Three months after a mountain biking accident near Charlotte left him on the sidelines recovering, Ben Barnicoat is ready to restart his 2025 campaign and pick up where he last left off for Vasser Sullivan Racing.
He and Aaron Telitz are back together in the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 this weekend, after Barnicoat missed the last four races in IMSA – and the last three FIA World Endurance Championship races with Akkodis ASP Team – due to the injuries he suffered when he fell off his bike along the mountain trail, just before the Twelve Hours of Sebring.
“Firstly, it’s fantastic to be back,” Barnicoat said to RACER. “I’ve went through some tough times, but I’ve got a fantastic team around me – Lexus Racing, and everyone at Vasser Sullivan and Akkodis ASP, who were right there with me.
“And I’m sorry, firstly, that I let them down.”
While regretting leaving his IMSA and WEC Lexus teams in a bind after his injury, Barnicoat says “you can’t live your life in bubble wrap.” Laurent Cartalade/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images
Recalling the accident itself, Barnicoat recalled: “I was getting ready for Sebring, doing my usual preparati on for the races we do. We always do simulator on the Friday the week before an event. And then, we have the weekend and early days of the next week, training and going through the final steps, getting ready that way, cause you always want to be in the best physical shape.
“I happened to be on a new trail, never been there before. I had a slight misjudgment and, obviously, fell of the bike.
“Initially, I didn’t think it was that bad – I just thought I had a few cosmetic injuries to my face, you know, a few cuts and blood and stuff like that. I actually managed to get myself back out of the forest and back home, before realizing that the injuries turned out to be a bit more severe,” he said.
While exercising his right to confidentiality and declining to disclose the specifics of his injuries, Barnicoat was happy to talk about his enjoyable road back to getting into the cockpit of his black and yellow Lexus this afternoon at Watkins Glen, his first competitive session since the WEC Qatar 1812KM.
“For the first six weeks of the injury, it was pretty minimal stuff. I was quite restricted on what I was allowed to do,” he said. “In the early steps, I wasn’t able to do a lot.
“But from six weeks to now – kind of the halfway point – you’re starting to build all your strength back and stuff. I had a lot of simulator time with the guys at TRD, which was great. And it kind of varied a little bit as well; I was able to do some stuff in our GT3 car, but also got to do some NASCAR – all ranges of NASCAR, Cup, Xfinity, and Trucks. That was a huge help for me, just to kind of keep my driving sharp.
