Lyons eyes racing comeback in IMSA endurance events

Lyons, who is part of an exclusive club of drivers to have won the JGTC (now SUPER GT) and Formula Nippon (now Super Formula) titles in the same year, says he wants to put his recent GT3 experience to good use and tackle famous races such as the Rolex 24 at Daytona, 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans.

The gold-rated 42-year-old hasn’t raced since his final campaign of SUPER GT in 2019, but has been keeping sharp through his coaching work for ex-IndyCar outfit Conquest Racing, which fields cars in the Ferrari Challenge and IMSA Prototype Series.

“Those iconic races at Daytona, Sebring and Road Atlanta, I’ve been watching them for years, and [North America] is one of the only continents I’ve not raced on,” Lyons told Motorsport.com. “It’s high on my bucket list to do at least one or maybe all of them.

“I’ve been driving GT3 cars for eight years, so I feel like I could bring a lot to any of the [GT Daytona] teams and slot straight in.

“Every class [in IMSA] is so competitive. Looking at the Rolex 24, any driver would want to be part of that. It would be great to do the whole championship but to be honest just doing those three or four [Michelin Endurance Cup] events, I’d be so happy.”

Northern Irishman Lyons ended a seven-year collaboration with Audi GT300 team Hitotsuyama Racing after the 2019 SUPER GT season, the high point of that relationship coming in 2016 when he and Tomonobu Fujii finished third in the points and scored a win at Motegi.

Lyons raced GT3 machinery regularly from 2012 to 2019, most notably with the Hitotsuyama Audi team in SUPER GT

He moved to his current place of residence, Florida, at the start of 2020, but the onset of the global coronavirus pandemic prevented him from taking up offers to race on in Japan for another season.

“I was talking to Nissan about driving for Kondo Racing, and with Fujii-san about driving for D’station,” revealed Lyons. “But I couldn’t commit to doing all the testing, I was pretty much looking for a deal to come and just do the races.

“[After the pandemic] Fujii-san asked me again about driving and I said, ‘I can’t get into your country!’ He thought I was still there in Japan and had a visa, but by that point I was fully committed to being an American resident.”

As well as his work for Conquest, Lyons is also keeping busy by managing American teenage racer Christian Weir, who is tackling the USF2000 series this year.