Cadillac’s new DPi-V.R didn’t just Saturday’s 65th Annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, it swept the podium in dominant fashion.
The hilarious Ricky Taylor drove the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing/Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi V.R home to a 13.614-second victory over Joao Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi and Filipe Albuquerque in the chasing No. 5 Action Express Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi V.R.
With the help of his brother Jordan Taylor and former F1 development driver Alex Lynn the WTR squad performed faultlessly on Sebring’s storied concrete as the team followed up its season opening win at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona and captured the coveted 36 Hours of Florida honors.
Um, we win!!! 🏁🏁🏁
— Wayne Taylor Racing (@WayneTaylorRcng) March 19, 2017
Jordan Taylor took the lead from Albuquerque with two hours and change left on the clock after the pair were battling through lapped traffic. WTR solidified its position with just over an hour remaining and Ricky at the wheel when the team short filled the No.10 in order to keep track position ahead of the race’s sixth and final restart.
“To say that a brand-new car out of the box has run 36 hours of racing absolutely flawlessly, I don’t think that has ever happened. It is a testament to Cadillac and all of the development partners, ” said Ricky Taylor. The Taylor brothers are quickly becoming American racing royalty, Jordan added this year’s sweep of the Rolex 24 and Sebring 12-hour to his class wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2015, and 2014 at Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.
Third was Action Express Racing’s second car, the No.31 Whelen Cadillac DPi V.R of Dane Cameron, Eric Curran and Mike Conway, who finished 2 laps down on the leaders after the car failed to re-fire after a spin in the race’s third hour.
The four-car Prototype Challenge class was won by the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca FLM09 of James French, Pato O’Ward and Kyle Masson, who not only repeated their Rolex win in Sebring, but also finished an impressive fifth overall ahead of both the Mazda and Nissan DPi pairs which suffered from a range of mechanical issues and finished well down the order.
In GTLM it was the No. 3 Corvette C7.R of Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen, and Mike Rockenfeller that scampered away to class victory once the sun went down in Florida. Corvette Racing’s third consecutive Sebring win came courtesy of clever pit strategy and a stunning drive by Garcia who closed out the race’s final three hours behind the wheel of the No.3 as he kept the Ford GTs and new Porsche 911 RSRs at bay.
“Antonio drove a Superman stint at the end,” Magnussen said. “After the sun went down and the track cooled, we picked up the pace, and Antonio made the most of it.”
What a team, what a car, what a race! Three straight at #Sebring12!! @TeamChevy #Corvette #C7R #OneTeam pic.twitter.com/EcnbeYLAaI
— Corvette Racing (@CorvetteRacing) March 19, 2017
The No. 66 Ford GT of Joey Hand, Dirk Mueller and Sebastien Bourdais had closed in to within a second with roughly 30 minutes remaining, but Garcia stretched it out to 4.43 seconds as he peerlessly sliced through slower GTD traffic. Rounding out the rostrum was the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE, which was promoted to the podium after Richard Westbrook caved to the Ferrari’s pressure and looped the No. 67 Ford on the last lap. The third Ford on loan from its UK-based WEC team rounded out GTLM’s top five.
It was an unlucky run for Patrick Pilet’s No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR, Pilet was easily the fastest GTLM car on track, but was let down by a puncture in the final hour as he diced with Garcia for the class lead.
WIN & P3 for #MercedesAMGMotorsport @IMSA #Sebring12hr. #MercedesAMG Team #RileyMotorsport wins & #SunEnergy1Racing is on 3rd place. #AMGGT3 pic.twitter.com/Cq0iVIVVhX
— Mercedes-AMG (@MercedesAMG) March 19, 2017
In GTD it was the Riley Team’s No. 33 Mercedes-AMG GT3 that would cross the line first–something no Mercedes has done at Sebring for over 60 years–with Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Mario Farnbacher enjoying their second podium finish of the season after a third place finish in Daytona.
Second place went to the No. 63 Scuderia Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 driven by Christina Nielsen, Alessandro Balzan and Matteo Cressoni. In third was the pole-sitting No.75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG.
Third-place should have been the No. 16 Change Racing/Monster Energy Lamborghini Huracán GT3’s first podium, but its V10 sucked the gas tank dry on the last lap and slid back to 11th in class.
Highs and lows of Motorsports.. battling for p3 finish, came@up one lap short on fuel. Proud of our @Change_Racing guys for the effort!
— Corey Lewis (@CoreyLewis39) March 19, 2017
