- First-Year Lone Star Racing Driver James Roe Jr. Clocks in Eighth Fastest in IMSA GTD Qualifying Debut at Road America
- No. 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Team and Co-Drivers Scott Andrews, Lin Hodenius and Roe Jr. Target Podium Finish and More in Sunday’s Fourth Round of the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup
ELKHART LAKE, Wisconsin (August 1, 2026) – First-year Lone Star Racing team driver James Roe Jr. will start the No. 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 from the outside of row four after an eighth-place qualifying run Saturday at Road America for Sunday’s inaugural six-hour SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix. Making his first career IMSA GT Daytona (GTD) class qualifying effort, Roe turned a top lap time 2:05.225 (116.372 mph) on the four-mile Road America circuit to ensure the Lone Star Racing No. 80 will start in the front half of the competitive 19-car GTD field in Sunday’s race.
The six-hour SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix is Road America’s longest race to date in the modern sports car racing era and Round 4 of the 2026 IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup (IMEC), a championship within the overall IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship honoring the top performers in the year’s five long-distance races.
“An early accident by another competitor took away our chance to qualify one race ago at Watkins Glen, but it was great to have another opportunity to record another solid lap time again this season after strong qualifying runs at Daytona and Sebring,” said AJ Petersen, Lone Star Racing Team Manager and Technical Director. “It was good to give James a chance to qualify on a Road America circuit he knows well, and he did a great job. Our solid qualifying results at Daytona and Sebring led to career-best finishes in both races, and it is encouraging to be in the same position again for tomorrow’s six-hour race at Road America.”
Roe’s eighth-place run matched the top-eight qualifying effort his teammate Scott Andrews posted in January’s season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona as the No. 80 team’s second-best qualifying efforts of the year. The top qualifying result in this year’s IMEC season for Lone Star is the fourth-place GTD run Andrews posted at March’s 12 Hours of Sebring.
“I had a bit more in it for sure,” Roe Jr. said. “On the best lap we lost some in the third sector. Obviously, the track conditions with the rain all day today are very different than what we tested with and what we had here on Friday. But nonetheless, we are one of two Mercedes-AMG GT3s starting in the top eight, and we’re in a good spot. Just keeping it clean for the first five hours, and then seeing what happens in that last stint is going to be the thing. It’s a long race. We saw what last year’s sprint race was like, so now we have got to see what six hours is like.”
Joining Roe and Andrews in the six-hour is IMEC teammate Line Hodenius, who hopes to celebrate his 20th birthday today with a top-three finish or better with his Lone Star teammates in Sunday’s race. Hodenius is making his first-career race start at Road America this weekend.
The Lone Star team and drivers are joined by the overall IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar GTD championship leaders as the only teams in the class to have completed every lap run to date in the opening 42 hours of IMEC competition in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring and the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen. Lone Star’s top finish in that trio of races was a career-best fourth-place finish at Sebring in March.
The Inaugural six-hour SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix at Road America can be viewed live in its entirety tomorrow, Sunday, August 2, beginning at 11:30 a.m. EDT on NBC’s Peacock livestream network. International coverage is available at IMSA.TV or the IMSA YouTube channel.
About Lone Star Racing: Based at Motorsport Ranch within the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area in Cresson, Texas, Lone Star Racing is competing in the No. 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the 2026 IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup in the GTD class, in addition to other top sports car racing series. Lone Star Racing and its team members have won races across North America spanning sprint and endurance racing formats. The crew has worked together on many different teams and various types of cars, developing a strong bond and proven capability that gives them a competitive and winning advantage. Lone Star Racing competes with the support of primary partner ACS Manufacturing, Inc. (www.ACSManufacturing.com). Look for Lone Star Racing and team owner/driver Dan Knox on Facebook and follow the team on YouTube at Lone Star Racing, on Twitter and Instagram @LSRTeam and on the official team web site at www.LoneStarRacingTeam.com.
