IMSA Sebring 12: WTR with Andretti Acura reading copy

A few minutes before the finish, Louis Delétraz managed to pass Sébastien Bourdais and take the lead. Delétraz, along with teammates Jordan Taylor and Colton Herta, gave victory to Acura and Wayne Taylor Racing and Andretti. Maxime Martin finished fourth with his BMW and Alessio Picariello was eighth. Jan Heylen finished the race with significant barriers in a good third place in GTD.

(Photo: © Jordan Taylor – Lamborghini Squadra Corse – Porsche Motorsport)

As always, the 12 72 Hours of Sebring brought excitement to the finish. The Acura appeared to be slower than the other GTP cars during the 24 Hours of Daytona, but this was rectified at Sebring. After the last three editions went to Cadillac, the General Motors brand was defeated this time by the #40 Acura ARX-06 of Wayne Taylor Racing and Andretti. Louis Delétraz’s pace is well known and it wasn’t long before the Swiss took second place from Porsche Penske driver Felipe Nasr on the restart less than an hour from the end. Delétraz put the pressure on Bourdais and after the last lap was not accepted, a thrilling final between the leading #01 Cadillac and the #40 Acura began with 24 minutes to go. With five minutes left on the clock, Delétraz surprised Bourdais. The Swiss won ahead of Bourdais who shared his Cadillac V-Series.R with Renger van der Zande and Scott Dixon.

For Jordan Taylor it was the second victory at the 12 Hours of Sebring and the first for Delétraz and Herta. Louis Delétraz also set the fastest lap (1:49.497) just after the halfway mark.

Third place went to the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsports Porsche 963 of Dane Cameron, Felipe Nasr and Matt Campbell. Maxime Martin and his teammates Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly drove a strong race with their BMW M Hybrid V8 to give BMW M Team RLL fourth place, twelve seconds behind the winner.

Alessio Picariello, Julien Andlauer and Gianmaria Bruni finished eighth in the Proton Porsche 963. The Lamborghini SC63 made its debut in the IMSA Championship in the hands of Matteo Cairoli, Andrea Caldarelli and Romain Grosjean and did so in the best possible way with seventh place . In the list of fastest lap times, the Italian car also came seventh out of a total of eleven GTP participants, which emphasizes the speed of the car.

In another model class, LMP2, victory went to the team that also won the 24 Hours of Daytona: Era Motorsports and their drivers Merriman-Dalziel-Zilisch.

Jan Heylen third in GTD, bad luck for Iron Dame Sarah Bovy

It was also an exciting finish in GTD Pro. Jack Hawksworth, Ben Barnicoat and Kyle Kirkwood won the class in their Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 in tenth ahead of the Risi Competizione Ferrari of Daniel Serra, Davide Rigon and James Calado. For these last three, the race could have ended on the first lap when Rigon was introduced and his Ferrari was miraculously not hit by the other GT cars. Frédéric Vervisch, Joey Hand and Dirk Müller finished eighth in their Ford Mustang GT3, just behind their colleagues in Ford Multimatic Motorsports and with the same number of laps as the GTD Pro winner.

Philip Ellis, Russel Ward and Indy Dontje won the Championship of Champions in GTD. They beat the Cetilar Ferrari and their Mercedes by less than a second. The Wright Motorsports Porsche of Jan Heylen, Elliot Skeer and Adam Adelson followed in third. The Porsche of a resident of Gelen who had moved to the United States had an event competition. During the Rigon incident, Wright-911 suffered damage that required time to repair. Later there was a penalty for ignoring the red light on the pit lane and with 2 hours and 45 minutes to go, contact at the restart caused Jan Heylen to spin. However, a strong race with drivers and a good strategy ensured a good place on the podium. The Ferrari 296 GT3 of Costa-Franco-Sbirrazzuoli finished eleventh in GTD. After several pit stops and going back due to a technical problem caused by a collision, Iron Ladies Sarah Bovy, Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting threw in the towel.

Results