By alley - Nov 16, 2016, 1:26 PM ET

IMSA: Lexus GT makes long-awaited debut

Lexus Motorsports was among the manufacturers to see its cars turn their first official laps in an IMSA-sanctioned session on Tuesday at Daytona International Speedway, and after a year filled with delays and adjustments to its GT Daytona program, there was cause for celebration.

Armed with a new 2017-spec V8-powered RC F model for Scott Pruett, Sage Karam, Jack Hawksworth and Robert Alon to power around the expansive circuit, Lexus Motorsports manager Mark Egger was relieved to speak about the project's public debut.

"We're definitely excited. We're going back into sports car racing after being away for a while, and being out with our car for the first time with our competitors there makes it feel like it's all coming true," Egger told RACER.

"We have one car on track right now and are looking forward to a good test run to see about the car's durability and put together a full program to understand the car and how it runs."

Lexus and its partner team 3GT Racing have taken an interesting route with the driver signing for its two-car GTD effort in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. With 56-year-old legend Scott Pruett (pictured) as the leader, the other three full-timers are 26 or younger. Combined, Alon (26), Hawksworth (25) and Karam (21) are only 16 years older than Pruett, and as a trio, they represent a youthful recruiting approach for a factory-affiliated GT program.

• Hawksworth excited by Lexus opportunity

"When we look at the drivers, they were chosen by the team based on who can bring good racecraft to the program," Egger said. "Some are just coming in from IndyCar and others put in a good position to learn the best setups for the car to have successful runs at each race."

Egger is confident the brand's entry into GTD will provide rewards in the showroom, and once the GT3-spec RC Fs get though their debut season in GTD, he says expanding its presence in IMSA with more teams is possible.

"When you look at it from a manufacturer perspective, when you've got a good racing program it brings a lot of credibility to your high-performance [road car] product," he added. "Right now, we're really focused on the quality of our entries instead of the numbers, but we would certainly welcome additional partners under the right circumstances."