This weekend, two Lexus LFA teams will be racing in the 24 Hours of Nürburgring. This marks the eighth consecutive year that an LFA has participated in the race.
The Teams
The first team is the #48 LFA driving in the SP8 class, here’s some information about the drivers:
- Takayuki Kinoshita: Mr. Kinoshita started his racing career in 1983. He won many times in Japanese Formula 3 Championship, Japanese Touring Car Championship and SUPER GT. He has greatest number of participation as Japanese in 24-Hour Nürburgring.
- Hiroaki Ishiura: Mr. Ishiura has accomplished great results in SUPER GT and Japanese Championship Formula Nippon. He participated in SUPER GT (GT500 Class) from LEXUS TEAM SARD in 2013. This year’s Nürburgring 24-Hour is his 4th challenge.
- Kazuya Oshima: Mr. Oshima has accomplished great results in SUPER GT, Japanese Championship Formula Nippon. He participated in SUPER GT (GT500 Class) from LEXUS TEAM LeMans ENEOS in 2013 and won in SUPER GT Round8 Motegi.
The second team is the #53 LFA Code X driving in the SP PRO class, here’s some information about the drivers:
- Akira Iida: Mr. Iida debuted in Fuji freshman race in 1989, and since then he has accomplished great results in SUPER GT, Japanese GT Championship. He established reputation for driving technique with various settings.
- Juichi Wakisaka: Mr. Wakisaka won in SUPER GT500 in 2002, 2006 and 2009. He participated in SUPER GT(GT500 Class) from LEXUS TEAM SARD in 2013. After absence of 1 year, he challenges to his 4th 24-Hour Nürburgring this year.
- Takuto Iguchi: Mr. Iguchi participated in SUPER GT (GT300 Class) in 2008. He achieved overall champion in Bangsean 4-Hours endurance race in 2012. He participated in SUPER endurance (ST 4 Class) and won in SUPER GT Round5 Okayama in 2013.
Lexus has also released a couple videos leading up to the race, here’s the initial shakedown of the two LFAs:
Here’s Toyota president Akio Toyoda driving each of the race cars:
This year’s Nürburgring 24 Hours schedule began with the first qualifying session yesterday, followed by the second qualifying session today. The race itself takes place over Saturday and Sunday.
The event will be streamed live on the Gazoo Racing website, and we’ll have a liveblog going once the race starts tomorrow. Good luck, teams!
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