100 and Counting for Hawksworth, Lexus
Brandon Badraoui/Lumen Digital Agency/IMSA
By Dennis Krause
For Jack Hawksworth, Saturday’s Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring represents a career milestone — 100 starts for Lexus in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
“Yeah, it's crazy, really,” Hawksworth noted. “Time flies, and obviously, I've been fortunate enough to be with Lexus for the best time. For a decade now, we've competed in a lot of races together, 100 to be exact, and will be after this weekend's Sebring race. But, yeah, there’s been a lot of pretty good moments, and some so not so good moments.
“It's been really cool to kind of be part of the part of this family and be a part of the success and the championships and the race wins that we've been able to have. It’s been the highlight of my career to be with this brand and to do it for so long.”
The driver of the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC-F GT3 in Grand Touring Daytona PRO (GTD PRO) has 12 class wins to his credit, the most recent of which came at the 2024 edition of the Sebring 12 hours.
Hawksworth admits the 100-race milestone with Lexus in IMSA kind of snuck up on him.
Michael L. Levitt/Lumen Digital Agency/IMSA
“Well, until about a week ago, I had no idea. And then our PR team at Lexus reached out and told me that it was my 100th race. So, my reaction initially was kind of just shock, really, that I've done that many races with Lexus. It's gone very, very quickly. It’s just a number, right? The stats that you want are the win stats and the podium stats. But the stat to have started 100 races with the same manufacturer, that's kind of like, yeah, I think it's cool and I look back a little bit and kind of just realize the whole journey we've been on right from the beginning of this program.
“You can kind of link me almost with the start of the Vasser Sullivan program and the start of the RC F GT3 racing in America and to see where the program has come from those early days, you know, the beginning of 2017 to kind of where we are now. I feel we're a factor pretty much at any race, on any given day that we can win as a race team. I think it's cool to look back on. I'm proud of the fact that I've been on that journey the whole way and been able to work with some really good people and a really good organization.
“So, yeah, it took me by surprise a bit. It certainly wasn't on my radar, but yes, it's nice to kind of look back at the journey we've been on and I'm very fortunate that I've been kind of a part of it from the very beginning.”
It’s no secret that the current Lexus RC F GT3 is the oldest car in the GTD PRO class and the Vasser Sullivan team has pretty much wrung out all the performance gains to be had from the current model. But, according to Hawksworth, the team is not just treading water until the new car arrives next season.
“I mean, that’s certainly not our mindset. We feel like we're a better race team this year than we were last year, and we've made some good progress over the off season. We got a stellar driver lineup, stellar engineering, stellar mechanics. Yes, the car's a little bit old, but you know, this is a BoP (Balance of Performance) championship. So, there should be eventually some equivalency across the board. If that’s what we've got this week, we're going to be in the hunt. There's no doubt about it.
Brandon Badraoui/Lumen Digital Agency/IMSA
“At Daytona, we obviously were facing a straight-line deficit, which we could see in practice, which was going to be a problem for us in the race. We kind of knew that it was going to be tough because we'd practiced there. We kind of knew where we were at whilst this weekend, it's a fresh weekend, very different style of track. Hopefully the field is tighter, and we plan on being in the fight. So, no, we think we can be good. We're going to try and be good, that's for sure.”
While Daytona wasn’t what the team had hoped for, Hawksworth believes Sebring can springboard the team for the rest of the season.
“I hope so. I mean, it's a much more similar track to the rest of the series. If you look at Daytona, it's very, very straight orientated. Generally, the cars that are faster, the ones that, you know, the ones that win, you have to be good in sector three.
“This track has a very more similar style to every other track that we go to. So, I feel like this will be a more representative kind of look at how maybe the rest of the season will play out. Yeah, the last two years we've had a really bad Daytona and then we bounce back pretty good at Sebring. We obviously won in 2024, which was awesome. And then second place finish last year.
“So hopefully we can turn it around. I certainly feel that the race team we have is capable of winning this weekend or being in the fight. So, we'll just have to see. The competition is tough. We'll do our best.”
Richard Dole/LAT Images/IMSA
There’s no arguing that the Lexus works well at the 3.74-mile Sebring circuit, a bumpy, old, former World War II training base for the United States Army Air Force.
“Yeah, it’s a hard one to kind of put your finger on,” said Hawksworth. “It's certainly been a good track for us. I think we've gone second, first and second there, the last three years across the two classes (GTD PRO and GTD). It seems to be a good track for us. I mean, the track's got a bit of everything. It's got high speed corners, slow speed, really bumpy in certain areas. It's quite a high grip, but then you have quite high tire degradation. So, there's a lot to the circuit.
“In terms of why we've done well there, honestly, I haven't got a good answer for you other than, I feel like as a race team, it's a really tough race. It's tough on the car, tough on the reliability of the car, tough on the team, tough on the drivers, with the heat and everything. I feel like as a team, we're really, really strong. We got good mechanics, good engineers, good driver lineup and a car that we know really well, and we know can be reliable.
“So, I think you go to a track like Sebring, you go to a race, either the Twelve Hours of Sebring or similar, that stuff generally puts you in good stead. So, yeah, it's been a good spot for us and hopefully we can kind of keep that keep that trend going.”
Joining Hawksworth and co-driver Ben Barnicoat this weekend will be Kyle Kirkwood. Coming off a win in the IndyCar series last weekend, Hawksworth hopes Kirkwood will bring some of that winning mojo with him.
“It's definitely nice that he's coming off a win and joining us at Sebring. Kyle's had a great start to the IndyCar season, and we've all been cheering him on. For me, it’s kind of got me back into watching IndyCar a little bit with him racing over there and just kind of seeing his success this season's been really cool. So, I know he's riding high off the back of that victory last weekend, so we're hoping he brings that speed and hopefully that winning feeling to our race team this weekend. It's cool Kyle is with us, he's been with the team a long time and seeing his success in the IndyCar side is awesome. We're lucky to have him in the racecar with myself and Ben.”
A win at Sebring this weekend would be the prefect way to mark Hawksworth’s centenary with Lexus.
Dennis Krause has spent decades covering all forms of motorsports, including over 40 Indianapolis 500s, with stints at WIBA Radio, PIT PASS - Radio’s Premier Motorsports Magazine and Motorsports Minute. Follow him on X @DennisKrause500 or motorsportsminute.bluesky.social or motorsportsminute on Threads or MotorsportsMinute+ on Facebook.