IMSA: ESM charges to Sebring-Daytona double

Call it Daytona déjà vu – once again, the 22-year-old driver from Brazil, Pipo Derani, passed three cars in the last 10 minutes of the 64th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring to take the victory for the No. 2 Tequila Patron ESM Honda HPD Ligier JS P2 – much like he did at the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Before Daytona, Derani, a factory driver for Ligier, was virtually unknown, until he steered the team of Scott Sharp, Johannes van Overbeek and gentleman driver, financier and Tequila Patron executive Ed Brown.

At Daytona, it seemed Derani could drive to the front at will. That didn't happen at Sebring until his last couple of stints, but the rough 3.74-mile track is a hard one to master.

It looked like it would be an Action Express Chevrolet Corvette DP one-two finish until near the end, as a late caution period to pick up two crashed cars left just 13 minutes remaining. Derani's team elected to get new tires and take fuel during the caution period, taking him from the lead to fourth place, as the Action Express cars didn't get new tires, and therefore had a quicker pit stop.

But with surgical precision, Derani moved to third, then second, then to the lead when Dane Cameron in the No. 31 Action Express Whelen Corvette went too wide into a corner, leaving room on the inside for Derani. Cameron and co-drivers Kevin Curran and Scott Pruett took second, and the team Corvette, the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette with Filipe Albuquerque, Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi was third. Derani's lead over second place was almost three seconds.

In the GT Le Mans class, it was déjà vu, too, as the Chevrolet Corvette C7.R team, which also won Daytona, took the victory at Sebring with the No. 4 car, driven by Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner and Marcel Fassler.

The No. 3 team finished 36 laps down after a crash when driver Jan Magnussen hit the No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR of Kevin Estre in Turn 1, sending both cars into the fence. It was arguably the most serious wreck of the day, but both drivers walked away.

Second in GTLM at Sebring was the pole-winning No. 25 BMW Team RLL M6 GTLM of Bill Auberlen, Bruno Spengler and Dirk Werner, and third was the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR of Earl Bamber, Michael Christensen and Fred Makowiecki, the team car to the crashed No. 911.

In Prototype Challenge, the CORE Autosport ORECA-Chevrolet of Colin Braun, Jon Bennett and Mark Wilkins won the class, followed by the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen car with Tom Kimber-Smith, Robert Alon and Jose Gutierrez, and in third, the No. 8 Starworks car with Alex Popow, Renger van der Zande, and David Heinemeier Hansson..

In the hotly contested GT Daytona class, the pole-sitting No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 of Jeff Segal, Christina Nielsen and Alessandro Balzan finished 2.2 seconds ahead of the Turner Motorsports BMW M6 GT3 of Ashley Freiberg, Bret Curtis and Jens Klingmann. Third was the Daytona-winning No. 44 Magnus Porsche GT3 R of Andy Lally, John Potter and Marco Seefried.

Before the halfway mark, weather was a major factor. The day started with clear skies, but weather front crossing from the west to the east hit the historic Sebring International Raceway around noon, with everything from a drizzle to a downpour accompanied by lightning and thunder, and causing IMSA to stop the race for two hours and 15 minutes over a concern for the safety of fans and workers.

The race resumed at 4:08 p.m., and intermittent rain was a factor, but it did not match the earlier storms.

The heralded Sebring debut of the two Ford GT cars, competing in the GT Le Mans class, was in the end disappointing, but far better than their showing in Daytona. The No. 67 car ran well all day and finished fifth, and even led for a while with IndyCar champion Scott Dixon driving.

The No. 66 didn't fare as well after losing laps while fixing crash damage, and it finished eighth in class. Daytona and Sebring were the only two endurance races the team has for practice before they ship out to France, hoping to win the class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, on the 50th anniversary of Ford's overall victory there.

Next up for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is the Toyota GP of Long Beach on April 16.