Kyle Kirkwood believes Vasser Sullivan will want a miracle to battle on the entrance on this weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, admitting the Lexus RC F GT3 faces a 1.5s deficit to the leaders.
Lexus’s long-running GT3 contender is getting into the ultimate 12 months of its lifecycle within the 2026 IMSA SportsCar Championship, forward of the debut of the brand new Toyota GR GT3 subsequent 12 months.
Regardless of tracing its origins to 2017, the RC F GT3 has remained largely aggressive in IMSA and different championships, with Vasser Sullivan duo Ben Barnicoat and Jack Hawksworth successful the GTD Professional title in 2023 with the V8-powered automobile.
Nevertheless, with the likes of Porsche, Ferrari and Ford introducing evo updates to their GT3 machines this 12 months, and Lamborghini unveiling an all-new automobile based mostly on the Temerario, Lexus faces an more and more uphill battle to remain within the combine.
Andretti IndyCar star Kirkwood stays assured within the RC F GT3, which he described as stunning, however admitted that it’s starting to indicate indicators of age in its ninth 12 months of competitors.
“[The car is] just about on the ceiling right here, from my understanding,” the American instructed Motorsport.com.
“[But] that is extra of an engineering query, proper? As drivers, we’re assured on this gear. Not that way back, this automobile received a championship. We received a number of the greatest races of the 12 months a pair years in the past.”
#14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3: Jack Hawksworth, Ben Barnicoat, Kyle Kirkwood
Photograph by: Jake Galstad / Lumen by way of Getty Photos
Requested how the automobile has developed over time, he added: “Fairly regular, comparable over the previous few years. I might say what makes the most important distinction is the type of personnel you could have round us, the execution – that is what we had after we received the championship only a couple years in the past.
“I believe this 12 months [it has been] like an entire revamp, reset, [to] perceive what we have to do higher, a variety of inflow of personnel, some mind energy, and hopefully just a little little bit of growth.
“I might say set up-wise, we’re not loopy completely different over the previous couple years right here. Possibly fairly a bit completely different from 5 years in the past. However, it is attention-grabbing how this factor has developed.
“We continuously drag just a little bit out of it, however it’s extra condition-based than something. And we all know what we received. Everybody type of is aware of what we received at this level. And nonetheless hold trucking alongside and attempting to get some wins out of this outdated lady.”
Whereas Kirkwood retains religion within the ageing idea, significantly over the course of a full season, the Daytona weekend has uncovered simply how robust the battle might be for Vasser Sullivan.
Kirkwood and team-mates Barnicoat and Hawksworth certified twelfth out of 15 GTD Professional runners within the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus, ending up greater than 9 tenths down on the #3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R wherein Alexander Sims claimed pole place.
#3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R: Antonio Garcia, Alexander Sims, Marvin Kirchhöfer
Photograph by: Brandon Badraoui / Lumen by way of Getty Photos
Whereas a race like Daytona isn’t all the time determined by uncooked tempo, the 27-year-old admitted that the North Carolina-based squad will want all the things to fall into place to attain a giant consequence on Sunday.
Regardless of coming shut on a number of events, together with a second-place end in 2019, Lexus has by no means scored a category win within the Florida endurance basic.
“We’d like a few second and a half of tempo, some miracles, some technique. yellows falling our method,” he stated. “We’d like a variety of issues to assist us out right here, if I am being trustworthy. We’re not in a incredible place. A miracle must occur for us to be up entrance at this level.
“We’re doing all the things proper. The automobile feels superb. We’re all saying the identical issues. It feels good, however we simply do not have outright tempo.
“So heads down, we’re attempting to determine what we are able to do right here. Hopefully, the race type of falls our method and we get fortunate with some issues. However in the end, it is not going to be a simple one for us.”
Vasser Sullivan has additionally entered a Lexus RC F GT3 within the pro-am GTD class, with Aaron Telitz, Benjamin Pedersen, Frankie Montecalvo and Esteban Masson sharing the driving duties within the #12 automobile.
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