Endurance racing, more than any other form of motor racing, requires perseverance and grit from competitors to find success.
Perfect case in point: The No. 67 Porsche of Kinetic Racing in this year’s 12 Hours of Sebring.
Starting from the outside pole, driver Nicholas Sceats found himself dropping to third position in turn one, before contact with the No. 396 Porsche of Fach Auto Tech eSport.
The incident sent the Kinetic machine into a wild drift, but Sceats was able to regain control and avoid the worst - a crash or even early retirement. But the lap one drama wasn’t over just yet, when in the “Le Mans” corner, the No. 16 Dangler Performance Mercedes of Marvin Bode spun directly in front of Sceats, setting off a chain of events that resulted in a hit from behind and damage to the Kinetic Racing machine.
 |
| Start of the race - VR7UAL Pole winners, the No. 85 Fischer Motorsport Porsche leads the field down to turn one, but was out of contention less than four laps later - © 2023 VSCAracing.com / Benjamin Fischer |
Starting from the pole, the No. 85 Porsche of Fischer Motorsport with driver Niklas Solle took the GTD class field through the first corners and first few laps, before suddenly dropping off the track with electrical issues.
The technical issues dropped the team off the lead lap, which added up to a total of three laps over the course of the race. In the end the No. 85 Porsche wound up eighth.
Inheriting the lead, the No. 393 Mercedes of MAD Sim Racing was now at the front of the field. No other car in GTD class would lead more laps than the runners-up from Daytona (130 laps). In the end the team out of Mooresville, North Carolina took second place once again - good enough to take the championship lead.
The first of five full-course caution periods came just about a half hour into the race and saw several GTD class teams come down pit road for fuel and tires, while the other half stayed out.
Among them: The No. 67 Porsche of Kinetic Racing. The team used the opportunity to get repairs done to its race car, which proved the right strategy in the end.
On lap 126, after four and a half hours of racing, Kinetic Racing driver Aedan Campbell brought the No. 67 Porsche into the lead for the first time.
Late caution period sets up exciting finale
In the final hour of the race the fifth and final caution period came out. The No. 393 MAD Sim Racing Mercedes was in the lead when the yellow flag came out and decided to use the neutralization of the race to make its final pit stop.
The No. 67 Porsche of Kinetic Racing meanwhile had just pitted previously on lap 289 and stayed out, calculating that fuel should be enough to go the rest of the way. The move gave the defending series champions the lead and put them in prime position to fend off the rest of the field on the restart.
With just under twenty minutes remaining, the green flag came out and the field restarted with the No. 67 Porsche in first and their long-time arch rivals, the No. 6 Lamborghini of Torque Freak Racing right behind in second.
The No. 84 Porsche of Fischer Motorsport restarted in third with the No. 112 HAC Racing Lamborghini and previous leaders MAD Sim Racing right in their tow.
Patrick Fogel in the No. 393 Mercedes immediately made up one position in turn one following the restart, then passed the No. 84 of Jay Van Meppelen later on the same lap.
The question now was: Will Fogel be able to use his fresh tires and strong car to get back to the front in time for the checkered flag and win the race?
On the next lap, Fogel took second place and now set his eyes on the No. 67 Porsche of Campbell. But ultimately time ran out and after 12 hours, 2 minutes and 3 seconds of racing, Kinetic Racing added to their impressive collection of wins in VSCA by taking the 12 Hours of Sebring.
Arriving in victory lane, Aedan Campbell said:
“We never give up and feel we are the best team on the grid and coming from Daytona we felt really confident.”
“Lap one, yeah that was tough. But I’ll tell you what. The team really came together and we worked our way back up with the leaders.”
“Vince put in some mega stints to get us into position to cover off any full-course yellows. That really was the call of the race for us and played out perfectly.”, Campbell added.
Getting more emotional, the driver from Middletown, New Jersey paid homage to Kinetic Racing’s late team principal and founder John King:
“We also felt we had our late leader John King watching over us and helped us get into victory lane.”
Up-and-down of emotions for No. 393 and No. 5 Mercedes
Coming short of winning again, by just over three seconds, Patrick Fogel and the No. 393 MAD Sim Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 came home in second.
HAC Racing and Christophe Demay originally celebrated, crossing the start/finish line in third but were ultimately disqualified for exceeding the maximum drive time of 7 hours per driver, handing the final place on the podium to the No. 6 car of Torque Freak Racing.
World Of SimRacing Team continues their strong 2023 VSCA season as their No. 151 BMW M4 GT3 took fourth place, ahead of the No. 84 Fischer Motorsport Porsche, who dropped from P3 to the back-end of the top-five after Van Meppelen lost control and spun out in the final laps of the race.
 |
| Screeching Moose Motorsports' No. 5 Mercedes led 56 laps and looked like in prime position to win the 12 Hours of Sebring, but a late full-course yellow resulted in a P9 finish - © 2023 VSCAracing.com / Benjamin Fischer |
Rounding out the top ten were the No. 78 Champion Motorsports BMW, No. 312 BMW of Real Pixel Motorsport, VR7UAL Pole sitters No. 85 Porsche of Fischer Motorsport , long-time leaders No. 5 Mercedes of Screeching Moose Motorsports and the No. 29 Porsche of Firestorm Motorsport.
For Screeching Moose Motorsports it was an especially tough finish, winding up ninth after holding the lead just 21 laps before the end of the race.
“We are really happy with our performance and our Mercedes AMG GT3. But going forward as a team and looking back on this race, I think we learned some very important lessons. We just need to keep our heads high, you know. As much as it was a tough pill for us to swallow with that final yellow flag - that win will come to us one day.”, said team manager and driver Lukas Santos, as he consoled the rest of his No. 5 Mercedes team following the finish.
MAD Sim Racing still in first place in championship
After two races, the No. 393 MAD Sim Racing Mercedes continues to lead the GTD class championship standings in the VSCA SportsCar Championship. The No. 67 Kinetic Racing Porsche has moved to second place, 65 points back. Despite earning another top-five finish, the No. 151 BMW of World Of SimRacing Team dropped to third, now 113 points short of the lead.
Rounding out the top-five in the championship are the No. 5 Mercedes of Screeching Moose Motorsports and the No. 6 Lamborghini of Torque Freak Racing.
Endurance Cup a two-horse race at halfway mark of season
With two of the four 2023 Endurance Cup races in the books, the standings in this in-series championship show a two-horse race right now, with the No. 67 Porsche of Kinetic Racing in first place, just one point ahead of the No. 393 MAD Sim Racing Mercedes. The No. 5 Mercedes of Screeching Moose Motorsports is already a distant ten points shy of the lead, followed by the No. 151 BMW of World Of SimRacing Team and the No. 974 Ferrari of Nerd Herd Racing.
The next Endurance Cup race will not be until June, the 6 Hours of the Glen at Watkins Glen, with the final endurance race taking place at Road Atlanta in October.
Long Beach next, just two weeks away
The VSCA SportsCar Championship will see one of its quickest turnarounds ever after Sebring, with the next championship round taking place just two weeks later on April 8 at the Street Circuit of Long Beach, California.
Related Links