The RC F GT3 Outlived the Road Car and Won Three More Races

The Lexus RC F GT3 signed off what is likely its final IMSA season with three wins, four podiums and three poles.

That result came about a year after the road-going RC F was scheduled to end production. Vasser Sullivan ran two of the cars in the 2026 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, with Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat sharing the No. 14 in the GTD PRO class and Aaron Telitz and Benjamin Pedersen in the No. 12 in GTD. Both crews won races, and the No. 14 won twice in a row in midsummer, but the season ended at Petit Le Mans with the No. 14 in 10th after leading 126 laps.

Before the season started, IMSA’s own preview called 2026 the RC F GT3’s "likely swan song." Toyota Gazoo Racing revealed the GR GT3 in Tokyo in December 2025, and IMSA said that car is set to replace the RC F GT3 as GR’s worldwide production-based sports car platform in 2027. Hawksworth first drove an RC F GT3 at Daytona in December 2016, and he and Barnicoat won the 2023 GTD PRO championship together in the No. 14. Kyle Kirkwood joined them for the endurance rounds.

The first win came on the streets of Long Beach in April, where Telitz and Pedersen took the GTD class in the No. 12. Lexus said Telitz led the final 29 laps and that it was Pedersen’s first win, in only his third GTD start. Hawksworth and Frankie Montecalvo finished fifth in a third Vasser Sullivan car, the No. 89, after a post-qualifying inspection penalty sent their pole-winning car to the back of the grid.

The No. 14 then won the six-hour race at Watkins Glen in late June, leading 83 laps. Hawksworth’s pole there was his 17th in IMSA, which Lexus said set a modern-era record, and the victory was the RC F GT3’s 19th in IMSA competition. Hawksworth and Barnicoat won again at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on July 12, leading 78 laps with Barnicoat out front for the last 47, while the No. 12 finished second in GTD. That was the car’s 20th IMSA win.

The finale didn’t go the team’s way. In the 10-hour Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, Barnicoat moved the No. 14 to the front early from 12th on the grid and the car ran in the top five, but it had to stop for fuel in the closing laps and finished 10th. Lexus said the drivers also dealt with cooling suit failures two hours in. The No. 12 started third but was hit by an LMP2 car, came back from a long repair 12 laps down and recovered to 11th.

"We gave it absolutely everything out there all day," Hawksworth said after the race.

The one big race this crew never won with the car was the Rolex 24 At Daytona, which Barnicoat had named before the season as the win they still needed.

The Toyota Report Take

Three wins in a farewell year is a strong send-off for a car that Barnicoat said the team had spent 10 seasons learning, and which outlasted the coupe it was meant to promote. The GR GT3 will be a clear step forward on paper, but as Barnicoat noted before the season, a brand-new car brings teething problems, and Vasser Sullivan shouldn’t expect to win as often in 2027 as it did with the old Lexus this year.