Akkodis ASP Team has confirmed a two-car Lexus RC F GT3 effort in the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship, which will be the first season for the LMGT3 category.
Next year, Jerome Policand’s team celebrates their 25th anniversary, and will take on the WEC and the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the first time.
The championship itself has yet to feature a Lexus competitor, and so the new LMGT3 formula will enable two RC F GT3s to be represented.
In an online statement, ASP said: “The team will enter in the LMGT3 category, in a championship that they will be discovering, and notably with a new car, the LEXUS RC F GT3; this is a familiar approach for the Akkodis ASP Team, who is specialised in GT3 at the highest level.
“The Team intend to enter two cars in 2024 subject to the decision of the ACO/WEC selection process next month.
“The crews will be announced in a few weeks.”
ASP won consecutive 2022 and 2023 Endurance Cup titles in GT World Challenge Europe, and led the charge on landing Mercedes’ first win in almost a decade at the 24 Hours of Spa.
Most recently in international sportscar racing, the Lexus has been represented in Vasser Sullivan’s GTD efforts in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, as Ben Barnicoat and Jack Hawksworth won the GTD Pro title in the RC F GT3 package.
This will mark the fifth automotive manufacturer ASP has collaborated with in their history, having ran with the likes of Renault, Porsche, Ferrari and Mercedes machinery.
As part of an ongoing two-day Goodyear tyre test at Portimao, ASP are running a Lexus RC F GT3 to gain data with their LMGT3 tyre manufacturer.
Next year’s WEC season will begin with a 10-hour event in Qatar in March, before traveling to Europe for the Imola, Spa-Francorchamps, and the historic 24 Hours of Le Mans in June.
In July, the WEC will return to Sao Paulo in Brazil having not raced there since 2014, and will then travel to the United States at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas venue for September.
A six-hour race in Fuji and an eight-hour race in November will conclude the 2024 WEC season.