Motorsport
The first generation IS 200/300 and RS200 series was used by many racing teams, including TRD, to race in various touring car racing series across Asia. In Europe, the Lexus IS 200 was raced in the British Touring Car Championship (through organizations such as BTC Racing), and the IS 300 was raced in the U.S. via the Motorola Cup North American Street Stock Championship touring car series (with the manufacturer-sanctioned Team Lexus).
In 2001, Team Lexus entered three IS 300s in the third race of the 2001 Grand-Am Cup season at Phoenix, Arizona, and won their first IS 300 victory that year at the Virginia International Raceway. In 2002, Team Lexus raced the IS 300 in the Grand-Am Cup ST1 (Street Tuner) class, winning both the Drivers' and Team Championships, as well as a sweep of the top three finishes at Circuit Mont-Tremblant in Quebec, Canada.
In 2008, the second generation IS 350 was entered in the Super GT race series in the GT300 class (cars with approximately 300 horsepower). The #19 Team Racing Project Bandoh IS 350 driven by Manabu Orido and Tsubasa Abe achieved its first victory in its fifth race at the Motegi GT300 race. In 2009, The Project Bandoh WedsSport IS 350, driven by Manabu Orido and Tatsuya Kataoka, won both driver and team title in the GT300 class that season.
In April 2009, a Lexus IS F entered by Gazoo Racing finished second to the team's Lexus LF-A in the SP8 class in the ADAC-Westfalenfahrt VLN 4h endurance race. A IS F was also entered in the 2009 24 Hours Nürburgring race and finished third in the SP8 class. In August 2009, an IS F entered by Gazoo Racing and driven by Peter Lyon, Hideshi Matsuda, and Kazunori Yamauchi won the SP8 class at the DMV Grenzlandrennen VLN race. Kazunori Yamauchi is the developer of Gran Turismo series, of which the IS line is playable in several versions, and the IS F racer carried test equipment for future game modes. The 3 drivers, along with Owen Mildenhall, participated in the 2010 24 Hours Nürburgring and finished in 4th place in the SP8 class, behind the 1st place ranked Lexus LFA.
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