As the sun began to set over Sebring, following a blisteringly hot spring day in Florida, the battle in the overall DPi prototype class swung back and forth between Cadillac and Acura.
With just over three hours remaining, the Cadillac DPi-V.Rs of Kamui Kobayashi (Action Express Racing) and Earl Bamber (Chip Ganassi Racing) ran side-by-side for the lead as they crossed the start/finish line. Kobayashi, who was exhausted after a double stint with no drinks system, dived for the pits soon after, dropping the car to fifth in class as it is running off-sequence to its rivals.
That promoted Bamber to the lead at the nine-hour mark, ahead of the JDC-Miller MotorSports Caddy of Loic Duval and the first of the Acuras, the Meyer Shank Racing Rolex 24-winning car of Stoffel Vandoorne.
The #31 AXR Cadillac runs fourth in Pipo Derani’s hands. It was earlier delayed in a spin by Mike Conway.
Another British frontrunner, Will Stevens in the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05, also dropped the ball by inexplicably leaving the pits via the wrong exit – using the lane reserved for the penalty box and not the RFID gate – which led to a costly drive-through penalty. An unimpressed team boss Wayne Taylor said: “When a driver makes a mistake like that, what can you say?”
The WTR Acura fell from the lead to sixth in class as a result, with only the much-delayed #01 CGR Caddy behind.
In LMP2, the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca of Scott Huffaker, which he shares with Ben Keating and Mikkel Jensen, continues to dominate.
The Sean Creech Motorsports Ligier of Malthe Jakobsen, Joao Barbosa and Lance Willsey leads LMP3. Reigning class champion team Riley Motorsports hit a huge setback when the car driven by Felipe Fraga, Gar Robinson and Kay van Berlo split its radiator and had to go behind the wall.
Corvette leads BMW in GTD Pro
In GTD Pro there was some sensational racing over the past three hours, as Chevrolet, BMW, Porsche, Lexus and Lamborghini all fought hard near the head of the class.
Corvette’s Nicky Catsburg hit the front after a great battle with the Pfaff Porsche 911 GT3 R of Matt Campbell, with the Rahal-run BMW M4 GT3 of Nick Yelloly also in the mix.
After a mammoth triple stint, Catsburg handed the leading ’Vette over to Jordan Taylor, with the chasing BMW now in the hands of Marco Wittmann. Marco Mapelli – battling back from an earlier penalty – runs third for Lamborghini, ahead of the Lexus of Ben Barnicoat.
In the Pro-Am GTD class, there was also a fine scrap for honours, with Bill Auberlen leading in his Turner Motorsports BMW despite being savaged into a spin by Antonio Fuoco’s Cetilar Racing Ferrari. The Alegra Motorsports Mercedes and AF Corse Ferrari remain in the hunt, along with the penalized Cetilar Ferrari.
The #70 Inception McLaren, which had also run at the front, was hit by a drive-through for too many pitcrew over the wall.
With nine hours in the book, and the track soon in full darkness, the race for victory truly begins.
