ALMS -
12 ore
di
Sebring
PEUGEOT
TAKES
1-2
FINISH
AT
SEBRING
12 HOURS
Wurz/Gene/Davidson
give
French
marque
first
Sebring
victory
Alexander Wurz's outlap
after his final stop was
quick enough for an overall
victory for himself and Team
Peugeot Total teammates Marc
Gene and Anthony Davidson.
Wurz drove his
diesel-powered Peugeot 908
HDi FAP to a 13.817-second
win at the 58th Mobil 1
Twelve Hours of Sebring
presented by Fresh from
Florida, a first in the
event for the famed French
marque.
Sebastien Bourdais, Nic
Minassian and Pedro Lamy
were second, putting an
exclamation point on the
weekend for the French Lions.
The Peugeots were 1-2 in
every official session this
week.
Gene and Wurz were teammates
for Peugeot’s historic
victory at the Le Mans 24
Hours in June 2009. The 908
HDi now holds trophies from
all of the major endurance
races with a win at Petit Le
Mans in September.
“We pushed, everyone was 100
percent,” said Wurz, who won
at Le Mans last year with
Gene. The strategy people
had smoke coming out of
their ears. It was down to
three seconds (the margin)
for the last stop. It came
down to Sebastian and myself.”
The factory Peugeot team
used the race as a warmup
for Le Mans. Aston Martin
Racing with its Lola
B09/60-Aston Martin and
Drayson Racing’s Lola
B09/60-Judd provided the
biggest challenges early.
The Drayson Lola proved
tough early on with Emanuele
Pirro running second between
the two Peugeots in the
early going before it fell
back with cooling and
radiator issues.
“With Peugeot we came here
as a team and wanted to
accomplish a goal and we did,”
said Davidson, who finished
second in GTS during the
2003 race. “This was a big
challenge to get through the
traffic efficiently. That
was where we excelled today.
It’s a big challenge for the
cars. We know the circuit
will throw up all kinds of
issues for reliability. It’s
important to win the race,
but also for preparations
for Le Mans later in the
year.”
Adrian Fernandez, Harold
Primat and Stefan Mücke
placed third in the
Lola-Aston Martin, making
its first start in the 12
Hours. It will go up against
Peugeot at Le Mans, as will
Audi. Gene is convinced the
trip to Sebring will be
worth it come the 24 Hours.
“We really think and after
driving, this is the best
prep for Le Mans,” he said.
“In those corners especially
the last one, you find the
right places to over take,
in Turn 17 you can overtake
in the outside but a few
times I picked up a lot of
rubber. It’s a tough track
but perfect practice for
overtaking. The bumps are
more perfect for Le Mans
than maybe Paul Ricard,
where it is more smooth.
There isn’t any other corner
in the world like that.”
Greg Pickett, Klaus Graf and
Sascha Maassen won in LMP2
for Muscle Milk Team
CytoSport. Their Porsche RS
Spyder won by three laps
over the Patrón Highcroft
Racing HPD ARX-01c, which
led until an electrical
problem inside four hours to
go set them back.
It marked Porsche’s second
Sebring class victory for
the RS Spyder, which made
its first 12 Hours start in
2006. Penske Racing won
overall in 2008, and
Saturday’s win by CytoSport
was the first time an
independent team won in
North America with the
prototype.
“I really like this
magnificent machine,” said
an enthused Pickett. “You
expect that from Porsche. We
were glad to run with the
Michelin tires this year,
and I’m tickled we could
double and triple stint them.
I’m 63 now; to do this at
this level of competition…
my teammates did the heavy
lifting. They let me get in
a little bit. It was a
wonderful adventure. We do
this for fun, the better we
do it, the more fun we have.”
The Patrón Highcroft car of
David Brabham, Simon
Pagenaud and Marino
Franchitti had dominated the
opening two-thirds of the
race and led by five laps
when the electrical malady
reared its head. Graf kept
ticking off lap after lap
while the helpless Highcroft
car sat still in pitlane.
“I have to say that I have
tried to win here with the
Spyder quite a few times,
but this time I was
successful,” said Maassen,
who won in class at Sebring
for the fifth time but first
in a prototype. “We had luck,
that’s for sure. We had our
plan, we did exactly what we
wanted to do. We drive safe
and steady and stay out of
the pits. That is the key to
an endurance race.”
“It was quiet on the radio.
Bringing it home was special
for me,” Graf said. “You had
to keep your concentration
up to not make a mistake
especially in the dark.
I can’t thank Greg enough to
put this team together. He
has a great appreciation for
this sport, and everyone one
in this room knows what it
takes to put something like
this together.”
Chris Dyson, Guy Smith and
Andy Meyrick placed third in
class with their
isobutanol-powered Lola
B09/86-Mazda. The car
experienced electrical
sensor issues early.
Risi Competizione won in
GT2, the team’s sixth
straight victory in a major
endurance race. Jaime Melo,
Gimmi Bruni and Pierre
Kaffer took a one-lap
victory in their Ferrari
F430 GT over BMW Rahal
Letterman Racing’s two BMW
M3s, which swapped positions
on the last turn of the last
lap.
Risi now has won
consecutively at Sebring, Le
Mans and Petit Le Mans,
etching even more history in
the F430 GT.
“I think it’s everything
together,” said Melo, who
won for the third time at
the 12 Hours. “The team is a
very, very good team. With
three drivers who are very
consistent like Gimmi and
Pierre… that’s the way to
win this kind of race. The
Michelin tires are very
consistent and work well for
us. The preparation of the
car is the key to this race.
I know the F430 from when we
started developing the car.
We want to put it in the
history books, so we want to
win this year so bad. We can
send it off in a good way.”
The fight in GT2 was a
fantastic scrap before
attrition started to take
its toll. Team Falken Tire
led early on in its Porsche
and had two wheels come off
on consecutive laps. The
second hit the
then-second-place Flying
Lizard Motorsports Porsche,
which lost three laps in the
pits. Corvette Racing’s two
Corvettes collided in pit
lane when one Corvette C6.R
tried to leave its pit box
and another came in
simultaneously.
That left the Risi Ferrari
and two BMWs to duke it out.
All totaled, the winning
Risi Ferrari led for
approximately 10 hours. It
led from nearly the
90-minute mark until a
caution period just past the
halfway point when the
Lizard Porsche beat the
Ferrari out of the pits. It
took Bruni all of a half lap
to retake the lead.
“We showed the three of us,
Risi, and Michelin worked
really well together,” said
Bruni, who won for the first
time in the Series. “This
really helps. (with momentum).
We've known each other a
while. Jaime has been with
this car for a good long
time.”
In the new LMPC class, Level
5 Motorsports’ trio of Scott
Tucker, Christophe Bouchut
and Mark Wilkins won handily
with their ORECA FLM09
prototype. They won by 16
laps over the Green Earth
Team Gunnar trio of Gunnar
Jeannette, Christian Zugel
and Elton Julian.
“I took the start and the
car was working really well,
even if we had a small
problem in warmup, a problem
with the engine,” Bouchut
said. “We thought maybe it
wouldn’t work like we
expected, but not at all.
The mechanics really did a
great job putting it
together.”
This was the first race for
the ORECA-built machines,
which are helping develop
future prototype drivers and
teams for the American Le
Mans Series competition.
Tucker and Wilkins made
their first start in the
Series, and Bouchut made
just his 13th start.
“We haven’t had a lot of
time in the car but it’s a
really nice package,” Tucker
said. “It’s sophisticated
but simple. It was no
problem running a triple
stint in it. I really like
the car.”
Genoa Racing’s Andy Wallace,
JR Hildebrand and Tom
Sutherland placed second in
class.
Alex Job Racing made a
triumphant return to the
Series with a sweep of the
GT Challenge podium. Butch
Leitzinger, Juan Gonzalez
and Leh Keen won by three
laps over the sister car of
Bill Sweedler, Romeo
Kapudija and Jan-Dirk
Lueders.
Keen put the car on the
class pole position Friday,
and the No. 81 entry ran a
clean race on a day when
that wasn’t too easy. The
only blemish was a speeding
violation in pit lane but
the winning AJR car held up
well over the course of the
12 hours.
“By the time I got in it,
these two had done such a
good job,” said Leitzinger,
who won in GTU at Sebring in
1990. “The prep was really
showing through; people were
having problems and we
weren’t. It was about as
easy as a Sebring gets. We
didn’t have to pull out
these huge laps to catch
anyone.”
AJR, based in nearly Tavares,
Fla., won at Sebring for the
sixth time. All of Alex
Job’s victories in the famed
race have come with Porsches.
Ricardo Gonzalez, Luis Diaz
and Patrick Kelly drove the
third AJR car.
“The last 12 hours have been
really intense,” Keen said.
“I have to give it to Alex.
He really knows what he’s
doing. He put together some
great GTC cars for us. There
was not a mark on the car.
All the guys did an awesome
job.”
The Peugeot prototype of
Bourdais, Minassian and Lamy
were prototype winners in
the MICHELIN® GREEN X®
Challenge, with the Flying
Lizard Motorsports’ trio of
Seth Neiman, Darren Law and
Richard Lietz the GT winners.
The award goes to the
prototype and GT entry in
each class that goes the
farthest, the fastest and
with the smallest amount of
environmental impact.
Redazione
- 21 marzo 2010 |
