3GT Racing and driver Scott Pruett put the team's first Lexus RCF GTD race car through a shakedown on Friday at GingerMan Raceway in South Haven, Michigan. The car is the first of two expected in the team's stable for the 2017 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season. The next test for the car is in Georgia next week. The team's second car is expected in two weeks. The season kicks off at the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona on Jan. 28. "The car ran all day with no issues," said team managing partner Paul Gentilozzi. Gentilozzi, a five-time Trans-Am Series champ, formed the company in 2015 with his sons and longtime partners, Tony and John, to race Lexus’ RC F GT3. The Gentilozzi family has been racing for more than 46 years and can claim more than 75 wins and 15 manufacturers’ and drivers’ championships. The RC F GT3 marks Lexus’ first foray into motorsports since 2009. Pruett previously drove Lexus-powered prototypes from 2004-2007 in the Grand-Am series, where he won three drivers’ titles and the 2007 Rolex 24 at Daytona. In addition to Pruett’s relationship with Lexus, he and Gentilozzi were teammates in two Rolex 24 at Daytona wins -- an overall win in 1994 and a GT class win in 2002. Pruett has seven Rolex 24 wins, 60 IMSA wins and is a four-time Grand-Am champion. Pruett and Sage Karam will drive the cars in 2017.

Headshot of Mike Pryson
Mike Pryson
Mike Pryson covered auto racing for the Jackson (Mich.) Citizen Patriot and MLive Media Group from 1991 until joining Autoweek in 2011. He won several Michigan Associated Press and national Associated Press Sports Editors awards for auto racing coverage and was named the 2000 Michigan Auto Racing Fan Club’s Michigan Motorsports Writer of the Year. A Michigan native, Mike spent three years after college working in southwest Florida before realizing that the land of Disney and endless summer was no match for the challenge of freezing rain, potholes and long, cold winters in the Motor City.