Features On The Road

It Happened AGAIN!

Back at Sebring International Raceway where I found that the weather was looking sunny but with the coolest temperature that I have ever had for the race. I have seen heavy rain and extreme temperatures in the 90’s, but this year it was a comfortable low 70’s during the day and in the 50’s at night. Good for the drivers, but throw out the notes from previous years as the tires and engine intake temperatures were lower than before.

Along with the 59th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring is the start of the new Porsche Carrera Cup North America Championship, featuring the new Porsche 992-911 GT3 Cup cars and 991.2 Cup cars. The new 992 has 510hp (up 25 hp) and is 1 inch wider in the front and rear, with a more refined suspension. There were 2 races per weekend where each race was for 45 minutes with NO refueling and NO tire changes during the race. There were three classes in this series – Pro, Pro-Am, and Pro-Am 991. We had a friend from the past, Tim Pappas, back in the driver’s seat for the series along with John Goetz from Connecticut. There were 34 cars entered into this race. Tim Pappas was in third place with 29 points in the #54 JDX Racing Porsche 911 GTS Cup after the two races this weekend.

The Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring were [again] much different because of COVID restrictions and the lack of a Porsche factory team in GTLM. In place of a factory GTLM team was a Porsche 911 RS 19, racing under the Weather Tech racing team, supported by Proton Competition, with drivers Cooper MacNeil and Porsche factory drivers Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell.

#99 Team Hardpoint EBM
Wright Motorsports

In GTD, Porsche was represented by Wright Motorsports with Patrick Long, Jan Heylen, and Trent Hindman driving. Also was the Pfaff Motorsports team, as we know as the “Plaid” team, with their plaid paint scheme of the car, a Canadian team with drivers Zacharie Robichon, Porsche “works” driver Laurens Vanthoor and Porsche development driver Lars Kern. Then there is the Team Hardpoint EBM which is a team with Earl Bamber and team owner Rob Ferriol and also another car for the full season with Christina Nielsen and Kathy Legge, an all-female driver team supported by Champion Porsche and Richard Mille. These GTD teams will be driving the Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Team Hardpoint EBM #99 and Wright Motorsports #16 behind following Mercedes

The 12 Hours of Sebring race started at 10:10 am and ended 12 hours later, in the night. With NO grid lineup so spectators can see the teams it was more solemn than in November 2020 when the last 12 Hours of Sebring was held. Yet, as always, there was fierce competition during the race as the race paced, maybe because of the lower temperatures not wearing out the tires as fast and also more horsepower due to lower intake air temperatures creating more horsepower. The race was not a causal endurance race, but an outright pedal to the metal. This produced several crashes at turns, resulting in yellow flags during the day.

#79 WeatherTech GTLM Porsche

In a situation similar to the November, 2020 12 Hours of Sebring, where Porsche was in 3rd place near the end of the race – this time with 8 minutes to go – there was a yellow flag restart. The #3 Corvette and the #25 BMW, racing for 1st position on the restart, hit each other and went off the track. The Porsche passed both, and became the winner in GTLM, its fourth Consecutive GTLM victory at Sebring.

WeatherTech Racing #79, Matt Campbell (AUS), Mathieu Jaminet (F), Cooper MacNeil (USA) (l-r) Photo Porsche

In GTD Porsche did very well, with Pfaff Motorsports winning GTD, Wright Motorsports in 2nd, the Team Hardpoint EBM #88. Christina Nielsen, Katherine Legge, and Bia Figueiredo finished in 5th and the #99 Team Hardpoint EBM in 10th. This weekend gave Porsche its 75th and 76th class wins in the IMSA series.

Hope all is well and I hope to see you soon at a race or a CVR event!

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