Team effort brings home a top-6 finish at Road America

Arriving at Road America with consecutive race wins, Ben Barnicoat and his Vasser Sullivan teammates were looking to build on the momentum. It ended up being a weekend which asked a lot of the whole crew, both on and off track, as the #14 Lexus battled through the field to bring home a hard fought P6. After a tough opening to the weekend, and with the season approaching its conclusion, the result underlined the strength of the team, securing more important championship points.

An incident in the opening practice sessions was an early setback. The team showed their mettle to ensure that the #14 rolled out for qualifying. It was a true team effort which then saw the crew then climb the order from the back of the GTD Pro field, undeterred by the setbacks.

The Sportscar Endurance Grand Prix was action-packed from the very start of the six hours, and the first of multiple cautions was called just after the 10 minute mark. Ben’s teammate Jack took the opening stint, and the #14 started to make progress up the order between the Full Course Yellow interuptions. Ben took over as the race moved into the second hour, as the team had moved inside the top-10.

Pit strategy, further cautions and incidents saw the order shuffled over the following hours, climbing incide the top five before a perfectly-timed strategy call saw the #14 Lexus RC F GT3 enter the pitlane just before a further Full Course Yellow. Quick work by the team on the pit wall and in the pitlane gained further ground, and climbed to P2 with just under two hours remaining. Final fuel strategy and overall pace, with the field now closely grouped together in the closing laps, would see the order switched further as the laps clicked down. Further incidents in the closing minutes brought the race under a caution for a final time, and saw the field brought home behind the Safety Car with the #14 securing a top-six finish at the end of six relentless hours.

Reflecting on the weekend, Ben explained:

“Honestly, I think we owe this result today to the entire Vasser Sullivan racing team to come back from yesterday. The team worked hard to get our car ready for qualifying, but unfortunately, we weren’t able to set a time. On top of that, it was a very interesting race. There were a lot of incidents and a lot of cautions. We were running second there with an hour and 20 to go and that was looking really good, but it just didn’t fall our way. Sixth place was probably about the maximum that we had today. 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. We’ll head to VIR. Hopefully we can find a bit more speed and fight for the win.”

With three rounds remaining, Ben’s IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship campaign now heads to VIRginia International Raceway, 21-23 August.

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