The No. 14 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 has done it again.
Co-drivers Aaron Telitz and Jack Hawksworth backed up a dominant performance two weeks ago in the IMSA WeatherTech 240 At Daytona with their second straight IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT Daytona (GTD) class win.
Telitz started second after qualifying just .067 seconds behind teammate Frankie Montecalvo in the No. 12 Lexus. However, the Wisconsinite quickly found his way to the front on Lap 12 of the 3.74-mile circuit.
It was a crucial final pit stop that put the team in prime position to collect its second victory of 2020. Hawksworth got out in front of the GTD field and only mere car lengths in front of Bill Auberlen, in search of his 61st IMSA victory in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3.
The Brit then opened a gap and sailed away to the win.
“The car was brilliant today and to be honest the strategy was perfect,” said Hawksworth. “The decisions on pit lane, the decision to take four tires at the first stop, put full fuel in for the second and short fill the last, made all the difference. So yeah, the championship is on the line for sure.”
“I mean honestly could it get any better than this at all?” said Telitz, who was named as the car’s second full-time driver just last month. “Two race wins, first two races full time."
Obviously, our Lexus RC F GTD car was just incredible today. We had to go through the field once there after the first round of pit stops, and then handed it off to Jack and he did an awesome job bringing it home.”
Cooper MacNeil and Toni Vilander continued their Sebring success on Saturday night, finishing second in the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa / WeatherTech Racing Ferrari 488 GT3.
The runner-up finish extended their podium streak at Sebring to three consecutive years, after finishing on the GTD podium at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts in both 2018 and 2019.
Auberlen’s quest to become the winningest driver in IMSA wasn’t achieved today, but he and co-driver Robby Foley held on for a third-place result.
Making it four different manufacturers in the top four was the No. 74 Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Lawson Aschenbach and Gar Robinson for Riley Motorsports, their highest finish of the season.
