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Lexus IS GTF World Challenge Race Car

Looking through the Lexus Forums I found the IS GTF race car which was one of the inspirations for our ISF GT street/track concept. This car is of course an all out race car with race car trimmings. Look at how wide the thing is :O

DRC Motorsports will debut their new Lexus World Challenge GT car for the Mid Ohio Speed GT Race presented by Remington. The debut will mark a culmination of almost a years worth of effort by the team to bring this car into World Challenge. The car will be piloted by reigning Touring Car champ Jeff Altenburg. This will make the 4th different car Altenburg has driven this season in World Challenge competition. He has raced a Porsche at MMP and two Vipers at Sebring and Long Beach in preparation for running the Lexus IS GTF for the last half of the season.

“I’ve been looking forward to racing this Lexus for some time now.” Altenburg says, “Our IS GTF has been a long time in development but I know it’s going to be worth it once we hit the track. Greg Fordahl (DRC Lead Engineer) is one of the best in the business and I’ll be working with him and the rest of the DRC Motorsports Team to get the most out of this car. ” 

The original plan was to debut a second car this weekend with Touring Car standout Robb Holland behind the wheel however time ran out to get that car fully sorted and the decision was made to only run one car this weekend. 

“I, like everyone else on the team, have been looking forward to debuting this car for a long time.” Holland says “Even though I won’t be driving the Lexus this weekend I’ll be at Mid Ohio to support the team and learn as much as I can about the car so when I get my own IS GTF at Road America I can be up to speed as quickly as possible”

Team owner Dennis Carlton says that the team plans on running the remainder of the 2008 schedule in preparation for an all out assault on the GT Championship in 2009. 

DRC Motorsports would also like to recognize it’s partners who were vital in the success of the program.

The Motorsports Gallery
Sachs  
BBS 
Sparco 
ChaseCam
Motec 
RNR Composites 
Germain Lexus
H&R Springs
Cutter & Buck 
Stoptech Brakes 
BetaTools

Looks like the car debuted at a race in Mid Ohio in July and has been race at two more races afterward. It finished 24th, 20th, and 21rst so this year seems to be more of a development year for the DRC team.

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