Vasser Sullivan’s pair of Lexus RC F GT3s left Virginia International Raceway with top-10 finishes Sunday, outcomes that required more problem-solving than anyone in the garage preferred. Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat placed seventh in the No. 14 in GTD PRO. Aaron Telitz and Benjamin Pedersen finished ninth with the No. 12 in GTD. Both results are provisional.
Neither car had the pace to earn those positions on raw speed alone. Hawksworth qualified 10th in GTD PRO, and Telitz started sixth in GTD but admitted the team never had what it needed from green flag to checkered. What saved the afternoon was strategy. Hawksworth worked his way up to fifth through early pit timing before handing to Barnicoat in eighth after the lap-50 stop.
The No. 14’s afternoon got complicated immediately after. The No. 77 Porsche made contact with Barnicoat, pushing him off-track and dropping the Lexus to ninth as grass clogged the grille. The No. 77 received a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility, Barnicoat clawed back to eighth once it was served, and the car ultimately crossed seventh. A clean final hour would likely have meant a podium fight; instead, P7 was the ceiling.
Pedersen took the wheel of the No. 12 on lap 20 and ran inside the top six through his stint before Telitz returned for the closing portion. Rear degradation in the Virginia heat was the recurring complaint from the GTD car, and with no yellow flag to reset the field, ninth was where the strategy settled.
Both teams have now produced top-10 finishes at VIR in each of the last several seasons, a pattern that reflects the team’s ability to extract results from difficult weekends rather than any particular strength at the circuit. Hawksworth and Barnicoat won a GTD PRO race in July, which gives the program something to build on heading into the final two rounds.
The IMSA calendar moves next to Indianapolis Motor Speedway on September 20 for the final sprint race of the season. Pedersen’s sign-off from VIR was direct: back to the drawing board, more tidy for Indy.
Source: Lexus. Images courtesy of Lexus.
