Porsche strikes at Sebring
Porsche strikes at Sebring
Porsche North America has kicked off their debut season in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship by winning the “36 hours of Florida” – taking both the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring.
While the No.911 car of Nick Tandy, Richard Leitz and Patrick Pilet took the Daytona win, for Sebring, it was the turn of Patrick Long, Michael Christensen and Joerg Bergmeister aboard the No.912 car.
After Christensen qualified on pole, the car was in contention for the entire day. When Bergmeister made his final pit stop just prior to the final caution period, the team were able to gain track position when everyone else had to pit under yellow.
From the final green flag, the tall German – who is joining Long and Christensen for the endurance races in 2014 – was untroubled in the run to the flag.
“It was really special for us to get back to where we thought we had a chance with Daytona,” Patrick Long said.
“We were fortunate to get a victory as a team, we thought we could get a 1-2 there. We are happy to back it up with the back to back wins.
“Our sister car had an issue with a car they couldn’t avoid so they had bad luck today. It came down to strategy. We were really fast all day, but we knew if we got in a different strategy the other guys would have to make their last pits and we could use that to our advantage.
“We got the final yellow which let us separate from the pack and then we could just play smart from there.”
The SRT Viper of Jonathan Bomarito, Kuno Wittmer and Rob Bell took second while the BMW of Joey Hand, Bill Auberlen and Andy Priaulx backed up their runner-up finish at Daytona with third today.
Both the Corvettes were in contention for much of the day but engine issues caused delays. The No.3 ‘Vette of Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Ryan Briscoe fought back from early front end damage to gain back a lost lap and take the lead before fuel pressure issues took them out of contention.
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