Action Express Racing scored a dominant victory in Saturday's 63rd Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, leading a DP sweep of the top five overall positions following a fast-paced around-the-clock enduro.
Reigning TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Prototype champions Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi, along with IndyCar star Sebastien Bourdais, took the No. 5 Corvette DP to a commanding win, despite battling handling issues in the second half of the race.
Barbosa took over the lead from the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-Ford of Scott Dixon in the eighth hour and, along with the help of co-driver Bourdais, extended their lead to more than one lap, prior to the sixth full-course caution of the race with two hours to go.
Despite the yellow, Action Express remained in control, with Barbosa crossing the line one lap ahead of the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP of Ricky Taylor in second.
It was a banner day for AXR, which achieved 10,000 consecutive miles of competition just prior to the race's halfway point. They remain the only team to have completed every lap of TUDOR United SportsCar Championship competition to date.
Additionally, it marked only the second overall victory for Chevrolet in America's oldest endurance race, coming 50 years since Jim Hall and Hap Sharp's win in a Chaparral 2-Chevrolet.
The Taylor brothers and co-driver Max Angelelli made an impressive comeback to finish second after losing ground early due to brake issues, while a late move by Richard Westbrook on Scott Dixon ensured an all-Corvette overall podium.
Westbrook passed the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-Ford with less than 10 minutes remaining, giving he and VisitFlorida.com Racing co-drivers Michael Valiante and Mike Rockenfeller back-to-back podium finishes.
Dixon, Scott Pruett and Joey Hand, meanwhile, were relegated to fourth at the end, with the No. 31 Action Express Corvette completing the top-five, after losing two laps early due to a loose wheel.
They finished four laps ahead of the pole-sitting Krohn Racing Ligier JS P2 Judd, which had contact on pit lane and battled exhaust issues early. Remarkably, it was the only P2 car to finish the race.
Tequila Patron ESM put up the strongest fight to the DPs but both of its HPD ARX-03b cars, brought out of retirement for this weekend's race, dropped out with steering issues (No. 1) and loss of boost (No. 2), respectively.
The No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ligier-Honda crashed out in the second hour in the hands of Ozz Negri, while both of the SpeedSource Mazda SKYACTIV-D prototypes retired by mid-race with overheating (No. 07) and drive belt (No. 70) issues.
Mike Guasch, Andrew Palmer and Tom Kimber-Smith drove the No. 52 Chevrolet ORECA FLM09 PC to the win.
In Prototype Challenge, PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports enjoyed an equally commanding run to take top class honors, two months after their dramatic Rolex 24 win.
Tom Kimber-Smith brought the No. 52 Oreca FLM09 home 11.6 seconds ahead of defending class co-champion Colin Braun, following a late-race battle between the two prototype stars.
Braun put his CORE autosport machine back onto the lead lap thanks to a wave-by during the final yellow, which ended a three-hour and 47-minute stretch of green flag racing.
The two former teammates then fought tooth-and-nail for nearly an hour, although a quicker final stop for Kimber-Smith saw his gap expand to nearly 20 seconds.
Kimber-Smith shared the win with co-drivers Andrew Palmer and Mike Guasch, who claimed his third Sebring crown in the last five years, including the 2013 race with the same Bobby Oergel-led crew.
The CORE entry of Braun, Jon Bennett and James Gue was followed home by the No. 38 Performance Tech machine, which completed the class podium in third, thanks to a starring drive by open-wheel ace Conor Daly.
Corvette Racing broke through for a surprise triumph after Porsche North America dominated the race in GT Le Mans.
Meanwhile Team Seattle-AJR fought back from mid-race adversity to score its first GT Daytona class win, in absolutely dramatic fashion.
Corvette’s driving trio of Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Ryan Briscoe are now two-for-two to open the season in the No. 3 Corvette C7.R.
Jan Magnussen, Antonio Garcia and Ryan Briscoe drove the No. 3 Corvette C7.R GTLM home to the win.
In GTLM, there was little to choose between either of the factory Porsche 911 RSRs and the No. 17 Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 RSR car. The three of them held down three of the top five positions for most of the race.
But the chance for a potential Porsche win, 1-2 finish or even podium sweep went away in the final hour-plus of the race.
Fred Makowiecki fell several laps off the pace by virtue of a disastrous last scheduled pit stop in the No. 912 Porsche, when the air jack failed to engage and shortly thereafter the team couldn’t remove the lugnuts from the left rear tire. The No. 912 he shared with Earl Bamber and Joerg Bergmeister fell to seventh in class.
Things went from bad to worse when Nick Tandy, who was poised to take the win in the sister No. 911 Porsche after he and co-drivers Patrick Pilet and Richard Lietz led the majority of the second half of the race, slowed in the final hour with shifting problems.
Garcia took over the lead from the ailing Tandy on Lap 317, with the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari F458 Italia able to move into second and the Falken car able to provide Porsche with third place.
Risi’s trio of Giancarlo Fisichella, Pierre Kaffer and Andrea Bertolini ran a consistent race with Fisichella able to move up from fourth to second on track in the 11th hour.
Patrick Long joined Wolf Henzler and Bryan Sellers in the Falken Porsche en route to third place.
Both cars needed a late splash of fuel while Garcia did not. The Spaniard won by an unrepresentative 59.463 seconds in class.
The GTLM podium – Corvette, Risi Ferrari and Falken Porsche – also matches the podium result in order from the 2013 Sebring race.
Lucas Luhr, John Edwards and Jens Klingmann were fourth in the first of the BMW Team RLL BMW Z4 GTEs, with Tandy able to limp the No. 911 Porsche home to fifth despite the shifting issue.
Elsewhere it was a fraught day for the No. 4 Corvette C7.R, which stopped on track at one point with a minor belt issue, then suffered further problems when the brake pedal return spring seized up.
The second BMW lost laps early due to a bent A arm on the right front, and the single Aston Martin Vantage GTE entered had its hopes end before they ever got going courtesy of a lost wheel in the second hour. The Aston soldiered onto the finish in sixth.
Ian James, Mario Farnbacher and Alex Riberas drove the No. 23 Porsche 911 GT America home to the GTD win.
In GTD, drama in the last hour punctuated a race that saw eight of the 14 cars that started in with a shout, as they all stayed on the lead lap.
Both Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT Americas were the class of the field, along with the No. 33 TI Automotive/Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper GT3-R, before the battle between them reached a crescendo in the final hour.
The No. 23 Team Seattle car fell back to sixth in the ninth hour when its rear bumper came loose, forcing an unscheduled pit stop. The team took the bumper off and despite the loss of bodywork, the trio of Mario Farnbacher, Ian James and Alex Riberas pressed on and kept going, pace-wise.
By the 11th hour, Farnbacher had successfully caught then-leader James Davison in the No. 007 TRG-AMR Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 for the lead. The German passed the Australian for the lead on the inside of Turn 13 on Lap 274.
However, with Jeroen Bleekemolen closing in the Viper and with Farnbacher hanging on for dear life in the final 10 minutes, Farnbacher ran off course at Turn 10 and lost the lead.
It appeared Bleekemolen was poised to take the win, but for cruel luck that struck in the final five minutes. He pitted the Viper with an engine issue, losing the lead and the win in one fell swoop. That handed the win back to the Team Seattle-AJR trio.
Farnbacher, James and Riberas have delivered team owner Alex Job his 10th Sebring win. This is the trio’s first win in the TUDOR Championship, and first podium since coming second at Detroit last June. The trio also finished third at Sebring last year.
Davison ended second in the No. 007 Aston Martin he shared with Christina Nielsen and Brandon Davis, with the car 8.837 seconds back of the Porsche. It marks the first podium for TRG-AMR in TUDOR Championship competition.
Townsend Bell, Bill Sweedler and Anthony Lazzaro put in a good drive in their No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia to end third, emerging from the late-race chaos to score a surprise podium finish.
