Barnicoat Initially Thought APR Silverstone Call was ‘Prank’

Silverstone European Le Mans Series victor Ben Barnicoat admitted that he initially thought his late call to drive for the Algarve Pro Racing squad last weekend would be a ‘prank.’

Barnicoat triumphed in the 4 Hours of Silverstone having been drafted in by team boss Stewart Cox the previous week to drive the No. 25 Oreca 07 Gibson alongside Jake Hughes and Matthias Kaiser in place of Tristan Vautier.

A storming performance from Barnicoat in wet conditions enabled him to rise from seventh to the victory in the final stint as the Briton claimed his first ELMS win since 2023 and the team’s first outright triumph for three years.

However, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Lexus RC F GT3 regular Barnicoat said his path to the Silverstone seat was a “funny story” as he believed the initial call from Cox just over a week before the ELMS event was going to be the latest joke between the pair.

“In drivers’ briefings in IMSA, Stewart often rings me as a joke to make sure my phone’s on silent and it doesn’t disturb the meeting,” Barnicoat explained to Sportscar365.

“I was in Road Atlanta testing on Wednesday last week and I get this phone call off Stewart and I was about to sign on for the day and I was thinking, ‘He’s going to be around here somewhere, he’s pranking me.’

“I answered it and it turns out he asked me what I was doing this weekend.

“Obviously we had to go through a little bit of getting permission from Lexus to make it happen, so it was sorted on Friday last week.

“I’m very grateful to Stewart for the call but also everyone at Gazoo Racing USA and Vasser Sullivan for allowing me to be here and do it and make the most of the opportunity.”

While Barnicoat joked in the post-race press conference that the victory on his first ELMS outing since 2023 was “not too bad for a GT driver,” he does have plenty of LMP2 experience.

He tackled this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans for AF Corse, finishing second in the Pro-Am class and previously won the division in 2024.

“I did a lot of testing with AF Corse to be ready for that, so I’ve done a good amount in the LMP2 car this year so it wasn’t completely blind eyes to it,” Barnicoat added.

“The team were very professional and I have nothing but good things to say about everyone at Algarve Pro Racing — they prepared me excellently and I had everything I needed to be up to speed.

“I proved it there — I did have to go forward and overtake cars but nonetheless you can’t do that stuff without a good car underneath you.”

Barnicoat said he was unsure if he would continue with APR for the Portimao season finale next month, but is keen for another outing.

“Obviously, as a racing driver, you always want to be in the best opportunities with the best teams and that’s how you get the best CVs,” he said.

“This is certainly a very fast team with a very fast car so I would love to be back and just wait and see what happens.”     

Team regular Kaiser, who had never previously won in the ELMS and admitted to struggling to watch the closing stages, had run second in the opening minutes before admitting he took too much life out of his tires and dropped back in the second stint.

Hughes then faced a tricky spell on slick tires on the wet track, which he successfully negotiated to take his first victory in sports cars.

“It was definitely about survival in the middle part of the race for me,” said the former single-seater ace.

“I managed to hand the car over to Ben in a good condition and he was able to capitalize.

“It was the first time I had driven the car in the wet in race conditions so managing traffic and trying to see the GT cars and LMP3 cars and them seeing you coming was a new phenomenon for me. I managed to have a go at that quite well.

“Every forecast we looked at said it was going to rain at some point, maybe before the start of the race or maybe towards the start but I don’t think we expected that continuous rain.

“It was a win at home, first win in sports cars, first win in endurance racing — really proud to do it with these boys.”