ALTON, Va. (August 24, 2025) –The Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3s battled hard in Sunday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Virginia International Raceway. Ben Barnicoat and Aaron Telitz earned an eighth-place result in the GTD PRO category in the No. 14 Lexus, while Jack Hawksworth and Parker Thompson finished ninth in the GTD class behind the wheel of the No. 12 RC F GT3.
The Vasser Sullivan team started off the weekend with a GTD pole position, as Jack Hawksworth piloted the No. 12 Lexus to lead the class to green. However, Hawksworth received a penalty early in the event, moving him to the back of the field. The penalty did not deter the No. 12 team, as they worked hard to make up ground during the remainder of the 2 hour, 40 minute race, with Hawksworth eventually giving way to co-driver Parker Thompson, who brought home a ninth-place finish in class.
The No. 14 Lexus had a challenging qualifying session in GTD PRO, but showed tremendous fight from the drop of the green flag. With the less than ideal starting position, the No. 14 team hoped to employ some alternate strategies to gain precious track position, but unfortunately the cautions did not fall to their benefit, ending with an eighth-place result.
The Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3s return to action for the six-hour Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, September 21, the penultimate race of the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech Championship. To keep up with all the racing action, follow Lexus Racing on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok by using #LexusPerformance.
We had a great start to the weekend. We didn’t have the pace but we were able to have a really good qualifying session yesterday and start in the front. We got a good start to the race, but we received the drive thru penalty. From that point on in a race like this, your day is going to be a difficult on because it’s all about track position. That was the biggest hurdle for us.
-Jack Hawksworth
Obviously a disappointing day for our Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 team. I’m already looking ahead and we’ll focus on what we can do to have a great run at Indianapolis.
-Parker Thompson
We tried our best and our best was a P8. Don’t feel like we could have done a lot different out there to change our end result, in all honesty. We had a clean start and the guys did a fantastic job in the pits and I feel like we made the best strategy calls we could. Ultimately, we were lacking some speed this weekend and it showed up in the race. It wasn’t for lack of effort from everyone from Vasser Sullivan and Lexus Racing, but we’ll analyze and see if there is anything we can do to improve things for the Indianapolis six-hour race.
-Ben Barnicoat
A really tough day here from the start with our Lexus RC F, we just didn’t seem to have the pace here. We had a tough start and fell back a little bit. Just never got in a groove and never got going. All of our strategy gambles that we tried didn’t play out with the way the cautions fell, so unfortunately P8 was the best we had today. We’ll regroup and see where we can improve and come back swinging at Indianapolis.
-Aaron Telitz