[tony]

With sheer determination and a well planned fuel strategy, Team Lexus trampled on its competition to win the Grand Am Cup 250 ST (Sport Touring) Class at Le Circuit Mont Tremblant in Quebec, Canada on Saturday, May 22.<P>

The #2 car piloted by <B>Chuck Goldsborough</B> and <B>Ian James</B> ran flawlessly for three straight hours. Moving from sixth to second down to eighth and back to third, Chuck passed the IS 300 over to Ian after a quick driver's change for Ian to bring it home to #1.<P>

Lauren McCrystal of <I>Speed Channel</I> reported the following on their website:<BR><P>

"It's the first win for Lexus this year," James said. "It's a great achievement. We've (won) at least one a year since we started this program. It's nice to have a win early in the year. Chuck, my teammate, did great in the early stint. It was nice to fight it out in the end for the first win."<P>

"It's great to win at one of my favorite tracks in North America," Goldsborough added. "I didn't think we had anything for the Mazdas. We did not have anything for the Mazdas so we decided to run our own race with our own strategies. My game plan was to stay at front. I managed to get from sixth to second right away. I stayed in second for the first hour, and I did not want to race the winner. I wasn't going to race the winner. If anyone wanted to come up, I wasn't going to race them. I was conserving the tires and the fuel mileage. Our only chance was to go an hour and a half, and make one stop at the half-way point. If we didn't do that, I knew we couldn't do it. By doing that and running our own race, we went an hour and 37 minutes. That's how we beat the BMW and the Mazda by simply running our own race and not battling any one else. I'll take it."<P>

Our most heartfelt congratulations to Chuck, Ian and Team Lexus!