Overnight dramas at the Daytona 24 for Ben as the IMSA championship gets started

It was a tough start to Ben’s 2025 campaign as the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship commenced in Florida. The 63rd running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona signaled the start of the new season, and Ben worked hard with his Vasser Sullivan teammates to bring home a result despite struggling for outright pace. However, an incident during the hours of darkness, resulted in damage which would require extensive repairs, ending any hopes of a strong result. Despite the setback, the team returned to the track, and brought the #14 Lexus RC F GT3 home, P11 in the GTD Pro class.

Running with Aaron Telitz, his 2025 full IMSA partner, alongside endurance teammates Townsend Bell and Kyle Kirkwood, the quartet had qualified down the order for the season-opener. The race got underway with the bold fluro yellow and black Lexus staying out of trouble, and climbing the order during the opening hours.

Early pitstop penalties hampered progress but, as the sun started to set, the team had climbed to just outside the top-10 in class, and Ben took to the track for his first stint just before the six hour mark. From here, Ben immediately set about building on the gains already achieved, and steadily worked his way up the order, helping to move the #14 as high as P7 as the race approaching middle distance, now under the cover of darkness. After bringing his multiple stint to a close, progress continued before the challenge was brought to a premature end after contact for one of Ben’s teammates, resulting in suspension damage. After recovering to pitlane, the team was quick to react, taking the car behind the wall to complete the necessary works.

A total of 20 laps were lost during the repairs, but the #14 returned to the track, and then ran a clean remainder of the race. Ben and his teammates delivered faultless stints, running their own race, and working to chip away at the overall position across the following hours. Incidents, several Full Course Yellow cautions, and pitstop strategies enabled them to recover as the clock ticked down, moving back inside the top-40 overall with four hours remaining. A hugely action-packed final hour saw the final order across all classes changing until the final lap, and eventually saw the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F successfully close out the first race of the season. The end result was just outside the top-10, taking a P11 finish in the GTD Pro class, moving up to P36 overall.

After the chequered flag, Ben explained:

“Obviously, it was a gruelling Daytona 24 hours., which definitely threw its challenges at us. I am still very proud of this Vasser Sullivan and Lexus Racing team for just having that ‘never say die’ attitude, and always digging deep to make the most of all situations.

“We were unfortunate with the contact overnight, but we’ve still got to take away all the positives we can. I feel like the whole team did a great job. We’ve had a few new people join in the off-season, and they’ve all adapted and bonded with the rest of the group quickly. It's been great to get the first race under my belt with Aaron, and kick off our relationship, and obviously it was great to have Kyle join us. I also want to say a big thank you to Townsend, jumping in and doing such a fantastic job. It’s been three years since he raced with us, but you wouldn’t have thought he’s been out of the car for 10 minutes given the job that he’s done.

“Our full focus now is on Sebring, and looking forward to rebounding there, as we did last year.”