Telitz: “Awesome” to Take Vasser Sullivan, Lexus Back to Victory

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Aaron Telitz said it was an “awesome” feeling to bring Vasser Sullivan Racing and Lexus back to victory lane in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship after a two-year winless streak in both GTD Pro and GTD competition.

Telitz teamed with new-for-2026 co-driver Benjamin Pedersen to take top GTD class honors in Saturday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, following a charge to the front of the pack in the second half of the 100-minute race.

While the No. 36 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of class pole-sitter Robert Wickens held command of the first stanza, the No. 12 Lexus RC F GT3 came alive when Telitz got behind the wheel.

“That stint was a lot of fun,” he said. “I got the car from Benjamin and we actually cycled up to third.

“At the restart, there were a couple restarts back to back and I made one move on the first restart and another move on the second one.

“As soon as I got in the car, I just had one goal, and that was to get to the front and get this Vasser Sullivan team another victory.

“We’ve gone a long time without a win and everyone on the team felt that. It was awesome to be able to secure that and bring it home.”

When asked about his move on the DXDT Corvette, with Mason Filippi then at the wheel, Telitz believed the restart was his best chance to make a move.

“The Lexus RC F GT3 fires off really well on restarts,” he said. “It gets the tires going really quickly. I thought any restart was my chance to pounce.

“The 36 Corvette has been really good all weekend as well. But I feel that they maybe didn’t turn on the tires quite as quickly.

“He got a little bit of a bad run out of [Turn] 6, and I was able to make the move down into [Turn] 8 and make it stick.”

Telitz and Pedersen, in only his third race for the team, have now moved into third in the championship, 130 points behind Heart of Racing’s Eduardo Barrichello, who continues to lead the title race.

“This early in GTD, it comes down to the last couple of races,” said Telitz. “I know last year, there was one car that ran away with it.

“It’s not looking that way this year. It looks absolutely wide open. There’s five, six cars in the running, legitimately, that can win this thing.

“We just came off our first solid result of the year, so to be in third feels good. If we could just keep having good races, we don’t need to light the world on fire, we just need solid races, and we’ll stay in the hunt.

“Hopefully we’ll come to Petit [Le Mans] and be right there.”

No. 89 Lexus Left With “Mixed Feelings” After Comeback Drive to Fifth

Frankie Montecalvo said he and Jack Hawksworth were left with some disappointment after missing out on the class win in their guest No. 89 Lexus entry, which initially scored pole but was moved to the rear of the starting field due to a technical infraction.

Hawksworth, meanwhile, ran long in the car to eventually lead the race in class but then lost out on their strategy due to a yellow.

“Jack and I controlled most of the weekend, and put the car on pole for a perfect starting position,” said Montecalvo. “Sadly, we couldn’t take the green flag from there, so we decided to mix it up and have Jack start the race.

“He did an awesome job and actually drove straight through the field.

“We did everything we needed to do to get it done, and we were in the lead there with Jack, but we caught a yellow before we pitted. That took us out of contention.

“After we did our stop, we were in the back a little bit, but fought our way back up. All-in-all, good day for the team. Happy for the No. 12 team to be able to get this win.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John