Daytona winners Lone Wolf Motorsports and the No. 747 Dallara P217 team came in a strong second-place finish to ensure they will maintain the VSCA SportsCar Championship points lead after two races. Element Simracing and the No. 7 team rounded out the P2 class podium.
In GT3 an amazing battle and dramatic final hour gave way to Twenty7 Motorsport and BMW taking a surprise victory, following fears from some BMW teams throughout the week, that the Bavarian manufacturer were at a disadvantage at the legendary Sebring International Raceway.
Second place in GT3 class went to Westwood Racing eSports, who celebrated a strong comeback performance with their No. 87 Audi R8 LMS GT3 after a nightmare of a season opener at Daytona in January. Back-to-back VSCA GRID Pole Award winners RD Simsport and their No. 158 RD Simsport Lamborghini GT3 Evo finished third, easily marking their best finish of the season to date.
The final minutes of the race were overshadowed by a massive crash on the front stretch, when race leaders No. 10 Race4CAT Motorsport Dallara P217 were taken out in a controversial incident with No. 76 Porsche 911 GT3 R of Daytona GT3 winners NReSports. Race control said the incident will be reviewed post-race, but had no further comment on Saturday night.
In total, the race saw five full-course yellows. The longest green-flag period of the season so far occurred after the first caution period, when the race stayed under green flag conditions for five hours, before its second caution.
The No. 48 Dallara P217 team of Iconic Motorsports, who started from 14th place proved once again to be one of the front runners for this year’s P2 class championship by working their way into the lead by lap 63 and leading a race-high 139 laps.
Ultimately, the team that won the GRID pole award at Daytona and entered the race ninth in the P2 class championship standings, failed to see the checkered flag after a massive crash on lap 263, after nearly nine hours of racing, at “Sunset”, the final turn of the circuit.
Iconic Motorsports driver Tuomas Mustanen drove into the corner at and was startled to find a very slow No. 991 Porsche of Riddle Rocket Racing directly in front of him, on its way to the pit entrance.
The two cars made heavy contact, almost flipping over the GT3 car of Ryan Koprowski and heavily damaging the No. 48 Iconic Motorsports machine, that eventually retired from the race on lap 288, after the team realized the car was no longer drivable due to the damage sustained in the incident. The team was running in second position at the time of the crash.
In GT3 class PorscheSport and their No. 101 Porsche 911 GT3 R were among the front runners early in the race with British-American drivers duo Richard Hearn and Ryan Parkins working hard to make up for a disappointing season-opener at Daytona in January.
On the restart following the first full-course yellow of the race, the team was penalized by race control for not closing the gap to the P2 class field, setting off a chain of events that turned the team’s race sideways.
Despite leading 17 laps in the race, the team was left with empty hands and failed to see the checkered flag in the end, due to a crash that occurred on lap 271, with just about two hours remaining in the race.
Coming out of turn 17, the No. 47 P2 Prototype of Iconic Motorsports attempted the pass on the outside. The two cars made contact multiple times and both cars crashed into the concrete walls, collecting the No. 76 Porsche of NReSports in the process.
The PorscheSport No. 101 Porsche ended up P26 in GT3 class and Iconic Motorsports accomplished damage control by finishing P12.
Agee Motorsports and their No. 17 Dallara P217 were one of the success stories at Sebring as the race concluded under spectacular fireworks covering the Central Florida sky. The team that suffered a lap three crash at Daytona put together its best run of the season so far and brought home a highly satisfying fifth-place finish.
Agee Motorsports team owner Mark Agee said after the race: “Obviously, we are very excited about our first top 5. It was an outstanding race for the team. The guys agree, it was a very good race and we are very happy with the result. Hopefully we can build on this for the rest of the season!”
In GT3, WestWood Racing eSports had a similar story, celebrating its first good result in the form of a second-place finish at Sebring, making up for some of the disappointment the team had endured at Daytona earlier this year.
In the championship standings, it is Lone Wolf Motorsports and their No. 747 Dallara P217 team continuing to hold the points lead after a win and second-place finish in the opening two rounds. The No. 7 Element SimRacing team is following in second, 90 points back. World of SimRacing and their No. 51 team were hoping for more than a P6 finish at Sebring, but are still in excellent position for the championship fight in P2 class, in third, 100 points out of the lead.
Kinetic Racing’s No. 67 Porsche team are the somewhat surprise points leaders in GT3 class with Torque Freak Racing’s No. 6 Porsche a very close ten points right behind. FR13DA Sports Group and their No. 13 Meguiars Porsche are still looking for their first win of the season, but can console themselves - after a frustrating end to the 12 Hours of Sebring – with the fact they sit in third place in the GT3 championship standings with only a gap of 30 points to the leaders.
The VSCA SportsCar Championship will next travel to Salinas, California and WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on April 23rd for championship round 3. The 2 hour and 40 minute race is the first Sprint Cup race of the season.
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