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April 3, 2025
By Jeff Olson
IMSA Wire Service
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Everything is different, yet everything is the same.
Jack Hawksworth changed cars, class, co-drivers, engineers and mechanics for the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season – all while staying within the same organization.
After teaming with Parker Thompson and Frankie Montecalvo to finish second in the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class last month in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, Hawksworth’s latest assignment for Vasser Sullivan is rapidly reaching its potential.
For the previous three years, Hawksworth teamed with Ben Barnicoat on the team’s No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 in the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class, winning the class championship in 2023. Before the start of the 2025 season, Hawksworth was moved to the team’s No. 12 Lexus RC F GT3 in GTD.
Same team, different situation. But, as Hawksworth quickly noted, same fun.
“I had such a great time racing on the 14 side of the team for a long time and have a great relationship with those guys, but at the same time it’s been nice to kind of freshen things up a little bit and experience something a little bit different,” he said. “So far, I’ve really enjoyed it.”
Announced before the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona in January, the Vasser Sullivan lineup change placed Barnicoat with Aaron Telitz in the team’s No. 14 Lexus in GTD PRO with Kyle Kirkwood joining for Michelin Endurance Cup races, while Hawksworth teamed with Thompson in the No. 12 Lexus in GTD with Montecalvo joining for endurance races.
Barnicoat, who’s recovering from injuries sustained in a mountain biking accident, was temporarily replaced by Jose Maria Lopez at Sebring.
As in 2024, the team has added a second GTD-only car at Long Beach. Last year it was Barnicoat and Thompson winning the race in the No. 89 Lexus RC F GT3. This year, it’ll be Telitz and Montecalvo.
The primary difference between the two classes is driver designation: GTD PRO allows an open selection of drivers per car, usually those with an FIA rating of Platinum or Gold. GTD requires at least one driver per car with a rating of Bronze or Silver.
The beginning of Vasser Sullivan’s new arrangement wasn’t what Hawksworth expected. He moved the car to third in class as night fell at Daytona before mechanical issues relegated the No. 12 team to an 14th-place finish.
The possibilities shone through at Sebring, however, as Hawksworth, Thompson and Montecalvo secured the runner-up finish, moving them to sixth in points heading to the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 12.
Moving from one side of Vasser Sullivan’s Concord, North Carolina, shop to the other wasn’t a major change, Hawksworth explained, but learning the intricacies of the No. 12 car’s operation – led by engineering team lead Chris Andrews and car chief Jesse Goldin – offered nuance to a newcomer. For most of his Lexus tenure, Hawksworth worked with engineer Geoff Fickling, who’d steered his championship success in both IMSA and Pro Mazda.
”Probably the bigger transition for me has been changing from one side of the team to the other,” Hawksworth said. “I’m working with a different engineer and different mechanics and obviously different co-drivers. Everything is new, if that makes sense. How you get the best out of everybody changes, for sure.”
The best so far was the podium finish at Sebring, a hard-fought result that Thompson credited to Hawksworth – along with much more that his teammates find admirable.
“Jack embodies what it means to be a professional race-car driver,” Thompson said. “I would go as far to say that I don’t know if there is a more dedicated race car driver in sports car racing currently. The guy lives, breathes, eats and sleeps racing. He takes everything to the max.”
Success requires that level of commitment, Hawksworth says, but it also requires an ability to determine what’s important and what isn’t.
“It’s easy to chase the minors and miss the majors, right?” he said. “I feel like where we’ve been good is the basics and the fundamentals that make a strong race team. I feel like we’re trying to major in the majors and not worry too much about the minors. We have a good understanding of what’s important.”
That’s certainly evident at Long Beach, where Barnicoat and Hawksworth won during their GTD PRO championship run in 2023, and where Thompson and Barnicoat won last year in GTD in the No. 89 Lexus.
“The Lexus just works well there,” Hawksworth said. “We’ve been able to qualify well, and it all comes down to qualifying. You’ve got to start up front and get the jump at the start. After that point, it’s so difficult to pass. We’ve always been good at qualifying there.”
That’s not an accident. It’s a design. Success is a matter of analysis, team members say – going over and over the basics to find improvement.
“Rarely do you see a group of guys who have had this much success continue to self-reflect and want to evolve and get better,” Thompson said. “Usually once a team has won championships they can rest on their laurels. … The amount of reports that we generate on everything – pit stops, out laps, in laps – down to the finite details, that’s where we’re trying to get better. It’s impressive.”
Live coverage of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, a 100-minute sprint for Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) and GTD classes, can be seen April 12 at 5 p.m. ET on USA, Peacock, YouTube and imsa.tv.
