Perfection across the board from Porsche at Sebring

For Porsche Penske Motorsport in GTP, it’s been quite the start to the season, capturing a second consecutive Rolex 24 win and now a first win at the Sebring 12 Hours with the 963.

The key to winning this race is finding a setup that works best when the temperature drops and the sun sets, and that was precisely the story here. The German manufacturer’s challengers were consistently quick in the heat of the day, but the 963s came into their own when the race hit full darkness and the finish approached. RACE SUMMARY

The No. 7 powered to the front with a Nick Tandy pass on Action Express’ Fred Vesti, and the No. 6 sister car later followed through to make it a “Penske perfect” one-two, claiming a first overall win on the “Bumps” since 2008 with the RS Spyder program.

As ever on the world-famous airfield circuit, there was plenty of drama up and down the order – even though the race ran green through the afternoon – and in GTP, the attacks from BMW, Acura and Cadillac were blunted by the end of the race by a mixture of penalties and incidents.

The Porsches came into their own as the sun set. Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

The No. 93 Acura MSR ARX-06 came closest to spoiling the Porsche party, but Nick Yelloly didn’t quite have the ponies to match or better Mathieu Jaminet and Felipe Nasr (who set the fastest lap of the race four laps from the finish) ahead. He crossed the line five seconds back from the winning car.

“I’m very happy to get my first podium for HRC, Acura, MSR and my teammates Alex (Palou) and Renger (van der Zande) – they drove fantastically all day,” Yelloly said. “I’ve finished second and third at Sebring and now next year we need to get that win.”

As for Cadillac, it was a pretty miserable day. For Wayne Taylor Racing, only one of its V-Series.Rs finished, down in seventh, and Action Express Racing’s Whelen-backed example faded and dropped out of the podium places after its final stop.

Earl Bamber pushed hard with new tires in the scramble following the final caution with 32 minutes to go, but could only find a way past Proton Competition’s Neel Jani with time expiring to nab fourth.

“We didn’t have that extra gear that the others did,” Action Express’ Jack Aitken admitted.

For BMW, it was a case of déjà vu, the RLL team failing to convert pole position into a podium finish for the second race in a row.

Both M Hybrid V8s struggled to feature up front after the No. 24’s early penalty for a botched start. The best finish, on a night in which it hoped to claim a famous win to celebrate the 50th anniversary of BMW North America and its 1975 12 Hours win, was fifth.

Nick Tandy completed the sports car racing Triple crown” with victory at Sebring. James Gilbert/Getty Images

“You rarely see a sports team or an operation or something that does a single event without any faults or mistakes or anything like this. And we’ve just been celebrating with probably 40 people that have just flawlessly run a car for 36 hours,” Nick Tandy, who, along with his teammates Felipe Nasr and Laurens Vanthoor led 473 of the first 1134 laps of the season, said after the race.

“Obviously, Daytona and Sebring combined. It’s just a testament to what Porsche and Porsche Penske has put together as a group of people that allow us to go racing and have this success without mistake.

“The easiest thing to do in the world of racing is make a mistake, whether in driving or strategy call, in the pits, anything. It’s just incredible that we’ve had this run the last two events. It’s just awesome to come here and carry that on.”

This result of course added to Tandy’s growing list of career accolades. After the Rolex 24 he celebrated the “Tandy Slam,” becoming the first driver to capture victories at the four major 24-hour races worldwide at Le Mans, Spa, Daytona and the Nürburgring.

Now, he’s become the 10th driver to claim the endurance Triple Crown of overall wins at the Le Mans 24 Hours, Daytona 24 Hours and Sebring 12 Hours, further cementing his place in sports car racing history.

“It’s incredible because I never realized how big a thing it would be winning all the four 24 Hours would be,” he added. “It went global and my teammates are tired of hearing about it. But I’m not! And now this is another unbelievable thing.”

For the No. 7 drivers, Le Mans in June beckons. Can Tandy and Nasr, or Laurens Vanthoor – who will drive separately from his GTP teammates in his full-season WEC Hypercar at La Sarthe – add a third major endurance win this year?

On the other side of Porsche Penske’s GTP awning, the No. 6 crew were visibly deflated in the post-race press conference. For Mathieu Jaminet, Matt Campbell and Kevin Estre it was a marginally better outcome than Daytona (second instead of third) but they still leave Florida scratching their heads again.

“We were not quite quick enough again,” Estre said. “Need to analyze where we were missing a bit of performance to the sister car,”

Jaminet added: “It’s good for the championship, we have to look at the bigger picture.”

Rexy gave Porsche a win in GTD PRO. James Gilbert/Getty Images

That wasn’t all for Porsche though, as AO Racing added to celebrations with a GTD PRO victory for “Rexy” and drivers Laurin Heinrich, Alessio Picariello and Klaus Bachler.

“It’s very special I think,” said Heinrich, who broke the GT lap record at Sebring twice in the closing stages. “Obviously last year we won the championship. We won three races in the process of that. But none of them was, let’s say, one of the big three in the IMSA calendar: Daytona, Sebring or Petit.

“So this year, I want to defend the championship for myself and AO. On my list was to win one of the big three. Daytona unfortunately didn’t work where we were trying, but now it worked, so for me, it’s my very first major endurance win in sports car racing. It’s a huge achievement. I couldn’t have done it without my teammates Alessio and Klaus, my team AO and Porsche.”

Like the 963s, AO’s 911 had the raw speed when the brake discs began to glow. Heinrich described his move on fellow German Max Hesse’s Paul Miller Racing BMW, which from the outside looked like a breeze.

He admitted that he didn’t want to hang around and sit behind the No. 48 M4 GT3 Evo for any length of time because the risk levels increased as the end of the race approached.

“My approach was to not wait too long, maybe take the first opportunity I get. Maybe catch him a bit off guard or by surprise,” he said. “Many things can go wrong by taking too many risks. I didn’t want to spend too much time fighting.

“I think it worked quite well to just take the first opportunity I got, as he played it safe.”