Top-6 finish as VIR delivers action-packed race weekend

VIRginia International Raceway was the venue for latest round of the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship, with Ben Barnicoat and his Vasser Sullivan team back in action. The GT-only event had a smaller grid than normal, but maintained all the usual IMSA race action from start to finish, as Ben and his teammate, Jack Hawksworth, battled to a hard fought P6 at the flag.

Heading into the closing stages of the 2024 season, and still in the title fight, Lexus and the Vasser Sullivan team was looking for a strong result as they arrived in Virginia. Early session pace looked strong, and Jack’s qualifying run would eventually see the #14 Lexus RC F GT3 secure a third-row grid slot.

Action got underway in warm temperatures, and things started to heat up immediately after the green flag dropped, with action throughout the field. Jack held position in the GTD Pro class, while making overall gains in the opening 30 minutes, laying solid foundations before the first routine stop with two hours remaining. Shortly after rejoining the track, however, a late lunge from a chasing Porsche resulted in contact, sending the #14 into a spin. Despite losing ground, Jack quickly recovered, and steadily regained ground over the remainder of the stint.

Heading into the final 60-minutes, the GTD field headed for the pitlane for a final routine service, while the Vasser Sullivan team rolled the dice with strategy. With a busy pitlane, the call was made for the #14 to remain on track, gaining positions while running in clear air. The following lap saw a slick stop completed by the crew, with a full service and a switch to Ben for the final sprint to the line.

With the strategies playing out across the field, Ben was back out on track, running in P7, and he wasted no time getting up to speed. From here, he closed down the gap ahead, making a move stick to climb to P6 in the GTD Pro class. Then, with just over two hours of green flag running completed, a Full Course Yellow temporarily halted any further progress. However, with the field bunched up from the restart, Ben immediately took advantage, and gained a further overall position, before an impressive display of defensive driving over the closing laps.

As the laps counting down, further gains would not be possible, but Ben maintained his composure as he came under increasing pressure from the chasing pack. Despite continual attempts to pass, the young Brit held his nerve and performed faultlessly to bring home sixth at the line, scoring a haul of important championship points.

Summarising the weekend, Ben explained:

A very hot day, but, this VIR track is always a pleasure to drive. It’s such a great layout, but it’s very hard for racing and, obviously, we started a little further back than we wanted. I think we made a great strategy call on the first stop to pit a little bit early, but unfortunately, Jack got spun by a competitor on his outlap. If that hadn’t had happened, I think our race would have panned out very differently today. That spin, unfortunately, put us in traffic and it is very hard to overtake. We couldn’t get back out into clean air, so then it was just about getting what we could, and it was a really hard battle at the end for sixth position. We got that job done, and salvaged a few points to close the gap going into the last two races of the year. It was definitely a hard-earned P6, and huge thanks to everyone at Vasser Sullivan and Lexus Racing for giving it their all again this weekend.

With this latest P6 finish, a slight shift in the championship order sees Ben and teammate Jack now fourth in the standings with two rounds remaining. The penultimate event of the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech Sportcar Championship heads to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, 19-22 September, for the Battle on the Bricks.