Extreme Speed Motorsports wins Twelve Hours of Sebring
The #2 Tequila Patron Extreme Speed Motorsports took the second straight victory in the 2016 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. After the season-opening victory at Rolex 24 at Daytona, Ligier JS P2 (Honda) was again the fastest car at Twelve Hours of Sebring. The winners of the race were Pipo Derani, Scott Sharp, Johannes van Overbeek and Ed Brown.
Pipo Derani took the lead with 5.45 min to go from Dane Cameron in the #31 Corvette DP of Action Express Racing and remained in front until the chequered flag. Cameron’s co-drivers were Eric Curran and Scott Pruett. Their sister car, the #5 Corvette DP, driven by Christian Fittipaldi, Joao Barbosa and Filipe Albuquerque, finished third.
Bad weather interrupted the race
“What a tough race this was. We had some contact, some spins, and moving our way back to the front was just unbelievable. In the end, I knew we had a great car, and new tires. But with only 10 to 15 minutes to go and still be in fourth was difficult to believe that we were going to make it. God had an eye on me and everything I executed was perfect. I can’t believe it all. It happened like that. I was so focused to bring the car home. The adrenaline was so high I couldn’t think about anything else,” Piro Derani in a Victory Lane.
The race was marked by rainy weather and red flags. The competition was halted for more than two hours red flag period called due to lightning and track conditions. After running under yellow as track drying continued, the race went back to green with six and half hours to go.
Victorious green car of tequila Patron ESM
CORE Autosport took PC class win
CORE Autosport dominated and won the Prototype Challenge category. Colin Braun took the lead just under the halfway mark and the #54 Oreca FLM09 stayed in front until the end. Braun’s co-drivers were Jon Bennett and Mark Wilkins. The #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports finished second, with Tom Kimber-Smith, Robert Alon and Jose Gutierrez sharing the seat in the cockpit. Renger van der Zande, Alex Popow and David Heinemeier-Hansson finished third in class in the #8 Starworks Motorsport car.
Corvette Racing repeated Daytona’s triumph
Corvette Racing’s trio Tommy Milner, Oliver Gavin and Marcel Fassler won GTLM class at Sebring and added the victory to season-opening triumph at Daytona. Dirk Werner took the checkered flag in second place, driving the #25 BMW M6 of BMW Team RLL. His co-drivers were Bill Auberlen and Bruno Spengler. The third crew on the podium was #912 Porsche North America. Porsche 911 RSR was driven by Earl Bamber, Frederic Makowiecki and Michael Christensen.
Women power at GTD class podium
Scuderia Corsa took the first victory for the new Ferrari 488 GTE taking the GTD class victory at Sebring. Jeff Segal earned the class pole position and he was backed by Alessandro Balzan and Christina Nielsen on the way to first season’ win. There were two women on the GTD podium, because Jens Klingmann, Bret Curtis and Ashley Freiberg finished second in the #96 Turner Motorsport’s BMW M6 GT3. Daytona winners John Potter, Andy Lally and Marco Seefried in the Magnus Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 finished third at Sebring.
Check the full results at SnapLap result pages
Photos: imsa.com,
