Bamber Bounces Back To Deliver IMSA Sebring Victory

Twice in the final 75 minutes of the race, Earl Bamber lost the lead. Twice he regained it.

Bamber overcame two incidents and a penalty in the final minutes Saturday and twice worked his way back into the lead, eventually prevailing to win the 70th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

His victory in the No. 02 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R co-driven with Alex Lynn and Neel Jani was nothing short of an adventure.

“It was a team effort, not an individual one,” Bamber said. “I was just the one lucky enough to do the last hour. I could’ve probably made it a hell of a lot easier for everyone else, but hey, I made it. It was a good show, I think.”

With 1 hour, 15 minutes remaining, Bamber replaced Lynn during a driver change with a lead of more than 30 seconds over the No. 5 JDC Miller MotorSports Cadillac DPi-V.R shared by Tristan Vautier, Richard Westbrook and Loic Duval.

On the out lap, Bamber collided with the No. 13 AWA Duqueine D08 LMP3 car driven by Kuno Wittmer, drawing a drive-through penalty that gave the overall and Daytona Prototype international (DPi) class lead to Westbrook. Seconds after he passed Westbrook to retake the lead with 59:53 left, Bamber spun in a collision with the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 driven by Simon Mann.

Bamber recovered, chased down Westbrook again and passed him with 45 minutes left. This time, he didn’t let go of the lead, carrying it to the finish 6.471 seconds ahead of Vautier, who replaced Westbrook on the No. 5 car’s final pit stop.

“It was some of the best driving I’ve done and some of the worst at the same time, all in about one and a half hours,” Bamber said. “I’m just really happy that we could recover and get back to the front.”

After Vautier replaced Westbrook, Bamber made his last pit stop. He emerged 7.2 seconds ahead of Vautier, who wasn’t about to give up.

“I gave it all, mate,” Vautier said. “The 02 came out of the pits 7 seconds ahead and we entered the final lap 2.5 behind. Then I took it easy on the last lap. I knew it was over and we were tight on fuel. It’s a very solid day for the team. We were third at Daytona and second here. We can be proud.”

The top three finishers, all Cadillacs, finished within 14.616 seconds as Pipo Derani brought the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac co-driven with Mike Conway and Tristan Nunez home third.

The 351 laps completed were a Sebring record for the DPi class, topping the previous mark set last year by two laps.

It was the 61st IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory for Chip Ganassi Racing and second at Sebring. Bamber and Lynn both scored their second Sebring victories, Jani his first.

PR1 Mathiasen Completes Sebring Three-Peat

It doesn’t matter who PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports puts in the car at Sebring International Raceway, it seems to be a winning combination. Ben Keating, Mikkel Jensen and Scott Huffaker controlled the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class from the get-go Saturday, piloting the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen ORECA LMP2 07 to victory for the second straight year.

It was also PR1 Mathiasen’s third consecutive Sebring triumph – Huffaker teaming with Patrick Kelly and Simon Trummer to win the Twelve Hours in 2020 – and the team’s fifth Sebring victory in the past decade.

“This is my third win in a row here but this one by far the toughest, though,” Huffaker said. “Just the heat, everything. I think I had the longest drive time there close to the end. Physically I was just done when I got out of the car. Mikkel was having some stomach issues so I think it was a tough one for the team, but we just all pulled through and kept clean.”

Keating got the team off to a blazing start and the driving trio never let up, leading 276 of the 345 laps that the class winners completed, including the last 126 circuits. Even a midrace shakeup to the driver rotation when Jensen fell ill didn’t derail the No. 52’s victory express, winning by a full lap over the No. 29 Racing Team Nederland ORECA.

“I think with three or four hours to go, I was going in to do a double (stint) but ended up only doing a single,” Jensen said. “I started to get a little dizzy and asked if Scott could take over. He was in the car to do a double right before and he went in to do a triple, so big thanks to him. I had to recover, get some sugar and I was back in it. It was simply just the dehydration because it was so warm.”

Keating and Jensen won the 2021 LMP2 championship and, with Huffaker, captured the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup as well. They lead both championships again after two 2022 races, though the trio is driving in just the four endurance events this year, with another lineup that includes Kelly set for the sprint races.

Keating, who picked up his third Sebring win, will relish the team effort involved in this one, highlighted by Thursday’s second practice – a session in which the Texan didn’t even turn a lap.

“It was an hour and a half session and those two guys (Jensen and Huffaker) worked on the car the whole time,” Keating said. “We went from a car that was really tough to drive to a car that was really easy to drive. We just had a great car. … For everybody on the team to have a perfect race, it’s special. It’s hard to do and that’s why we’re here.”

Sean Creech Motorsport Breaks Through for First Win in LMP3

It took a little more than a year but Sean Creech Motorsport made it atop the WeatherTech Championship podium in Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) for the first time in one of the series’ marquee events. Joao Barbosa, Malthe Jakobsen and Lance Willsey survived 12 hours of class attrition and a nervous final few fuel-saving laps to claim the LMP3 victory at Sebring. It’s the third Twelve Hours of Sebring win for Barbosa and the first WeatherTech Championship victory anywhere for his co-drivers.

The team ran just three races in 2021, finishing second in the Rolex 24 At Daytona. The No. 33 Ligier JS P320 repeated the Daytona result this January and the drivers were eager to go one step better at Sebring. The mission was accomplished with a victory margin of 48.586 seconds over the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier co-driven by Ari Balogh, Garett Grist and Dakota Dickerson.

“It’s great,” said Barbosa, a longtime friend of team owner Sean Creech who earned IMSA career win No. 25. “We were very close at Daytona last year and this year, and we needed a big win. The guys have been working really hard. To come to this race and giving us a great car to race, to be able to help a little bit this team to move forward and get such a big win is a great sensation.”

With several LMP3 rivals sidelined with mechanical issues earlier in the race, the No. 33 ran a steady pace, recovered from clutch problems that slowed pit stops and going a lap down, to leading 116 of the final 126 laps. Jakobsen had to sweat it our for a final stint of nearly 50 minutes, concerned he may run out of fuel before the finish.

“I got the fuel light after I crossed the start/finish line (for the checkered flag),” the 18-year-old Dane said. “It’s my first win in sports cars. I only won in single-seaters before, so it’s a massive race to win. First time at Sebring and to win it, that’s not bad.”

Barbosa said Lady Luck decided it was the No. 33’s day and night to shine.

“Everything went our way,” he said. “We were able to get the lap back, we got the yellows at the right time in a couple places and it seems like everything was going our way. Sometimes, Sebring picks the winner and it seems like it was our turn to win this race.”

No. 3 Corvette Returns to Winning Ways in GTD PRO at Sebring

Call it a baker’s dozen.

Corvette Racing claimed its 12th victory in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring since 2002, earning the triumph with drivers Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor, and Nicky Catsburg in the No. 3 Corvette C8.R.

Corvette achieved a bonus 13th Sebring win in the one-off Sebring “sprint” race that was staged in 2020 as a schedule addition due to COVID-19.

This year, Garcia qualified the No. 3 Corvette third fastest in the GTD PRO class for the second race of the 2022 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, then assumed the lead 58 minutes into the 12-hour marathon that was staged in hot and humid conditions.

From there, Garcia and his co-drivers made no mistakes. The mid-engine Corvette was fast and reliable, and the team executed clean, penalty-free pit stops. In all, the bright yellow C8.R was out front for 247 of the 323 laps completed by the GTD PRO class winner.

Catsburg did his part by emerging at the front of the field after a tense midrace battle with the No. 25 BMW Team RLL BMW M4 GT3, while Taylor completed the anchor leg of the race to seal the victory for Corvette by 5.464 seconds over the No. 63 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 shared by Mirko Bortolotti, Marco Mapelli, and Andrea Caldarelli that was fielded by TR3 Racing.

Corvette Racing’s latest triumph came as somewhat of a relief for the team after a challenging GTD PRO class debut in the Rolex 24 At Daytona International Speedway in January. The C8.R struggled for straight-line speed on the high-banked Daytona tri-oval, and the No. 3 trio also encountered mechanical gremlins on the way to sixth in class.

Taylor credited a two-day test at Sebring in early February that helped the team and the drivers understand how Michelin’s GTD PRO control tire responds to changes on the new-for-‘22 GTD PRO homologated Corvette.

“To have zero issues around here is a big feat in itself, because 12 hours around here is harder than 24 hours at Daytona or Le Mans,” said Taylor, who earned his second Sebring 12 Hours trophy. “I was surprised how quick we were, especially in clean air. Once we got to the front, the name of the game was to maintain track position, whether by saving fuel and extending windows or saving tires.

“The guys nailed the strategy, and I think that’s really what kept us out front all day,” he added. “It’s nice to get another endurance race win for the C8.R and start our championship fight again.”

This was Garcia’s fourth win in the Twelve Hours of Sebring. “Obviously at Daytona, we were not quite there,” he remarked. “Our testing here recently really paid off, and it’s nice to complete some unfinished business from last year.”

Catsburg took on a 3-hour, 20-minute triple stint and emerged from the car fired up after his highlight reel battle with Eng. The BMW and the Corvette were locked together for a sequence of corners before the torque of the Chevrolet small-block V-8 pulled the C8.R ahead entering Big Bend.

“That was awesome going side-by-side for that long,” Catsburg exclaimed. “The good thing about racing with these guys is that they let you live, and you let them live. Then you can make an awesome show.”

The No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 shared by Jack Hawksworth, Ben Barnicoat, and Aaron Telitz slowed in the final minutes, allowing the No. 97 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo manned by Cooper MacNeil, Jules Gounon, and Alessio Picariello to claim the final podium finish.

The next round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, set for April 8-10 on the downtown Long Beach street course.

Italian Trio Returns Ferrari to Victory Lane in GTD

With huge smiles and proud hearts, the all-Italian Cetilar Racing team took in all the congratulations and back slaps at Sebring International Raceway’s Victory Circle.

Although they went into the race optimistic about their chances, they recognized in hoisting the trophies for winning the GT Daytona (GTD) class in Saturday’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts, how difficult their path had been.

And that’s exactly what made it so rewarding.

The No. 47 Ferrari 488 GT3 team took the lead for good in the GTD class with just under an hour and 20 minutes remaining in the endurance classic on Saturday. It was an emotional end for the team that started fifth in class and endured a busy day of on-track and off-track activity for with its driver lineup of Roberto Lacorte, Giorgio Semagiotto and Antonio Fuoco.

“Sebring is one of the most legendary races in the world, one I dreamed of when I was young,’’ Semagiotto said after spraying champagne. “I didn’t understand exactly why Sebring was legendary, now I understand why, because it is so difficult, so tough for the drivers, the cars, the teams. It is crazy.”

Many of the pre-race favorite and ultimate frontrunners had to overcome issues in the race.

Friday’s Motul Pole Award winner, Zacharie Robichon, part of the defending Sebring winning GTD class team, ran into problems almost immediately after the green flag. He pitted the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 only nine minutes into the race with a list of possible problems. Ultimately the car had to go behind the wall for repair and returned to take a rather valiant 10th place in class.

With the Wright team’s competitive departure, that left the early portion of the day to the No. 96 Turner Motorsports and the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW teams to dice it out. Three Mercedes teams – Alegra Motorsports, Winward Racing and Gilbert Korthoff Motorsports took turns out front throughout the middle of the race in what was easily one of the most competitive classes of the day. At times, the Top-10 GTD cars were all on the same lap and separated by less than 10 seconds. Ultimately, four cars finished on the lead lap.

For a while it looked like longtime race favorite, Bill Auberlen, would get to toast his impressive 500th start with BMW with a bottle of winner’s champagne, but the No. 96 Turner Motorsports team fell out of podium contention in the closing hours.

The No. 32 Gilbert Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 – with drivers Mike Sheen,Stevan McAleer and Daniel Juncadella – finished second to the Ferrari by 49 seconds.

The No. 21 AF Course Ferrari 488 GT3 – with American driver Simon Mann, Argentinian Luis Perez Companc and British driver Tom Gamble – completed the GTD class podium.

Both cars led laps but were unable to get around the winning Ferrari, who pulled away from the field in the closing hour out front.

“Especially this race for us was tough because we start from the fifth position. I crashed in Turn 1 and rejoined the first positions after three hours because of a great strategy by the team,’’ Semagiotto said. “Seriously, I didn’t expect to win this race and I really don’t have words to describe what I am feeling now.

“Our qualifying was just unlucky, because we knew we were faster and we did the fifth place just because I found traffic and those kind of things. But we understand exactly in qualifying we were on top of things.

“And 12 hours is very long. Anything can happen.’’

The WeatherTech Championship resumes April 8-10 with the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.