Sebring Post-Race Notebook

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

***Porsche claimed a record-extending 19th overall victory in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring following Nick Tandy, Felipe Nasr and Laurens Vanthoor’s triumph in the No. 7 Penske Porsche 963.

***It marked Porsche’s first outright Sebring victory in 17 years, following on from the 2008 race which saw the No. 7 Penske Porsche RS Spyder of Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Emmanuel Collard claim victory. Bernhard was in attendance of Saturday’s race, in his role as performance driver coach for the team.

***Porsche Penske managing director Jonathan Diuguid served as an assistant race engineer on the the sister factory RS Spyder that year. “Several other team members and I witnessed the last overall victory for Porsche at Sebring in 2008, so it’s simply wonderful to be at the front together again now,” he said.

***The 2008 race also saw a Porsche 1-2 in the race, although it was Dyson Racing’s RS Spyder of Butch Leitzinger, Marino Franchitti and Andy Lally that finished runner-up, ahead of the LMP1 class-winning Audi R10 TDI in third.

***Diuguid noted the pace of the 963s came alive in the dark when temperatures got cooler, which helped give Porsche Penske its first 1-2 finish of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season and first since Road America last year. It marked the 22nd 1-2 result for Penske in IMSA competition.

***The No. 7 crew of Tandy, Nasr and Vanthoor become the first drivers to claim the ’36 Hours of Florida’ overall since 2017 when Ricky and Jordan Taylor went back-to-back in the Rolex 24 and Twelve Hours of Sebring in their Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R.

***Impressively, the No. 7 Porsche led 473 of the 1134 laps combined between the two enduros, accounting for more than 41 percent of race laps led so far this season.

***All three Porsche Penske drivers now hold the unique opportunity to win the ‘Triple Crown’ of endurance races in the same year, with Tandy and Nasr set to co-drive Porsche Penske’s third Hypercar entry in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Vanthoor in his season-long FIA World Endurance Championship No. 6 Porsche with Kevin Estre and Matt Campbell.

***While Tandy became the first driver to win the so-called ‘Big Six’ endurance races overall, Nasr notched his second overall Sebring victory following the Brazilian’s victory with Action Express Racing in 2019.

***Nasr said: “As a team, it was a perfect race today from beginning to the end. I think there was just one time we cycled through the back very early on when I was in the car. After that, we made our way to the front. The team did a perfect execution along the race. Nick and Laurens as well, watching them drive it was like, ‘Man, those guys are doing a superb job.'”

***Porsche LMDh factory director Urs Kuratle proclaimed the race to be one of Porsche Penske’s “most outstanding” races in an absolute “flawless” performance. “I’m ecstatic,” he said. “All the drivers and the entire team put in an incredibly strong effort: pit stops, strategy, car – everything went perfectly.”

***Meyer Shank Racing recorded its first podium finish of the year and first with its new Honda Racing Corporation USA-engineered Acura ARX-06 of Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly, who were joined by NTT IndyCar Series star Alex Palou.

***The team’s No. 60 Acura was taken out of contention following a pit lane collision between Tom Blomqvist and the No. 24 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 of Philipp Eng with three hours to go, resulting in damage to both cars and a drive-through penalty for pit lane protocol violation for Blomqvist.

***Blomqvist said: “We had issues getting out of pit lane and one car wasn’t properly in the fast lane and I had to maneuver around another car and it was just too tight and I broke the front left [suspension]. I’m obviously very disappointed for the guys and I think we could have had both cars fighting for third and fourth.”

***BMW salvaged a top-five result with its sister No. 25 entry of Sheldon van der Linde, Robin Frijns and Marco Wittmann. “It looked good for a while, we worked our way back to the front and were on course for a podium,” said Wittmann. “But in the end, it was ‘only’ fifth place for car number 25. That’s somewhat disappointing, as we were good in terms of speed, even though the Porsches were stronger in the end.”

***Proton Competition’s Porsche 963 was in position for a top-five finish until Neel Jani was forced to make a late-race stop for energy, resulting in a sixth place result for the privateer squad.

***Jani’s co-driver Tristan Vautier said: “We were lacking a bit of pace during the day when it was hot, but the car was really fast when the night came. Some clever strategic calls put the team in a great position in the second half of the race.”

***Wayne Taylor proclaimed that it was probably the “most disappointing” Sebring that he’d been to, after stating the team’s No. 10 Cadillac V-Series.R was improperly penalized for contact between Ricky Taylor and the No. 021 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 of Charles Scardina that ultimately put the car three laps down at the time after early race throttle-related issues.

***The No. 10 Cadillac of Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque and Will Stevens finished one lap down in seventh.

***Taylor said: “We looked at the footage, he never touched the car. Ricky said he never touched the car. And the race director’s response was that he made a ‘bad call’. Well, then what is the protocol on making a ‘bad call’? That one lap cost us the chance to race for the win in the end. It is inexcusable. I am not going to put this kind of effort in, representing these brands, to have somebody make these kinds of moves.”

***Heart of Racing Team driver Roman De Angelis, who finished ninth in the Aston Martin Valkyrie’s series debut, said it’s been a dream racing in the top class of the WeatherTech Championship and the WEC this year. “It was a dream of mine,” he told Sportscar365. “I see some of the names that I’m competing against. It’s guys I’ve looked up to my whole life, guys that I have watched racing Formula 1 and stuff like that. So, definitely emotional for me. I’m just really happy to be here.”

***Inter Europol Competition claimed its first WeatherTech Championship class victory as its own entity, after previously working with PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports to win the LMP2 title last year.

***Jeremy Clarke, a late addition to the the team alongside Tom Dillmann and Bijoy Garg this weekend, revealed post-race that he’s confirmed with the team for the remainder of the Michelin Endurance Cup races, taking the Bronze-rated driver seat that was originally announced for Jon Field.

***TDS Racing’s Hunter McElrea set the fifth overall best first sector time during race, with his 10.046-second time in the No. 11 TDS Racing Oreca 07 Gibson bested only by GTP drivers Colin Braun, Jack Aitken, Nick Yelloly, and Jordan Taylor. McElrea’s co-driver Mikkel Jensen, meanwhile, set the tenth-quickest time in Sector 1, ahead of the best efforts from six GTP drivers.

***The car’s ideal lap time of 1:50.840 (based on the combined best sector times from all drivers in a car’s lineup) placed them only 0.757 seconds off of the ideal lap time for Heart of Racing Team’s No. 23 Aston Martin Valkyrie. For reference, the French squad’s pole-sitting time was 2.404 seconds off of the lowest-placed GTP qualifying effort.

***LMP2 contender Malthe Jakobsen said he “had a lot of fun” racing Sebastien Bourdais in the closing stages of the race. The Peugeot WEC driver climbed back into the CrowdStrike by APR machine with 1 hour and 23 minutes to go to take the car to the finish and counter then-leading Bourdais’ pace. The Dane closed the gap to Bourdais’ lead to under a second over the next 18 laps before jumping him in the pits under caution, with Bourdais falling to third.

***Jakobsen said: “He’s obviously very, very quick still and an amazing racer. When you see his car control and the way he manages traffic and with his experience, he’s a very, very talented guy and a great racing driver, so I had a lot of fun racing him. He races hard, but fair, so there’s no dirty moves or anything, but it was close racing, and I really enjoyed it.”

***CrowdStrike Racing by APR led the most laps in LMP2, having spent 182 tours at the head of the 12-car field. Fellow contenders and early-race leaders TDS was the only other LMP2 squad to spend at least 100 laps in the class lead.

***Riley’s Felipe Fraga and Gar Robinson took over the lead of the LMP2 championship standings, just two points ahead of Rolex 24 class winners Daniel Goldburg and Paul di Resta, with Dillman sitting in a close third, 43 points back.

***Garg and Dillmann, meanwhile, are tied for the lead of the Michelin Endurance Cup LMP2 standings with United Autosports’ di Resta, Goldburg and Rasmus Lindh, who are all on 21 points after the first two legs of the Cup.

***GTD Pro class winner Lauren Heinrich broke the standing Sebring GTD Pro race lap record with the 2:00.451-second benchmark he set while leading the class aboard the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R he shared with Klaus Bachler and Alessio Picariello.

***Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports had a race to forget, with both of the team’s GTD Pro class Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs facing setbacks. The No. 4 car had to stop to repair the IMSA-mandated scrutineering logger, while the sister No. 3 entry lost two laps late in the running due to a broken right-rear suspension component en route to a seventh place class finish.

***Alexander Sims said: “Going into the night, it seemed to come alive a bit. We had good pace and I was able to get up to third before we had the rear suspension problem. It did seem the leaders at the end had pace that we didn’t, to be honest. I don’t think we would have gotten any better than that.”

***The No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 also found trouble, with steering rack damage when Jose Maria Lopez was at the wheel. “I couldn’t anticipate the maneuver by the BMW who crossed the line,” he said. “It was a very small contact with a very high price for us. Unfortunately, from there we were trying to survive. We didn’t really have the pace, but I think we could’ve done a good race without the contact.”

***Ford Multimatic Motorsports drivers Christopher Mies and Frederic Vervisch remain in the GTD Pro championship lead, although their advantage has been reduced to 17 points over Heinrich and Klaus Bachler, who along with Alessio Picariello claimed class honors on Saturday.

***Both Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO entries leave Sebring sitting 1-2 in the Endurance Cup standings in GTD Pro, led by the trio of Connor De Phillippi, Madison Snow and Neil Verhagen, while Inception Racing’s Brendon Iribe, Ollie Millroy and Frederik Schandorff lead the GTD standings.

***With their second consecutive Sebring class win, Winward Racing’s Philip Ellis and Russell Ward have vaulted to the top of the season-long GTD standings, 41 points over Heart of Racing Team’s Casper Stevenson and Tom Gamble.

***Next up for the WeatherTech Championship is the 100-minute Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, for GTP and GTD teams only, on April 11-12. GTD Pro machinery will rejoin the field for the following round at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on May 9-11.

Jonathan Grace & Davey Euwema contributed to this report