For what is set to be the Lexus RC F GT3’s final year in IMSA competition, Vasser Sullivan Racing has reunited its dream team of Ben Barnicoat and Jack Hawksworth.
Barnicoat and Hawksworth spent three seasons as co-drivers in GTD PRO from 2022 to 2024, earning victories at Motul Petit Le Mans and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, and winning the 2023 GTD PRO Drivers’ championship.
The pair were separated last year, with Hawksworth moving over to the sister GTD entry, but the decision has been made to bring the pair back together for 2026, as Vasser Sullivan looks to rebound from its first-ever winless IMSA campaign.
The Britons will once again be joined by IndyCar Series star Kyle Kirkwood for the endurance rounds, making experience and familiarity the key for VSR as it aims to finally win the 24 Hours of Daytona, with comfortably the oldest car in the GT field.
“It’s actually the first time since my first race for the team that it’s just been myself, Jack and Kyle,” Barnicoat tells DSC.
“In 2022 we had that line up here at Daytona. Then ’23, ’24, ’25, in the #14 there’s always been some kind of variation, someone new coming in. It’s massively exciting that this feels like our best man forward for this 24-hour race. Together as a trio, we won Sebring, Petit Le Mans, so we’re very excited for the year, very excited to be here this weekend with that line-up.”
2026 is Kirkwood’s seventh consecutive season in a Michelin Endurance Cup role for Vasser Sullivan, making him amongst the most experienced third drivers in the field. This offers a notable advantage to Vasser Sullivan, with them not having to dedicate any time to the 27-year-old learning about the team, car, track, or IMSA style of racing.
“Kyle’s firstly a fantastic driver. Just look at what he’s achieved across his junior open wheel career, also what he’s achieved in IndyCar,” Barnicoat explains.
“But he’s also such a great personality, he’s been a part of the team for a long time. Everyone knows him really well. He knows the car really well. And I don’t think you could really get a better fit for the endurance role, on all grounds, personality and driving ability. He just gets in the car, no matter what the handling is, gets on with his job.”
“And not only that, we’re here for two weeks. You’ve got to have good team camaraderie and have someone that you enjoy being around. And he definitely ticks every box. So we’re lucky to have him every year. I think we kind of worry that he’ll end up going elsewhere, especially with the Andretti ties to GTP, but we’re hanging on to him, and hopefully this is the year that we get him a watch.”
Vasser Sullivan Racing has arrived at Daytona following an off-season featuring significant news regarding the team’s future, with the long-awaited official launch of Toyota’s new GR GT3 last month.
The four-litre, twin-turbo V8-powered machine is expected to replace the RC F GT3 from next season onwards, and both Barnicoat and Hawksworth, as well as the team, have been involved in its development process.
“It was really fun to play a part in developing the car and seeing it kind of come from the ground up,” Hawksworth says.
“A lot of really clever people have worked on it, and I think the car looks great. I was glad the reaction to the car seemed to be really positive. We’re obviously excited for this season and what’s ahead of us right now, but long term, we’re also kind of chomping at the bits to get that car in a race situation.
“The car is very, very different to the RC F. Front-engined still, but other than that, everything is different. I think it has a slightly wider working window than the RC F, and I think it’ll be a really, really competitive GT3 car on every single type of circuit we go to, which is obviously always the most important thing with the GT3 car.”
Although incredibly successful in IMSA, and also in Japan, throughout its life cycle the RC F GT3 has failed to secure a significant hold on the customer GT3 marketplace, especially in Europe.
One of the key targets for the GR GT3 was to make it more driver-friendly, which potentially opens up the opportunity for Toyota to develop a global customer racing programme similar to many of its GT3 rivals.
“As professional racing drivers, you want to race every week, and when you compare our programme against the likes of other manufacturers, their top factory guys are racing every week in a different series somewhere around the world,” Barnicoat says.
“And I think that’s obviously what we would like to do. A lot of the focus around this new platform is to make it more customer friendly, and more accessible to all these markets. It’s exciting for us that it’s going to hopefully open doors to allow us to take on more of the big races, things like Bathurst, Spa 24 Hours, just giving us more opportunity to go and win.
“We’ve been lucky to do a lot of writing the history books for the US success of Lexus, and I think we’re looking forward to hopefully getting the opportunity to continue writing that history further around the world.”
Focusing on the immediate future, however, it’s clear that the pair only have one piece of history on their minds at the moment: winning next weekend’s Rolex 24 At Daytona.
“This has been eluding us for a while,” Hawksworth admits.
“I can’t imagine what it would be like to win this thing. It would be so special. We’re going to go out there and give it our best, and if it happens, it happens, and fantastic. To be honest, it would be unbelievable, so we’re definitely chasing it and putting our best foot forward.”
Images © IMSA, Toyota, dailysportscar.com
