Hawksworth, Barnicoat on Brink of GTD Pro Title

Ben Barnicoat hailed the points cushion for himself and Vasser Sullivan co-driver Jack Hawksworth in the GTD Pro standings going into Motul Petit Le Mans as ‘an amazing position to be in,’ as starting Saturday’s ten-hour enduro will be enough to clinch the championship.

Taking the green flag in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta will be enough for the British duo to lock up the title, succeeding the Pfaff Motorsports pairing of Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell.

After Vasser Sullivan finished last year’s campaign runners-up in the standings behind Pfaff, the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 embarked on a title bid that saw Hawksworth and Barnicoat only finish off the class podium once in the ten races contested so far this season.

This consistency, coupled with two class wins at Long Beach and the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, has given them a 188-point lead over the Corvette Racing duo of Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia, ensuring taking the green flag on Saturday will be enough to be crowned champions.

“It’s an amazing position to be in,” Barnicoat told Sportscar365.

“It’s been a long season, obviously eleven races has been the longest championship out of all the classes.

“It’s been a long point to get here and it is amazing to be in the position we are because had it still been a fight between us and any of the cars, just the way that this race is going to be with the 52 cars, it’s a lot more than last year and last year was mayhem.

“It would have been awful with so much pressure and on the edge, constantly looking in your mirrors and dodging all the cars, it would have been really hard to actually do the job that we normally do.

“Whereas now we’re in a position where we’ve had a great year. Jack’s on fire, the team is on fire. We’ve just got to get to the green flag and then we’re going to go, have fun, do what we’ve done all year and try and win the race like we did last year.

“It’s nice to be under that set of circumstances and just go out and try and do our best.”

Hawksworth added that wrapping up the championship means that Vasser Sullivan will be able to take its strategic focus off its nearest championship rivals and concentrate on the race at large.

“It’s nice as well because we won this race here last year and now we can go into the race that once we’ve taken the green, we can go for the win and whatever the best strategy is to win the race,” said Hawksworth.

“The last few races, fighting the Corvette, it’s kind of been in the back of our mind that we need to beat that car. The strategy has been built around trying to beat one specific car rather than winning the race. It will be nice at this race going into it, trying to win.”

Both drivers pointed to the team’s consistency throughout the campaign as the main driving force behind its impending championship success, with Hawksworth explaining that minimizing costly errors has paved the way to the title.

“If you look at the last five years as a program, we haven’t won any more races this year than we have in years’ past,” said Hawksworth.

“We’ve always won two or three races throughout a season but that’s what we’ve done really well and what we’ve focused on [for a while].

“That’s what the team has done really well at, minimizing mistakes. We’ve made less mistakes than everyone else. It’s not that we’ve been faster or have won more races but we’ve been able to put results out and that’s made the difference.”

Hawksworth, Barnicoat Pick Long Beach Win As Season Highlight

Both drivers picked their commanding class victory in April’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach as the highlight of their championship campaign.

The pair won from pole position on the California street circuit, taking the first of two wins to kickstart their title bid.

“We had such a strong weekend there,” Hawksworth said.

“We rolled off the truck great, we were fast in practice and we got pole and won the race and led every lap. That was pretty special.”

“From a team’s perspective, you could say Watkins Glen was ahead and above. Two cars winning both classes. That was a pretty special event.”

Barnicoat added: “Until Saturday [title win] that has been the greatest day for the program. We had a lot of Lexus executives there that day as well.

“Last year Petit was the first endurance win for the car, so to have done it with two cars at Watkins Glen was incredible as well.

“But I’d agree with Jack. My highlight was Long Beach. We had a great car. It’s obviously an iconic race track. We had a special livery. It was all very much a cool moment. Once we got that first win out of the line, it was a great way to go into the sprint season.

“I’ll be looking forward to Saturday and that green flag and enjoying the moment with everyone here.”

John Dagys contributed to this report