Jake Glastad/IMSA
No. 7 Penske Porsche muscles to Sebring 12 Hour lead at halfway
The 73rd Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring is now at halfway, and the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 took the lead in the last few minutes. Felipe Nasr pounced on the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R of Earl Bamber and made his move for the lead at Turn 10, breaking a string of Cadillac dominance in recent hours.
Porsche Penske's No. 6 runs third as Mathieu Jaminet is trying to fend off Kevin Magnussen in the No. 24 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8. In fifth, Renger van der Zande is trying to fight back from a drive-through penalty, given after a tire was left unattended during a pit stop. The No. 93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 is currently fifth, but the No. 60 of Tom Blomqvist is just behind in sixth.
The No. 23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie continues to show more-than-competent pace in eighth, behind the No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche.
In LMP2, CrowdStrike Racing by APR has now taken firm command of the proceedings, as the No. 04 ORECA 07 came into the pits and maintained a 40s lead over the No. 22 United Autosports USA car of Rasmus Lindh. Tom Dillmann is third in the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition car.
Note that CrowdStrike/APR and Inter Europol are on different strategies to the two United cars, the No. 22 and the No. 2 of Juan Manuel Correa in fourth.
The No. 73 Pratt Miller Motorsports ORECA is currently behind the wall for a second time, having spent a long time in the garage to fix an oil leak. Only three cars have retired so far: the No. 47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari, the No. 18 Era Motorsports ORECA, and the No. 023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari.
Good pit work got the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO out in the lead in GTD PRO. Connor De Phillippi has a 2s lead over Mike Rockenfeller aboard the No. 64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3, who's on a different strategy to much of the class leaders.
It's still too close to call with the No. 4 Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Nicky Catsburg in third, then the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche, No. 48 Paul Miller BMW, No. 3 Pratt Miller Corvette, and No. 81 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3 all within 10s of the top spot.
Good timing benefitted Korthoff Competition, who pitted just before a full course yellow and were rewarded with the GTD class lead. Kenton Koch leads in the No. 32 Mercedes-AMG GT3, from the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Tom Gamble.
Russell Ward has the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG in third ahead of the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari of Simon Mann in fourth.
A nice block of caution-free racing was brought to a halt about 4h15m into the race. Wayne Taylor Racing's Brendon Hartley crashed the No. 40 Cadillac V-Series.R -- he overshot the entry into Sunset Bend and went into the tire barrier, damaging the front-left. This brought out the fifth FCY of the race and compounded what's been another tough weekend for WTR across its three cars in two classes.
Even though Hartley drove back to the pits and the No. 40 only needed a new front clip, the car did get held in the pits for a 60s penalty stop, taking more than what IMSA deemed as emergency service during repairs.
Within the last hour there was a small outbreak of GTD tire problems -- at the left rear of the No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini, at the left rear of the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari, and then the left front of the No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini. The latter two were contending for top-10 positions, making their setbacks very costly. The past hour also saw the No. 19 Van der Steur Racing Aston Martin go behind the wall with a mechanical issue and return to the race.
The race has also taken a physical toll on the likes of Pfaff Motorsports' James Hinchcliffe, who escaped a broken left foot after having his car dropped from its jacks onto it during a pit stop. Rodrigo Sales of PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports also gutted out a 3h iron man stint despite pain in his knee.
Earlier in this quarter, the first Michelin Endurance Cup points were handed out at the four-hour interval. The No. 31 Whelen Cadillac received five points in GTP, the No. 60 MSR Acura's strategy divergence got them four points, and the No. 93 Acura got three.
In LMP2 the top three were the No. 11 TDS ORECA, then the two United Autosports cars, the No. 2 and 22.
For GTD PRO it was the No. 1 Paul Miller BMW leading the No. 4 Pratt Miller Corvette and No. 48 Paul Miller BMW.
In GTD, the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari, No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus, and No. 70 Inception Ferrari got the additional Endurance points.
RJ O’Connell
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