Vasser Sullivan Lexus Closes Out 2026 With a Battle at Petit Le Mans

The 2026 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season came to a close at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta with the 10-hour Petit Le Mans, and the Vasser Sullivan Lexus team gave everything they had in a dramatic season finale that had all the hallmarks of endurance racing at its most compelling. When the dust settled, the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 finished 10th in GTD PRO and the No. 12 Lexus RC F GT3 came home 11th in GTD, capping a 2026 season that included three wins, four podiums, and three pole positions.

The story of the No. 14 entry of Jack Hawksworth, Ben Barnicoat, and Kyle Kirkwood is one of the most dramatic of the entire season finale. The team led an extraordinary 126 laps around the 12-turn, 2.54-mile Georgia road course and spent the majority of the race in or near the top five. They rolled the dice on strategy multiple times throughout the day, and it kept working, until a fuel stop in the closing laps while running in the top five dropped them back to 10th at the checkered flag.

Adding to the challenge, the car’s cool suits failed just two hours into the race, meaning all three drivers endured the Georgia heat without their primary cooling systems for the better part of eight hours.

“We were first, we were last, and we were first again,” Barnicoat said. “The cool suits failed two hours into the race and we all had to dig as deep as we could. We were so close, but we lost it at the end. That’s racing. We literally gave it everything we had today.”

Hawksworth echoed the sentiment: “We rolled the dice on strategy quite a bit and a lot of it worked out. We had really good pace in clean air but struggled when we were in traffic. We gave it everything but came up a bit short with fuel at the end.”

Kirkwood summed up a day that was full of near-misses: “We put ourselves in many positions to win the race and unfortunately none of those ended up panning out. We played the right strategies and did everything in our power to get ourselves into the lead, which we did. Just didn’t work out today.”

The No. 12 entry of Aaron Telitz, Frankie Montecalvo, and Benjamin Pedersen was on course for a strong result before contact from an LMP2 competitor during Montecalvo’s stint caused significant damage and sent the car to pit lane for extensive repairs. The team returned to the race 12 laps down in 16th place, a seemingly insurmountable deficit with hours still remaining.

What followed was a testament to the resilience of the entire Vasser Sullivan crew. The driver trio clawed back position after position over the remaining hours, recovering five laps and four places to finish 11th in GTD. It was not the result the speed of the car deserved, but it was a display of character that defined the team’s 2026 season.

“Our Vasser Sullivan crew never quit,” Telitz said. “We clawed back five laps over the course of the next seven hours and brought our RC F home 11th. What a great 10 years it’s been for that car with Vasser Sullivan.”

Despite the heartbreak of the finale, the 2026 season was a strong one for the Vasser Sullivan Lexus program. Three wins, four podiums, and three pole positions across the IMSA season represent a program that competed at the front consistently and proved the Lexus RC F GT3 is a genuine championship contender. The foundation is there, and the team heads into the offseason with plenty to build on.

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