barrier on Lap 538 to place 41st. After a testing crash earlier in the month here in Daytona, the Southard Racing team put together an all-out effort to simply make Saturday’s green flag. After qualifying 24th, the team would eventually climb into the top-five before mechanical woes would sideline the squad just 214 laps into the event.


Lexus Race Results Started/Finished

#01 Telmex/Target Lexus (Pruett, Montoya, Duran 12/1

#61 Exchange Traded Gold Lexus (Wilkins, Empringham, Br. Frisselle, Bu. Frisselle) 18/5

#60 Fresh From Florida Lexus (Negri, Patterson, Castroneves, Hornish) 22/9

#6 Michael Shank Racing (James, Zograib, Allmendinger, Tracy) 10/26

#02 Target/Telmex Lexus (Dixon, Wheldon, Rojas) 8/41

#3 Preformed Line Products Lexus (Lewis, Ruhlman, Rahal, Forbes-Robinson) 24/62


LEXUS ROLEX 24 RACE NOTES:

- The #01 Ganassi Lexus never fell out of the top-three overall after the third hour of the race.

- Today’s win is the second consecutive Rolex 24 victory for Lexus and the manufacturer’s 16th overall triumph in 41 Rolex Series races.

- Today’s win is the second for Lexus in just four Rolex 24 attempts

- Lexus-powered cars led 504 of the 668 laps run in this year’s Rolex 24.

- Scott Pruett’s victory today is his seventh Rolex 24 class victory, setting the all-time record. He’s earned previous class victories in 2002, 1994, 1993, 1992, 1988, 1987. This is his second overall win after taking the checkered flag first in 1994.

- With the victory today, Chip Ganassi Racing becomes the first team to win back-to-back Rolex 24’s since Al Holbert’s squad registered the feat in 1986-1987

- Juan Montoya becomes the only driver in history to win a Rolex 24 hour race, an F1 race and an Indianapolis 500. This is Montoya’s first-ever race at Daytona.

- Salvador Duran’s victory comes in his first-ever Rolex Series start.

- Scott Pruett, already the winningest driver in Daytona Prototype history, now matches James Weaver’s 13 wins for the most in Rolex Series history.

- The Ganassi team led the final 91 laps and 2 hours and 43 minutes today. A year ago the team led the final 168 laps.

- AIM Autosports earned a fifth-place finish in their Rolex 24 debut – in just their second-ever Daytona Prototype event.

Scott Pruett, #01 TELMEX/Target Lexus-Riley: “The job that this TELMEX team did today was just outstanding and the car performed flawlessly. We always hear that this event sports the best group of drivers in all of racing, and it turned out to be one hell of a shootout at the end with three cars battling for the win. I think it says a lot about our team and this series. What a fantastic feeling.”

Juan Pablo Montoya, #01 TELMEX/Target Lexus-Riley: “I though it was pretty tough overall. Max Angelelli and Darren Manning gave me a run for my money through my last stint, doing everything they could to make my life miserable. I starting thinking about all the things that could go wrong after leading 18-20 hours, and then not winning the race. I wanted to go as fast as I could and pass people, but I also didn’t want to be remembered for taking someone out of the race in its final stages. This is a great win for the team and I look forward to running for Chip and Felix in the upcoming NASCAR season.”

Salvador Duran, #01 TELMEX/Target Lexus: “For a rookie in this event, I felt really good going in with a team like this behind me and the great drivers I was fortunate enough to have been paired with. I think I learned that this race is all about consistency and confidence. Scott and Juan played their cards right, while at the same time giving me the confidence to drive to the best of my ability. I think I was able to make the right moves at the right times, and that ultimately led to this team getting through the race nearly incident free.”

Scott Dixon, #02 Ganassi Lexus-Riley: “The team did such a great job. There were a lot of ups and downs but while it is disappointing not to finish this year’s race because of all of the hard work that went into it, it is always so much fun to take part of the Rolex 24. I’m really happy the Chip Ganassi Racing team was able to defend the win. It’s really cool to win back to back.”

Dan Wheldon, #02 Ganassi Lexus-Riley: “The effort put in by the entire team is really incredible and it really showed with the second consecutive team win at the Rolex 24. It’s amazing to drive for so long and still be as close as it was all the way to the finish line. It was just so exciting. It’s too bad that we weren’t part of it at the finish as well but this is definitely a team win.”

Mike Shank, Michael Shank Racing team owner: “I said to someone about 12 hours into this thing after we had all those set backs that it’d be amazing for us to even get a top 10, and though we had even more problems after that, we did it. We had both cars running at the finish and that’s a testament to the job my guys did preparing the cars and never giving up no matter what happened for 24 hours. We had super driving from all our guys. The six car probably passed the leader two or three times-- we had fast cars but we just didn’t have the luck this time around.”

Helio Castroneves, #60 No.60 Fresh From Florida Lexus-Riley: “I had a great time, but the last stint (with no engine cover on the car) wasn’t much fun! A lot of things happened that were just out of our control. When the 99 car hit us from behind, we couldn’t attach the engine cover back on to the car, so we had a really bad aero situation and the car was really loose. It cost us downforce and really hurt us on the straights, which had been our strength all day.”

“But the 24 was a good experience and hopefully I will be back next year. I learned so much, and think there are a lot of things I would do different next time so it was good to get this experience. I rested when I had the chance, so after 24 hours I feel tired for sure, but not destroyed. My conditioning is pretty good. Independent of the results, it was a good race. This is a young team, with lots of good people on it. They are all workaholics who love racing and those are always my kind of people.”

Mark Patterson, #60 Fresh From Florida Lexus-Riley: “After being down in 41st like we were earlier, a top 10 in this race is no shabby accomplishment. From here, we want to target podiums and wins this season and we know with Michael Shank Racing and Lexus, we can do that. We’ve seen what Lexus has done for us all day and night, and we’re looking forward to that kind of partnership all season.”

Oswaldo Negri, #60 Fresh From Florida Lexus-Riley: “This is a great result with all the trouble we had all weekend. It was a big roller coaster all week from having a track record time in practice then right after that crashing in qualifying and then moving up to the front then having all the problems we did and then taking ninth place on the very last lap. Really fantastic. These guys never gave up and there isn’t a team out there with more heart than these guys.”

Sam Hornish, Jr., #60 Fresh From Florida Lexus-Riley: “The competition is so much closer than it was back then (in his first Rolex 24 start in 1999). With the World Sports Cars, we were a lot faster than the GT cars, but now the difference is a lot less, so you really have to do a good job timing your passes to get through traffic. “It’s been fun working with the team again (Hornish raced Toyota Atlantics with the team in 1999), it’s too bad we weren’t able to do better, but we were in the wrong place at the wrong time a couple of times today. Everyone’s working really hard to do the best we can. I definitely want to come back and do it again. If we had a couple less problems, we’d be right there up front no question.”

AJ Allmendinger, No. 6 Michael Shank Racing Lexus-Riley: “I was spoiled last year, racing in my first 24 and we didn’t even have a hiccup. We have to take the positives out of this - even at the end, our car was one of the fastest and with how many times we got hit, it wasn’t the handling that was good, that was all motor. Big credit to Mike Shank and his team. These guys just don’t give up. At least the car is going home in one piece which is impressive after getting hit as many times as we did.”

Henri Zogaib, #6 Michael Shank Racing Lexus-Riley: “(On crossing the finish line for the first time in the Rolex 24 in his adopted hometown with so many friends and relatives on hand to see) “It was fun even though I didn’t have as many gears in the car as I was hoping! I am amaze the car still rolls, but it was very fulfilling to finish here, and obviously the next step is to try to aim for a win. AJ, Ian, and Paul did a spectacular job. Mike and his crew were on it all week, and we had a very fast car and the Lexus/Riley is really a great package to be working with so we will keep building from here.”

Ian James, #6 Michael Shank Racing Lexus-Riley: “Its disappointing because we had a car that could win here. We showed some great speed and consistency with the car. A few things went wrong but we know we could have been fighting at the front. That’s racing.The good thing is this is clearly a great package, and the Mike Shank cars were running near the front all week, so I’m really looking forward to getting to the sprint races.”

Paul Tracy, #6 Michael Shank Racing Lexus-Riley: “It’s disappointing to finish like this just because our car was so fast, but we just ran into problems. It’s frustrating to be up front two years in a row but to run into trouble right off the bat. But I’ll just have to come back next year and try to have some better luck.”

Steve Southard, Southard Racing team owner: "With our experience as a team, I had complete faith that not much could stop us from finishing the Rolex 24. The crew worked incredibly hard to get the new car here and ready to race, and it was running really well. Unfortunately, we just aren't allowed to change an engine, otherwise, we certainly would have. It is such a shame; we had great drivers, good pit strategy, and a fantastic crew and were looking forward to another successful 24-hour race. It's just bad luck today. But we won't let it get us down, we will definitely be ready to show what we have in a few weeks at our next race in Mexico City."

Brian Frisselle, #61 Exchange Traded Gold Lexus-Riley: "It's awesome! It's our only finish at the Daytona 24, and now it's our best finish. A top-five is great, especially for a new team. Great teammates, great crew, I can't say enough good things. We want to thank Lexus for giving us such a great motor to make it all the way."

Credit: Lexus Motorsports
Photos: Grand American Cup

flipside909

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (January 28, 2007) -

In one of the most spectacular finishes in the 45-race history of the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the No. 01 TELMEX/Target Chip Ganassi Racing Lexus Riley trio of Scott Pruett, Juan Pablo Montoya and Salvador Duran emerged on top in a three-car battle over the final hours of the race to win the season-opening event of the 2007 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Special Reserve.

While the No. 01 team never fell out of the top-three overall positions in the final 21 hours of the race, the battle came to a head late in the 20th hour with Ryan Dalziel in the No. 11 CITGO/SAMAX Pontiac Riley leading Montoya in the No. 01 and Max Angelelli in the No. 10 SunTrust Pontiac Riley in a nose-to-tail fight for the overall lead. Dalziel managed to keep both vaunted road racers behind him, although Montoya and Angelelli did exchange second place a handful of times.



The No. 01 TELMEX/Target Lexus Riley led 468 laps in the Rolex 24 At Daytona.



The battle continued for nearly an hour before Dalziel surrendered the lead to Angelelli when he pitted for fuel and tires. Angelelli led one lap before Montoya claimed the lead for good in Turn 4 with slightly less than two hours and 45 minutes remaining. At the conclusion of that lap--Lap 578--Angelelli pulled onto pit lane and Montoya moved out into the lead.

The Colombian got customary stellar service from the TELMEX/Target crew when he pitted two laps later and managed to maintain the lead of the race. He was pressured from behind by both Dalziel and Angelelli for the better part of another hour before both Angelelli and Dalziel pitted before him to turn their cars over to co-drivers Jan Magnussen and Patrick Carpentier, respectively.

Montoya gave control of the No. 01 machine--and the race lead--to Pruett with slightly more than 90 minutes remaining and the 2004 Rolex Series Daytona Prototype co-champion steadily pulled away over the remainder of the race, crossing the stripe 1:15.842 ahead of Carpentier to secure the victory. It was the third-closest finish in Rolex 24 At Daytona history.

It was Pruett's second overall victory and seventh class triumph in the Rolex 24, moving Pruett into sole possession of first place on the all-time Rolex 24 class winners list. He entered the race tied with Hurley Haywood and Peter Gregg with six class victories.



The top three teams celebrate a hard-fought Rolex 24.



"We got three cars going for it on the lead lap with a couple of hours to go with very talented drivers putting on a fantastic show," Pruett said. "That's what this is all about. When you get down to the very last stages of the race and be doing that, it says a lot about the series and the teams with the way they prep the cars and race them. This is no small feat getting everything going for this race between the people and the cars and all the preparation. It's just fantastic. I can't say enough for all the participants and everybody that came and saw it."

For Montoya, the Rolex 24 triumph made him the first driver in history to win a 24-hour race at Daytona, the Indianapolis 500, a Formula 1 race and a Champ Car or IndyCar championship. The legendary Mario Andretti also owns a sports car victory in addition to winning at Indy, in Formula 1 and open-wheel championships, but his Daytona sports car win came in the 1972 six-hour event. It was Montoya's first appearance in the Rolex 24, and Montoya also won the Indianapolis 500 in his first and only appearance in 2000, as well as the 1999 Champ Car World Series title as a rookie.

"It was pretty tough," Montoya said. "My last stint running with Angelelli and Dalziel, they were going at it really hard. It made my life pretty miserable. It got to a point when I would run behind them, I was third in the group, and I was like, 'I'm not going to hop into that.' We led 18 or 20 hours up to that point. I managed to catch up to them. I knew our fuel mileage was better than them. You want to try to get ahead of them but at the same time you don't want to screw up the race. There was a fine line. It was a good way to start the year with Chip."

The No. 01 team combined to lead a race-high 468 of the 668 laps run. Montoya led 170 laps, while Pruett spent 161 orbits at the head of the field and Duran led 137 laps in his Rolex 24 At Daytona debut. It was the second-consecutive Rolex 24 At Daytona overall victory for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, making Ganassi and Sabates the first team owners since Al Holbert in 1986 and 1987 to take back-to-back wins in the Rolex 24.

"For a rookie in this event, I felt really good going in with a team like this behind me and the great drivers I was fortunate enough to have been paired with," Duran said. "I think I learned that this race is all about consistency and confidence. Scott and Juan played their cards right, while at the same time giving me the confidence to drive to the best of my ability. I think I was able to make the right moves at the right times, and that ultimately led to this team getting through the race nearly incident free."

The No. 11 CITGO/SAMAX team of Dalziel, Carpentier, Darren Manning and Milka Duno had an outstanding run to finish second. Dalziel acquitted himself well by keeping world-renowned road racers Montoya and Angelelli in his mirrors for more than 45 minutes, and was rewarded for his efforts with a second-place result, which matches the Scotsman's Rolex Series career-best performance. He led a total of 37 laps.



While many competitors fell off the charts during the night hours, the No. 11 Pontiac Riley maintained its speed and consistency.



"It's kind of funny, because earlier on today two of my biggest heroes are Juan Pablo Montoya and Jimmie Johnson, and I got to race both of them one time," Dalziel said. "That's what's good about Daytona. The CITGO/SAMAX car ran strong all day. This was my second time doing the Rolex 24. I had less success last year. This was a fun race, a hard race. Everybody was giving it 100 percent. To come down that close among the three cars was pretty amazing. It was a really good event."

Manning and Carpentier led 51 and 17 laps, respectively, en route to their career-best results in the Rolex Series. Manning's previous best performance was a third-place run in the 2004 Rolex Series season finale at California Speedway, while Carpentier's previous best result in the Rolex Series was seventh at Infineon Raceway last year.

"I'm very happy," Manning said "It was great; I think everyone said everything about how great it is to have so many competitive cars out there. It was a bit of a shame, really, that there was only three of us left out there at the end. There were so many other fast cars out there. It was really good and I just can't believe how flat-out we were going. Max said he was pushing 100 percent and we were as well. It was just amazing. My foot still hurts from braking."

Having already made history by becoming the first woman to win overall in a major North American auto race when she and then-co-driver Andy Wallace won at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2004, Duno put another entry into the record books today by taking the best overall result for a woman in Rolex 24 history. She owns a total of three Rolex Series victories.






While the No. 01 never went to its garage and the No. 11 ran a relatively trouble-free race as well, the No. 10 SunTrust Pontiac Riley team of Angelelli, Magnussen, Wayne Taylor and Jeff Gordon clawed their way back from five laps down to play a major role in the outcome of the Rolex 24 before finishing third. After leading 29 laps during the first hour of the race, the No. 10 machine went to the garage to replace the engine control unit and lost five laps.

"We had an early issue that put us five laps down and it was a true testament to the team that we were able to overcome those problems," said Taylor. "Jan, Jeff and Max did a wonderful job throughout the race and it shows what we can do as a brand new team."

Shortly after daybreak, the No. 10 machine returned to the lead lap and Angelelli took the lead on Lap 577, some 546 laps and 20 hours after his first stint in the lead. Angelelli and Magnussen kept the pressure on throughout the closing stages, but with 40 minutes remaining, Magnussen encountered brake problems in Turn 1 and slid off-course. He limped the car back to the pits and the team repaired the braking system, but the No. 10 wound up two laps down to the winners.

"It was a really fun race," said Angelelli. "I was pushing and everybody was pushing from the beginning. It was nice to see all the drivers come from all these series to this race. Hopefully we can come back next year and win it."

A four-time NASCAR Cup champion and three-time Daytona 500 winner, Gordon competed in his first Rolex 24 At Daytona. He commented after the race, however, that it certainly would not be his last.

"I had a great experience with Wayne and his whole group," said Gordon. "I worked a lot with Max during the tests and him and Jan were so helpful to get me up to speed. I had a blast out there, but I made some mistakes so I'm going to have to come back because I don't like to make mistakes. I want to come back and fix those and give it another try and just be more of an asset to the team. All in all, it was a really great experience for me. All the hard work these guys put in is unbelievable. It's a very challenging race."






Five-time Rolex 24 At Daytona overall winner Haywood and co-drivers Roberto Moreno, Joao Barbosa and JC France combined to turn in a stellar fourth-place result aboard the No. 59 Brumos Racing Porsche Riley. The quartet came home six laps behind the winners, but was a fixture in the top five for much of the race.

Another solid performance came from the No. 61 Exchange Traded Gold/AIM Autosport Lexus Riley team of Mark Wilkins, David Empringham and Burt and Brian Frisselle. The foursome--co-driving the same car that Scott Pruett qualified on the pole position for the 2004 Rolex 24 At Daytona--wound up fifth, nine laps back.

Chris Festa, Tomas Enge, Christian Montanari, Roger Yasukawa and Kris Szekeres finished sixth in the No. 7 SAMAX Pontiac Riley, followed by Memo Gidley, Fabrizio Gollin, Michel Jourdain Jr. and Oriol Servia who finished seventh in the No. 77 Kodak/Doran Racing Ford Doran. Timo Bernhard, BJ Zacharias and Rob and Charles Morgan were eighth in the No. 47 TruSpeed Motorsports Porsche Riley, followed by Mark Patterson, Oswaldo Negri Jr., Helio Castroneves and Sam Hornish Jr. in the No. 60 Fresh From Florida/Michael Shank Racing Lexus Riley in ninth. Rob Finlay, Michael Valiante, Bobby Labonte and Michael McDowell completed the top 10 in the No. 19 Z-Line Designs/Make-A-Wish/Mission Residential/Menards/Uniden Ford Crawford.

The No. 6 Michael Shank Racing Lexus Riley of A.J. Allmendinger, Paul Tracy, Ian James and Henri Zogaib led 29 laps before a myriad of mechanical issues dropped them back in the field. The quartet wound up 26th overall and 16th in the Daytona Prototype class.

Marc Goossens led six early laps in the No. 91 Lowe's Riley-Matthews Motorsports Pontiac Riley he was sharing with Jim Matthews, Ryan Hunter-Reay and 2006 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup champion and the car was a front-runner in the early stages before Matthews made contact with the No. 20 Jackson Hewitt/Subway Pontiac Crawford of Andy Wallace. The contact was followed by a series of mechanical problems, relegating the No. 91 team to 36th place overall and 19th in the Daytona Prototype class.

For much of the first half, the No. 58 Red Bull/Brumos Racing Porsche Riley of Scott Sharp, Buddy Rice, David Donohue and Darren Law was a top contender, with Sharp and Rice combining to lead 18 laps. While running second overall in the 10th hour, Sharp was hit by Tom Malloy in the No. 41 Team Sahlen Porsche GT3, doing heavy damage to the No. 58 machine, which wound up 40th overall and 20th in class.

One year after claiming the overall Rolex 24 At Daytona victory, IndyCar champions Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon, as well as No. 02 Target/TELMEX Lexus Riley co-driver Memo Rojas, were front-runners through the 20-hour mark and Dixon led seven laps. Unfortunately for the team, Rojas slid off-course in Turn 1 just four minutes into the 21st hour and made hard contact with the tire barrier. The team was forced to retire as a result of the damage and was credited with 41st overall and 21st in the Daytona Prototype class.

After starting from the pole position in the No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Pontiac Riley, Alex Gurney led the first three laps of the race in the car he was sharing with Jon Fogarty, Jimmy Vasser and Bob Stallings. Disaster struck for the team just 10 minutes into the race, however, as Gurney collected the No. 42 Team Sahlen Porsche GT3 of Michael Auriemma when the hood flew up on the Porsche in NASCAR Turn 4. The resulting damage and subsequent other mechanical issues left the No. 99 team 46th overall and 22nd in the Daytona Prototype class.

The No. 20 machine, which Wallace shared with Butch Leitzinger and two-time NASCAR Cup champion Tony Stewart, was battling mechanical problems even before the contact with the No. 91 and wound up 48th overall and 24th in the Daytona Prototype class. Bill Auberlen led two laps in the No. 05 Luggage Express/Team Sigalsport BMW Riley he shared with Karl Wendlinger, Matthew Alhadeff and Gene Sigal and the No. 05 machine was also an early front-runner that succumbed to mechanical problems. The No. 05 was credited with 52nd overall and 25th in the Daytona Prototype class.

The race was slowed 13 times by full-course caution for a total of 82 laps and also included the first red-flag stoppage since 2004. As the race approached the halfway point, Chris Pallis in the No. 82 Synergy Racing Team Seattle Porsche GT3 damaged the guardrail on the inside of Turn 1. Pallis escaped injury, but the guardrail repairs required a 78-minute stoppage.

One day after SunTrust Banks announced the doubling of award money for the SunTrust "Improve Your Position" Awards in the Daytona Prototype and GT categories, the No. 7 SAMAX Pontiac Riley and No. 67 TRG Porsche GT3 were the first teams to be awarded with the extra bonus. The No. 7 machine finished sixth after starting at the back of the Daytona Prototype grid (an improvement of 22 positions) when the No. 67 car logged a respectable 12th place GT finish after starting 33rd, an improvement of 21 positions.

Credit: Grand-Am

flipside909

JessePS

congrats lexus, now for toyota to win every race in Formula 1 and Nascar muhahaha

flipside909

jaxgs350

It was a great race for sure. This is also the first race that Lexus marketing put on a VIP ticket package event for brand enthusiasts. They rented 2 suites at the track, had full hotel accommodations nearby, and fed everyone very, very well. Their motorsports marketing partner that helped pull this off was justmarketing.com, and their crew did one heckuva great job.... even shuttling folks from the suites to the infield whenever they wanted, and at the end they took anyone who wanted to go down to victory lane for the celebration.

Nice going Lexus! Keep up the push into motorsports and continue getting your racing enthusiast customers involved!

(no, I wasn't paid to say this! I just appreciated their generosity and the chance to attend)

flipside909

That's actually not new. Lexus has done that for us here in SoCal when Lexus hosted the Grand Am events at California Speedway previously. Team One Advertising did all the arrangements for us. Lexus/Toyota has 2 permanent reserved Luxury suites that look over pit row in the infield. From the full catered event...to upclose and personal Q&A with the drivers...it definitely is an exciting event. We even got parade laps with the Lexus Pace Cars and took photos with then Team Lexus/Chuck Goldsboro & crew, Chip Ganassi's drivers (Pruett, Papis and etc). Lexus is very generous when it comes to pampering their guests that's for sure!

Club Lexus/Team Lexus - California Speedway 2002
https://www.clublexus.com/gallery/sh...ry.php?cat=510

Club Lexus/Team Lexus - California Speedway 2002
https://www.clublexus.com/gallery/sh...ry.php?cat=555

Club Lexus/Team Lexus - California Speedway 2002
https://www.clublexus.com/gallery/sh...ry.php?cat=605

LexFather

Congrats Lexus!! How boring a brand you are, lmao at the haters.

jaxgs350

Cool... maybe they mean "first" for the Rolex24.... anyway, it sure was fun!

jaxgs350

Oh, forgot... like the event you mentioned, Lexus did the same thing at Rolex24 and made sure to let us meet the drivers too... I met Scott Pruett and his wife in the garage before the start Saturday... and then had a one-on-one with Mike Shank a few doors away next to his #60 before they buttoned her up to head out to the grid.... Scott and Mike are very, very nice guys... they were so easy to talk to and very professional. Mike told me it takes about $2.5MM per year to field one car in the series... he was very hapy to have Lexus as a main sponsor...

I also got to take a side trip into the Speed Channel a/v trailer and watch them put the coverage together live... that was sure interesting... kinda reminded me of an air trafic control room... way too much going on in there for me to process... wow is all I can say...

TRDFantasy

More pics I posted at this thread:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=261343

uplusd

go lexus

Seize

Congraulations to Team Lexus! That's awesome

Lexmex

Such an irony, Telmex, Mexico and Lexus, but no Lexus in Mexico.

Not Toyota's fault, I know there are some government importation issues and market conditions.

However, will enjoy watching Lexus kick *** again at Hermanos Rodriguez and sticking it to my friends at the track that Lexus pulled another one over them just like I did with my RX300 this afternoon at the track in a bracket competition, back-to-back monthly wins.

MR_F1

I've been living in mexico city the last 20 months, and Ive only seen ONE single lexus (an IS300 ). No dealerships. No adds. No presence (well apart from the fact that some ppl know it as an 'american' luxury brand) I've always wondered whats up with that. I guess maybe because the Toyotas here are pretty luxury equipped and fairly expensive?