Racing Veterans Robin Hill and John Dick Join F Performance Racing

Subtitle:Lexus Program Continues To Prepare For GTD Debut

F Performance Racing took another major step in preparation for its IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship debut with the addition of motorsports veterans Robin Hill and John Dick.

The East Lansing, Michigan-based team will campaign a Lexus RC F GT3 in the GT Daytona (GTD) class later this year with drivers Scott Pruett and Sage Karam.

“I’m real excited to have both Robin and John involved,” Pruett said. “I’ve known Robin for a long time on both the IndyCar side and sports car side, and his depth of knowledge is a great asset. I’ve worked with John in both the late 80s and late 90s – I got the first IndyCar pole for Toyota working with John in 1999 at Fontana – my last IndyCar race. Having them both on board is a great addition to the team.”

After signing his drivers, team owner Paul Gentilozzi now has added two major additions to his team’s success.

"Having John and Robin join our team is an essential ingredient to success,” Gentilozzi said. “Their experience and character combined with our team's chemistry accelerates us to our goal, the goal of winning races then championships for Lexus."

Hill, the new team manager, comes to F Performance from Extreme Speed Motorsports, where he was Director of Operations.

Born in Australia, Hill's 35-plus year career includes numerous championships and his experience ranges from open wheel to sports car racing. Raised in London, Hill began racing in Europe and worked in the F2 series for several years. He came to the United States in 1985 working with Jeff Andretti in the Super Vee and Indy Lights series and with Rahal-Hogan Racing from 1992 to 1996. The team won the CART Championship in 1992.

In 1996, Hill joined Target Chip Ganassi Racing where, as team manager, he won the Crew Chief of the Year Award in 1997 and 1998, and the Jim McGee Award of Excellence in 1997. During his tenure, the team won CART championships from 1996 to 1999 and the Indy 500 in 2000. Highcroft Racing, where Hill became manager in 2006, won American Le Mans Series championships in 2009 and 2010.

Hill said he was happy to take Gentilozzi's call in late 2015 to discuss the idea.

"I know Paul's organizations are always professional and competitively run,” Hill said. “We talked and it really sparked an interest. I'm happy to be here with F Performance Racing and with this team. I have great respect for the Lexus program and I truly believe we are going to be competitive."

Dick, the team’s new race engineer, has been involved in racing since he was a young teen in Arizona. His professional racing career began in 1980 with Dennis Mecum Racing where he worked as an engineer and fabricator co-designing and building the first Ford Mustang to enter Trans-Am Racing since the end of the factory era in 1970.

With Tom Gloy driving, the car won two races in its first season. Dick left Trans-Am racing in 1985 and became team manager and designer for Phil Conte Racing in the IMSA series. In 1986, he met Pruett while working as race engineer for Jack Roush Racing.  For the next several years, Dick's racing experience took him through CART racing, Champ Car and NASCAR.

Since 2002, Dick worked on IndyCar teams, including Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, KV Racing, Dale Coyne Racing, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and most recently as technical director and race engineer for Bryan Herta Autosport.

“I'm really happy to be with F Performance Racing,” Dick said.  “I like the challenge of engineering and building prototype GT cars like the Lexus RC F GT3 - that's where the creativity for an engineer really is. The Gentilozzi family effort in this program gives me just such a platform.

“I am also happy to be working with Scott Pruett again. He has always been one of my favorite drivers, to be able to engineer a car and work with Scott again, that seems really challenging in a good way. I'm very excited about this opportunity."

Both Hill and Dick are working closely with the F Performance Racing team to prepare the Lexus RC F GT3 for the homologation process and for WeatherTech Championship competition.