Acura beats Cadillac, Derani’s biggest crash

(Motorsport-Total.com) – It’s a test of skill passed: With a powerful maneuver to win five minutes before the end of the 12 Hours of Sebring, Louis Deletraz has finally joined the ranks of the best sports car drivers in the world. (Result on 12 September 2024)

His braking maneuver at the curve 7 hairpin against none other than Sebastien Bourdais can only be described as top notch as he surprised the ChampCar legend with a dummy. By this trick he brought down the real fortress of Bourdais. The 72nd running of the 12 Hours of Sebring ended with victories for Deletraz, Jordan Taylor and Colton Herta.

As expected, the race was chaotic with twelve yellow phases. There were three restarts in the last hour alone. The decision was finally made in the 24-minute race. Cadillac initially seemed to dominate, but Acura got better as the race went on.

In all three restarts in the last hour, Bourdais kept all his confidence and order and did not give Deletraz a chance. But he did not give up and put Ganassi-Cadillac under great pressure. A great francophone duel was made in which everyone fought with all tricks, but always with justice. In the end, Acura was stronger in the final race.

It’s the first win for the #40 Acura ARX-06, which was used by Meyer Shank Racing last year. It was also the first overall win in the IMSA SportsCar Championship for Deletraz and Herta.

Ganassi-Cadillac #01 (Bourdais/van der Zande/Dixon; 2nd GTP) wore gold, as did the two factory Corvettes and Vasser-Sullivan-Lexus #14 (Hawksworth/Barnicoat/Kirkwood; 1st GTD Pro). A special paint job celebrating the 50th anniversary of Mobil 1. Due to Deletraz’s big maneuver against Bourdais, van der Zande missed out on victory in his 100th IMSA race by 0.891 seconds.

Porsche and BMW miss the last one

Third place went to Penske-Porsche #7 (Cameron/Nasr/Campbell). The Porsche 963 had serious problems getting the tires to work on the restart and fell back in the first few laps after the yellow phase. After a great start to the season, Penske’s 100th sports car win still has to wait.

RLL-BMW #25 (de Phillippi/Yelloly/Martin) took fourth place. The BMW M Hybrid V8s were very strong throughout the race and often fought for the lead, but once again things didn’t work out when it counted.

This time it was Connor de Phillippi who, lying in fourth place, went down the track on the penultimate stage and lost several places. He made it three of them by squeaking past the last starter with a crazy maneuver on the outside lane at Turn 1.

He was awarded fourth place when Julien Andlauer spun in the #5 Proton-Porsche (Bruni/Andlauer/Picariello; 8th GTP) five minutes from the end.

WTR-Andretti-Acura #10 (R. Taylor/Albuquerque/Hartley; 5th GTP), which had led the race several times, was unlucky. With three hours left he lost a lead lap in the pits. Wayne Taylor Racing and Andretti Autosport achieved the lowest fuel consumption. Three yellows in the last hour brought him back to the lead lap, but he was never able to regain the positions he had lost.

Iron Lynx Lamborghini #63 (Cairoli/Caldarelli/Grosjean; 7th GTP) crossed the finish line behind the second BMW. As was the case at the start of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) in Qatar, the all-new LMDh car completed the race without any problems, which is worthy of respect at the Sebring International Carnage.

However, the speed was still lacking here and the Lamborghini SC63 even lost the lead lap during the green phase. Only a caution brought the race back to the green in close contact with the front. The last driver Andrea Caldarelli then benefited from Andlauer’s spin.

Derani throws away Sebring’s fifth win

There was a big break in the seventh hour when pole sitter Luis Felipe “Pipo” Derani survived a fatal crash that was similar to Jose Maria Lopez’s crash in WEC 2022. Derani remained uninjured.

The Brazilian missed out on a real chance of a fifth overall win at the 12 Hours of Sebring when he misjudged his lap and got stuck in the Ferrari. Action Express Cadillac #31 (Derani/Aitken/Blomqvist; DNF) hit the tire wall hard, went up and ended up lying on its roof after leading several laps.

After his crash in qualifying, Penske Porsche #6 (Tandy/Jaminet/Makowiecki; 9th GTP) was a contender for victory in the race until everything went wrong three hours before the end. First, there was contact with the Gradient Acura #66 (Monk/Legge/Calderon; DNF) in turn 17, which sent Katherine Legge into the tire wall at full power and resulted in a yellow phase, which Acura #10 fell behind.

Even before it was decided whether Porsche would be penalized for this, Frederic Makowiecki spun for a puncture, which cost him two laps. With so little time left, it was impossible to find.

Things got worse for the JDC Miller Porsche #85 (van der Helm/Hanson/Westbrook; DNF), which was forced to retire from the race shortly after the break with a faulty left-car pit.

LMP2: Era does it again

In two classics, known as the “36 Hours of Florida”, Era-Oreca #18 (Merriman/Dalziel/Zilisch; 1st LMP2) achieved a “clean sweep”. With a great last place, 17-year-old Connor Zilisch showed that a big name is growing here.

The American took the lead after the end of the game with 40 minutes remaining. He controlled the race at the front and gave Peugeot WEC driver Mikkel Jensen in the TDS-Oreca #11 (Thomas/Jensen/McElrea; 2 LMP2) no chance. Third place went to United Autosports Oreca #2 (Hanley/Keating/Pino).

LMP2 experienced a turbulent and eventful race. Luis Perez Companc started with a crash in AF-Corse-Oreca #88 (Perez Companc/Nielsen/Wadoux; DNF). Later the car stopped after stopping for repairs with Lilou Wadoux at the wheel. PJ Hyett’s crash cost the AO-Oreca #99 (Hyett/Chatin/Brabham; 11 LMP2) 17 laps.

Sean Creech Ligier #33 (Willsey/Barbosa/Edgar; 4th LMP2), which was the focus of the 24 Hours of Daytona, started only one caution period in this race and it came to an end – a big improvement on that spontaneous outing. Daytona. Thanks to a strong last leg from Jonny Edgar, it was an impressive fourth place.

This time, Michael Dinan experienced a very eventful race in the Tower-Oreca #8 (Farano/Dinan/Eastwood; DNF) and was involved in at least four class fights. One of them was a violent departure in, of all places, turn 13, the so-called tower turn.

The likely winner is APR-Oreca #04 (Kurtz/Braun/Sowery; 9th LMP2) and last driver Colin Braun. But he misjudged the attack of Riley-Oreca #74 (Robinson/Fraga/Burdon; 5 LMP2) in the final race and spun.

Ferrari’s attack on Lexus has failed to resume

This time the GT field was more even than at Daytona. At the last restart, ten cars from seven manufacturers were on the front row in GTD Pro. Finally, Vasser-Sullivan-Lexus #14 (Hawksworth/Barnicoat/Kirkwood), which had been leading for a long time, won.

But the Lexus RC F GT3 was not the fastest car in the final stages. That was obviously Risi-Ferrari #62 (Serra/Rigon/Calado; 2nd GTD Pro). This involved a hair-raising scene immediately after the start when Davide Rigon was turned in a ping-pong game.

Miraculously, he didn’t fall or get hit by other cars while going around the road. Of all people, the two McLarens in the field who wanted to avoid the spinning Ferrari ended up driving each other’s cars.

Pfaff-McLaren #9 (Jarvis/Kirchhöfer/Hinchcliffe; 12th GTD Pro) lost more than 20 laps due to subsequent repairs and was able to use the race as a long time trial only.

Back to the #62 Ferrari: Daniel Serra missed out on a class win when he tried to pass winner Jack Hawksworth on the outside on the restart and ended up on the grass. He lost two places to Pratt-Miller-Corvette #3 (Garcia/Sims/Juncadella; DNF) and AO-Porsche #77 (Priaulx/Heinrich/Christensen; 9th GTD Pro).

He had a tough fight with Laurin Heinrich, who put up tough opposition in the “Rexy” Porsche on his first birthday. In the final minutes of the race there was a collision between him and the #3 Corvette, sending the latter out of the race. Heinrich was found guilty and given a temporary penalty which dropped him from P3 to P8.

Serra was second again and came within 0.121 seconds of Hawksworth, but there was not enough room to overtake him. Third place was taken by Iron Lynx Lamborghini #19 (Bortolotti/Pepper/Perera) ahead of Paul Miller BMW #1 (Sellers/Snow/Verhagen; 4th GTD Pro) and Heart of Racing Aston Martin #23 (Gunn/Riberas/ Farnbacher; 5th GTD Pro).

The two Ford Mustang GT3s showed improvement after teething problems at Daytona and a blown trunk lid at Sebring. They managed without any problems and finished the race in seventh and eighth place. Similar to the GTP Lamborghini, some speed is still missing here.

The only GTD Pro car that had problems besides Pfaff-McLaren was the Pratt-Miller-Corvette #4 (Milner/Catsburg/Bamber; 11th GTD Pro), which had to make the longest stop in the eighth hour. The car was later involved in a controversial incident when Earl Bamber hit the #12 Vasser-Sullivan-Lexus (Telitz/Montecalvo/Thompson; 13th GTD) eight laps behind the GT field.

All four Vettes in the two GT classes were sent to the back of the field after qualifying because they had been fitted with water softeners for the moguls at Sebring. These were not included in the homologation.

Due to a non-compliant sensor, the GTD pole sitter, Winward-Mercedes #57 (Ward/Ellis/Dontje; 1st GTD), was also excluded from qualifying. However, that did not stop Russell Ward, Philip Ellis and Indy Dontje from fighting in the race and getting their second consecutive win.

Second place went to Cetilar-Ferrari #47 (Lacorte/Sernagiotto/Fuoco), followed by Wright-Porsche #120 (Adelson/Skeer/Heylen).

The 2024 IMSA SportsCar Championship resumes on April 20 with a 100-minute race at Long Beach, featuring only the GTP and GTD classes. LMP2 and GTD Pro are suspended.