Aging Lexus “at ceiling” as 1.5s deficit shows at Rolex 24

Kyle Kirkwood believes Vasser Sullivan will need a miracle to fight at the front in 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 entering the final year of its lifecycle in the 2026 IMSA SportsCar Championship, ahead of the debut of the new Toyota GR GT3 next year.

Despite tracing its origins to 2017, the RC F GT3 has remained largely competitive in IMSA and other championships, with Vasser Sullivan duo Ben Barnicoat and Jack Hawksworth winning the GTD Pro title in 2023 with the V8-powered car.

However, with the likes of Porsche, Ferrari and Ford introducing evo updates to their GT3 machines this year, and Lamborghini unveiling an all-new car based on the Temerario, Lexus faces an increasingly uphill fight to stay in the mix.

Andretti IndyCar star Kirkwood remains confident in the RC F GT3, which he described as beautiful, but admitted that it is beginning to show signs of age in its ninth year of competition.

“[The car is] pretty much at the ceiling here, from my understanding,” the American told Motorsport.com. 

“[But] that's more of an engineering question, right? As drivers, we're confident in this equipment. Not that long ago, this car won a championship. We won some of the biggest races of the year a couple years ago.”

#14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3: Jack Hawksworth, Ben Barnicoat, Kyle Kirkwood

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Lumen via Getty Images

Asked how the car has evolved over time, he added: “Pretty steady, similar over the past few years. I'd say what makes the biggest difference is the kind of personnel you have around us, the execution - that's what we had when we won the championship just a couple years ago. 

“I think this year [it has been] like a complete revamp, reset, [to] understand what we need to do better, a lot of influx of personnel, some brain power, and hopefully a little bit of development.

“I'd say set up-wise, we're not crazy different over the past couple years here. Maybe quite a bit different from five years ago. But, it's interesting how this thing has evolved.

“We constantly drag a little bit out of it, but it's more condition-based than anything. And we know what we got. Everyone kind of knows what we got at this point. And still keep trucking along and trying to get some wins out of this old girl.”

While Kirkwood retains faith in the aging concept, particularly over the course of a full season, the Daytona weekend has exposed just how tough the fight could be for Vasser Sullivan.

Kirkwood and team-mates Barnicoat and Hawksworth qualified 12th out of 15 GTD Pro runners in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus, ending up more than nine tenths down on the #3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R in which Alexander Sims claimed pole position.

#3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R: Antonio Garcia, Alexander Sims, Marvin Kirchhöfer

Photo by: Brandon Badraoui / Lumen via Getty Images

While a race like Daytona isn’t always decided by raw pace, the 27-year-old admitted that the North Carolina-based squad will need everything to fall into place to score a big result on Sunday.

Despite coming close on several occasions, including a second-place finish in 2019, Lexus has never scored a class win in the Florida endurance classic.

“We need about a second and a half of pace, some miracles, some strategy. yellows falling our way,” he said. “We need a lot of things to help us out here, if I'm being honest. We're not in a fantastic position. A miracle would have to happen for us to be up front at this point.

“We're doing everything right. The car feels amazing. We're all saying the same things. It feels good, but we just don't have outright pace. 

“So heads down, we're trying to figure out what we can do here. Hopefully, the race kind of falls our way and we get lucky with some things. But ultimately, it's not going to be an easy one for us.”

Vasser Sullivan has also entered a Lexus RC F GT3 in the pro-am GTD class, with Aaron Telitz, Benjamin Pedersen, Frankie Montecalvo and Esteban Masson sharing the driving duties in the #12 car.