RC F GT3 Duo Score Top Finishes at Elkhart Lake IMSA Affair
The flags were all green for the green RC Fs during their race around Road America, fuel deciding where the duo landed.
Things are heating up for the AIM Vasser Sullivan team and their green-and-black RC F GT3s during the 2019 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season. Thus far, they’ve taken a pair of wins at Mid-Ohio and Belle Isle, landed on the podium five times, and have Lexus placed third in the overall GT Daytona category. With three more races left on the schedule as of this posting, there’s a good shot AVS could snag the championship for the brand.
Last weekend, the team landed at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, for the next stop on the schedule, where it was all green from start to finish during the eighth race of their season. The result was a pair of top-10 finishes, plus some lessons learned in fuel management.
“It was a tough day,” said Townsend Bell, co-driver of the No. 12 RC F GT3. “We had some issues in practice that we solved this morning. The AIM Vasser Sullivan team worked really hard to figure out what we needed, and we found it. We just ended up running out of time to get the setup for the race. Frankie (Montecalvo) did a great job. There were no yellow flags, which was shocking because everybody thought there would be yellows. We gambled, it didn’t pay off and we had to save fuel to get home today. We finished on the lead lap and we learned a lot.”
The weekend was tough for both teams, with qualifying stopped for the day on Saturday due to lightning. Thus, AVS wound up taking seventh and 14th on the grid for race day. Richard Heistand, co-driver of the No. 14 RC F GT3, said his car was on its way to third on the grid before qualifying was red-flagged.
“It was a funny race, because it was the first race here in a while that’s been all green,” added Heistand’s fellow driver, Jack Hawksworth. “We were very strong initially out of pit lane when the tires were good. After two or three laps we really struggled with grip. Our pace was competitive, but not as competitive as the front guys. I tried to hold onto third at the end, but we had to save a little bit of fuel and didn’t quite have enough. The AIM Vasser Sullivan guys did a good job on our pit stops. Obviously, we’re happy to finish fourth after starting seventh and earn some good points.”
The race at Road America lasted two hours and 40 minutes, all under green-flag conditions. While the No. 14 AVS RC F GT3 took fourth in the GTD category, the No. 12 team of Bell and Montecalvo landed ninth.
AVS’ next appearance will be at Virginia International Raceway in Alton, Virginia on the weekend of August 23 through 25.
Photos: Lexus
Join the Club Lexus forums now!
