Ben Barnicoat has replaced Kelvin van der Linde in the #78 Akoddis ASP Lexus RC F LMGT3 for the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship season.
The Akkodis ASP team has confirmed their two professional drivers for the 2025 FIA WEC campaign.
The 2023 IMSA SportsCar GTD Pro champion will join the team after participating in the end-of-season test for Akkodis.
Barnicoat will likely renew his ongoing Vasser Sullivan Lexus commitment in IMSA after participating in the recent Daytona test.
There is one 2025 WEC-IMSA clash between the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps on 10 May and the Motul Course de Monterey (Laguna Seca) on 11 May.
Jose Maria Lopez will continue in the other #87 Lexus for next year after transitioning from his seat at Toyota.
There are three drivers set for each car, like in all LMGT3s, and so the other four will be confirmed at a later date.
Akkodis ASP set for their second WEC season
Van der Linde co-drove the #78 Lexus with Arnold Robin and Conrad Laursen recently in Bahrain.
Both Lexus entrants suffered reliability misfortune in the eight-hour race which resulted in a double-retirement.
Next year will mark the second for the LMGT3 category which replaced LMGTE Am and enabled Lexus to pursue their WEC debut.
Barnicoat has only conducted one full-season WEC campaign in 2022 with Team Project 1.
He has participated in the Le Mans 24 Hours, which is part of the WEC calendar, on four consecutive occasions.
The first two were in GTE cars whilst the latter two were in AF Corse-run Oreca 07 LMP2s.
Furthermore, Barnicoat won this year’s edition in the LMP2 Pro-Am category.
Akkodis ASP aim to score more points after the #87 failed to do so in 2024.
Meanwhile the #78 Lexus earned four consecutive points finishes this year at Spa, Le Mans, Sao Paulo and COTA.
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