Three hours into the 2018 Sebring 12 Hours, it’s Action Express now leading the way in the Prototype class, the #31 Whelen Engineering-entered Cadillac DPi V.R taking the lead off Penske’s #7 Acura.
After Ricky Taylor led almost all of Hour 1 in the #7, the Action Express crew managed to leapfrog its #31 Cadillac of Felipe Nasr into the lead at the second round of stops from second place. After that, the car held onto the top spot, rarely challenged by Taylor, and later Graham Rahal when Eric Curran climbed in at the third stop of the race.
There was plenty of position changes behind though, towards the end of the third hour. As it stands, the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac of Jordan Taylor is holding second, despite a scare after its fourth stop at pit-out, Taylor colliding with John Potter’s Magnus Audi while rejoining the circuit. Thankfully, neither car ended up in the tyres at the exit of Turn 1!
Third meanwhile is the #22 ESM Nissan, the car running strong with Nicolas Lapierre aboard, the car running as high as second in Hour 3, Johannes van Overbeek getting past Rahal to take the place.
The #7 Penske Acura is down to fourth, Graham Rahal unable to keep up with the front runners, the American dropping down the order before the car’s fourth pit stop. Tristan Vautier in the Spirit of Daytona Cadillac is now running fifth.
It’s been a quiet race so far for the Joest Mazda’s, but a very solid and positive run, both its RT24-Ps on the lead lap, running sixth and seventh, the #55 leading the #77, within 30 seconds of the leader. The cars look relatively pacey, and good on fuel too, pitting a couple of laps later than the competition at the end of each stint.
The only front-runner to suffer any real drama was the #6 Penske Acura, the team losing a lot of time at the car’s third stop, Simon Pagenaud getting in, but unable to pull away as the mechanics wrestled with the rear of the car, trying to replace the rear panel.
At the start of Hour 2, the drama for the 2017 GTLM-winning #3 Corvette continued, the car getting taken behind the wall, a battery issue confirmed, the car now out of contention but resuming near the end of the third hour.
The lead cycled between two clear groups of cars: having pitted under the earlier Full-Course Yellow the #24 BMW M8 and the pursuing #67 and #66 Ford GT’s were out of sync with the ‘on target’ #62 Risi Ferrari, heading the pair of Porsches, the #25 BMW and the #4 Corvette. Having taken its third stop later the Ferrari’s advantage was up to 8 seconds as the leader at the close of the hour.
And in GTD, having been under pressure from Sheldon van der Linde’s Monteplast Audi R8, David Heinemeier Hansson relinquished the #15 3GT Racing Lexus’ lead as the Dane took a drive-through penalty for an earlier pit infringement, resuming fifth.
The #29 Audi steadily built its advantage over the #48 Lamborghini, now in the hands of Corey Lewis, Kyle Marcelli’s #14 3GT Racing Lexus third.
