Leading a dominant 224 of 359 laps, the #46 Dallara P217 of Rising Panda Racing put its thump on the third annual 12 Hours of Sebring as the Schwaz, Austria team celebrates its first ever VSCA SportsCar Championship win.
For drivers Piers Stockton, Christian Campregher and Remy Loesch, it all started from ninth place on the starting grid and ended in a dominant victory, one lap ahead over the rest of the LMP2 class.
“It feels amazing and we are very happy to celebrate our first win in VSCA, but also on iRacing in general, as a group!”, Christian Campregher said in victory lane.
“The fact we were also in contention at the Daytona 24 until the last hour gives it a little taste of redemption and makes it even sweeter.”
“It probably looked easier than it actually was, to be honest. I think the main deciding factor was that we were able to stay out of trouble, both during the dry & the wet running. Combined with a good pace and an on-point strategy, it meant we were able to get in the lead just before the 4-hour mark, which also was crucial for the endurance championship. We didn’t have the best qualifying but were able to manage the race from there.”
During the final third of the race, rain showers started to affect the race - a first in VSCA history. With the weather throwing a wrench into the race for all teams, the eventual race winners were facing the same challenge, to deal with the conditions.
“The rain was so cool! We really enjoyed the increased challenge! Most of our group had previous experience from racing in rain elsewhere. So, we were really looking forward to how we’d do compared to the others.”, Campregher continued.
“Testing showed us, mistakes and their consequences are multiplied tenfold in the wet. Our main focus really was to just keep the car on the track and off the pitlane as much as possible, even if it meant leaving some pace on the table.”
“That is also one of the reasons why we decided to pit rather early, when the rain started and why we stayed out as long as possible when it started drying up. The gap we were able to build before and during the rain allowed us to play it safe.”
“We saw many cars from all classes trying to venture longer on the slicks or go back on them early to save an additional pitstop, with more or less success.”
The #86 GSE Racing eSports Dallara was the car next in line at the finish, taking the checkered flag a distant full lap behind. But for Christopher Seftel, Dennis Denicio and Luca Harmening it was the best result of the season so far and the team’s best result since it joined VSCA competition last year.
Tri-State Racing had its #321 Dallara and drivers Chris Cadiz, Christian Sherrard and Garret Spenst complete the podium, two laps down.
FRS SimSports, who have won The Roar Before The 24 at Daytona in January took fourth place, leading one lap and finishing two laps down in the end, with Kristof Bakos, Kyle Harkema and Mitchell van Winsum.
Series veterans Andy Banfield, Alexander Banfield and Jeff Yeager continue a very promising 2024 season campaign, earning their third consecutive top-five finish and making up for a tough outing at Sebring one year ago, when the team was involved in a huge crash.
Tri-State Racing’s second entry, the #123 Dallara of Sam Vaughan, Thomas Marcelino and Bart Matyja finished P6. Matyja earned the pole position for his team, in his first-ever VSCA start and together with his team-mates went on to lead 115 laps in the race.
The team Montlcair, New Jersey looked as if they were going to be a serious contender for the win, when just before the ten-hour mark of the race, Marcelino went into the marbles and wet patches at sunset, lost control and crashed hard into the tire barriers. Through a miraculous effort by the team’s pit crew and following the ensuing repairs, the #123 Dallara still went on to finish the race, albeit eleven laps down.
LMP2 championship leaders #18 Gowin Racing had a forgettable race, by the team’s own standards. After winning at Daytona and Long Beach, Sebring marked the first time this season that Gowin Racing did not make it to the winner’s circle. Instead, Josh Gowin, Nicholas Gowin and Eugene Maltsev had to settle for seventh, eleven laps down.
Fischer Motorsport with Travis Linscome-Hatfield and Michael Adamczyk teaming up to pilot the #14 Dallara, struggled and ended up eighth, 13 laps down after a crash with the #621 Dallara of FRS SimSports about two hours into the race.
Texas Speed Sim Racing, one of the newest teams on the grid and their #30 Dallara with Heberley Telemaque, Michael Fairchild and Jared Claude struggled to a P9 finish, 15 laps down from the race winners, but celebrated the fact the entry finished out its first ever VSCA race.
Vice Motorsport and their #91 car with Stephen Hassett, Anthony Dring and Orlando Campos rounded out the top ten, leading one lap but finishing 16 laps down. At the 7 hour-51 minute mark of the race and while running in third position, battling with Sam Vaughan in the #123 Tri-State Racing Dallara for second place, Anything Dring’s car made contact with the former coming out of sunset, sending his Vice Motorsport machine hard into the concrete wall of pit road, resulting in a scary and spectacular high impact crash.
The final championship points scoring entry, the #048 SCOWRS Esses Racing Dallara of Kyle Granger, Rein de Boer and Jory Maesen, finished P11, 19 laps down as the team was unable to follow up its second-place success from Long Beach in February.
Rising Panda creeping closer to championship lead
With their dominant win and third top-five in four races this season, the #46 Rising Panda Racing Dallara takes over second place in the LMP2 championship standings, only 47 points behind championship leaders #18 Gowin Racing.
Commenting on the championship battle, Campregher said:
“At Daytona, we were pretty pleased when we realized that we were in the mix, pace wise or rather at the front end of the field. But Daytona and Long Beach showed us that pace is secondary, really. Traffic management, and staying out of trouble are 90% of the job done. We learnt it the hard way in the first two rounds. And I think Gowin Racing, unfortunately for them, got reminded of that here.”
“I think it is too early to tell where we will stand at the end of the season, so many things can happen until then but we aspire to the crown, that is for sure.”
“We also need to have a look at our roster as the good performance in the first three rounds means we will most likely not be able to keep the roster stable until the end of the season.”
Losing one spot in the standings, #66 VRG Sport still sit in a competitive spot, only 105 points out of the lead with seven more championship rounds remaining.
New Endurance Cup points leader
Sebring also marked the second of five Endurance Cup races this season and with their win, the #46 Rising Panda Racing Dallara now takes over the lead in the in-series endurance championship, three points ahead of Daytona 24 winners Gowin Racing, who drop to second.
Facing a significant ten-point gap, the #123 Tri-State Racing Dallara follows in third place.
Laguna Seca the next upcoming challenge
Just as the rest of the series, all LMP2 teams now look forward to the series’ third annual visit to WeatherTech Raceway at Laguna Seca on April 13th.
The track which has hosted one of the wildest races in series history two years ago, always promises for exciting battles and plenty of drama. Championship leaders Gowin Racing will look to bounce back from their first points race this season that did not result in a win while Rising Panda Racing will look to capture its second consecutive win and take over the points lead.
GreenFlag TV once again will broadcast the race live, from start to finish on Saturday, April 13th with the green flag scheduled for 15:50 GMT.
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