EY UP (AND UP AND UP) LADS
Have you heard the one about two northerners driving for a Japanese manufacturer in America’s top sportscar series? Time to sit down and talk with Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat about racing across the pond… and your accent being mistaken for Australia
Lexus is perhaps an unlikely manufacturer to take motor racing, but Toyota’s luxury brand has been developing a sportier edge for quite some time and enters its sixth year in the IMSA Sportscar Championship with two Brits driving its GTD Pro class entry.
Jack Hawksworth has been with Lexus’s programme since the beginning, following a three-year stint in Indycar that peaked with a podium in Houston. This year, the 31-year-old West Yorkshireman is joined by Ben Barnicoat, who hails from across the border in Derbyshire. Despite their proximity, and similar karting careers, they’d never actually met until Hawksworth saw the opportunity to bring 25-year-old Barnicoat on board…
Jack:“ben’s Chesterfield and I’m Bradford.” Ben:“we are probably 45 minutes to an hour’s drive apart… It really is funny that we’d never spoken before.” Jack:“we even had the same kart mechanic a few times!”
Their ride is the thunderous five-litre, V8-powered RC F, which is based on the steel bodyshell that began life on the production line – unlike some of its class rivals that were purpose-built with allcarbon monocoques. The removal of the GTLM (GTE Pro in World Endurance-speak) class has allowed for GTD (GT3) to be the premier GT class in IMSA, with the rules opened up for a pro-pro driver line up – called, aptly enough, GTD Pro.
“It’s something I’m super-excited about,”says Hawksworth.
“Since I came into the series I wanted to see a simplified GT class that had all the best drivers. At the Rolex 24 we had 35 cars running to the same regulations, a huge GT3 field. It’s really good for the racing.”
Hawksworth’s six wins for Lexus over the past three seasons have marked him out as their lead driver, while Barnicoat comes aboard after a successful transition from single-seaters to sportscars in
2017 as a factory Mclaren driver until now.“i was very fortunate,” says Barnicoat.“i had a great season last year and I had a lot of good offers. This was the one that excited me the most. It’s always great to be a factory driver, a lot of credibility comes with it, you feel the support of the manufacturer. Having a great team-mate in Jack comes into it; he’s one of the best drivers in IMSA right now.
So being a part of this brand and its trajectory means a lot.”
Paddock rumour suggests Hawksworth was key in the Vasser Sullivan team signing Barnicoat in the first place. Is that true?“waaay above my pay grade,”quips Hawksworth.“i was somewhat involved in that. Obviously I’ve been here a long time, so the team clearly values my opinion and they do ask from time to time what I think.
“I knew they were looking for an additional guy, either for the
Pro seat in the [Pro-am] #12 or the #14 [the all-pro car, which is joined in endurance races by Indycar star rookie Kyle Kirkwood]. I was keen on getting the best team-mate I can have, not only for the team but to keep me on my toes. We met up a couple of times, sat and had a coffee on the M1.
“Ben stood out because he was the fastest guy in the Mclaren. Pole positions in GT [World Challenge] Europe, and running up front at
Spa – that made him the ideal candidate. He’s done all the big races in Europe, he’s shown he’s got the pace and can bring home results, like he did at Spa. He was the obvious choice.
“I knew of him through karting, obviously a nine-time Kartmasters champion [there’s a nod towards Barnicoat at this point that suggests an equal mix of admiration and jealousy!] and being a Brit, we caught up prior to all this happening and it just went from there. We come from the same part of the world, and grew up doing the same things, but there was a five-year offset between us. I heard of this Ben Barnicoat guy but we never spoke because he was a good bit younger.”
For Barnicoat, this is a big step out of his European comfort zone, but a huge opportunity to keep enhancing his already glowing reputation. “I’m new to the programme, obviously Jack’s been here for a long time,” says Barnicoat.“it’s my first season racing full-time in America and IMSA, I’m looking forward to it massively, but I’ve got five seasons of sportscar racing under my belt in Europe. America is somewhere I’ve always wanted to race, so when this opportunity arose I couldn’t say no to it. The Lexus family is great; me and Jack get on like a house on fire. Our chemistry is great, the team is totally nailed in, and we’re all working really well together as we strive to be as competitive as we can.
“I had a great season last year, and the timing worked out well as I was just coming out of my previous contract [with Mclaren] and Lexus were looking for a new guy to partner Jack in this exciting GTD Pro category. The rules being stabilised to the GT3 platform gave Lexus the opportunity it’s rightly earned, and they’re giving us great support, along with TRD [Toyota Racing Development], to extract some performance out of the car as we take on the Pro class. Going up against the likes of Corvette and Ferrari in this class is great for the brand.”
Most of Barnicoat’s GT experience is in mid-engined machinery, although he’s proved he can get the job done in a front-engined car – he won this year’s Gulf 12 Hours in a Mercedes.“i’m certainly going through an adaptation period,”he admits,“but there’s nobody better to drive with than Jack, who’s been in this car for six years. I feel like I’m getting better and better every time I drive it, and I’m feeling a lot more comfortable now. In the high-pressure moments, when everything is right on the edge, it takes a little more concentration than it did naturally in the Mclaren, but that’ll come with time in the car.”
Hawksworth chimes in:“that’s the nice thing about starting with Daytona and Sebring – you get so much drive time in the races, you’ll have eight hours and four hours, so by the time you get into the sprint
season, you feel in tune with the vehicle and the team.”
To help with that learning process, the two Brits – together with Kirkwood – spent a good deal of time together as the Daytona 24 Hours approached.
Ben:“we’ve been training a lot at TPC, Toyota’s facility in Charlotte, doing a lot of heat room work and stuff like that.”
Jack:“we’ve had a mini training camp with Kyle and we all stayed together in Charlotte. It’s been good fun. You build that team bond, push each other. It was a good couple of weeks in the lead-up to Daytona.”
And how was the downtime between the training? Jack:“i was cooking mainly, I’m like the dad of the team.” Ben:“he’ll make a great husband for someone! He makes good porridge.”
Jack:“good porridge and good pasta. Kyle made a few bits and bobs but he left a lot of mess behind!”
Their camaraderie and banter are helping Barnicoat get up to speed with US racing culture: “I’m really enjoying America, and I’m feeling really at home with the team. It’s one of the few times I’ve not driven for a British team, apart from Le Mans with Kessel/inception, but it’s my first out-of-british culture that I’ve experienced, which is odd given how long I’ve been racing. It’s been a pleasure so far.”
One thing that stands out in our interview is that, despite his nine years of racing in the US – he’s lived in St Petersburg, Houston, Michigan and Charlotte in that time – Hawksworth has lost none of his broad Yorkshire accent.“i certainly haven’t lost that and it’ll probably only get worse now Ben’s here!”he laughs.“which is fine until you go to a Starbucks drivethrough and nobody understands what you’re saying! They think you’re an Australian.”
Ben:“even I’ve had that, and I’ve only been here five minutes!” Lexus’s IMSA operation has also been a little nomadic, starting with 3GT Racing for a couple of years, then AIM Vasser Sullivan (based in Canada) for a pair of seasons, and now with Vasser Sullivan now solely in charge.
“When it moved to Charlotte last year, as Vasser Sullivan, it was basically a fresh start,”says Hawksworth.“with that, you inevitably get a few teething problems, and now we’ve had an off season to work on them. I feel like we had a good foundation last year, but now I think we’ve got everything ironed out and we’re ready to go compete straight away. We’ve taken a good base and just made it better, especially with Ben coming on board. We have to knuckle down now and deliver results.”
That began with a solid fourth place finish in the season-opening Daytona 24 Hours, where Porsche dominated the GT class, and Ferrari only just got the better of the Lexus in the final hour. Being in the mix with these premium performance marques is the whole point of Lexus racing this car – and the reason it signed these two northern hotshots.
“I’M REALLY ENJOYING THE U.S. IT’S MY FIRST OUT-OF-BRITISH CULTURE I’VE EXPERIENCED”