Vasser Sullivan came to Road America hobbled and left with points. Two top 10 finishes from Sunday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship six-hour endurance race are the kind of result that keeps a championship campaign alive on a weekend when neither Lexus RC F GT3 was performing to its potential.
Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat brought the No. 14 home sixth in GTD PRO, a finish that required the team to build a spare car after an accident in Saturday’s Practice 2 session left the original entry unable to set a qualifying time. Hawksworth started from the back of the GTD PRO field and worked forward, running in the top 10 for most of the race. With under two hours remaining, a well-timed pit call on a caution cycle lifted the car to second on the restart. Hawksworth held that position through his stint, but the final stint strategy did not close the gap and the No. 14 settled for sixth.
Barnicoat was direct about the ceiling. “Sixth place was probably about the maximum that we had today,” he said. “A bit of luck could have put us up a bit higher, but all things considered, we did what we could to maximize our day.” Hawksworth was blunter: “We didn’t have the pace to race these guys.”
The GTD entry had a rougher arc. Frankie Montecalvo started the No. 12 in 12th and moved into the top 10 before a speeding violation on pit lane during the second stint dropped the car to the back of the class. Benjamin Pedersen clawed back into the top 10 before handing off to Aaron Telitz, who brought it home ninth. Three drivers, one penalty, nine laps of recovery work.
Telitz framed the result in championship terms: “Tough days when you can still bring it home in the top 10, that’s what championships are made of.” The No. 12 squad’s focus on fuel economy and energy management through what Pedersen described as a demanding, long-lap circuit shaped their strategy throughout, without the payoff they needed.
Lexus enters Sunday’s race with a partnership history at Vasser Sullivan that includes 18 wins, 53 podium finishes, and 29 pole positions with the RC F GT3 across eight seasons together. The 2023 GTD PRO Manufacturers Championship remains the benchmark. Road America added two points-scoring finishes to the ledger without adding to the win column.
Both entries next appear at VIRginia International Raceway on August 23 for a GT-only sprint race, a format that removes the endurance fuel and strategy variables that complicated Sunday’s result. Whether the pace deficit Hawksworth named is a Road America anomaly or something the team needs to work through before VIR is the real question heading into the off-weekend.
Source: Lexus. Images courtesy of Lexus.
