The #55 Mazda RT-24P of Jonathan Bomarito, Harry Tincknell, and Ryan Hunter-Reay won the 12 Hours of Sebring, surviving a chaotic race that saw championship-contenders fall victim to mechanical failures and on-track incidents. The #55 Mazda moved into the lead of the race in the final half-hour after their teammates in the #77 Mazda RT-24P suffered a puncture while leading the race.
“Sebring has been eluding me for a while. It’s so gruelling on the equipment, the machine, but also on the drivers. It feels really, really, good to get this win here, especially overall,” Bomarito said. Hunter-Reay, the team’s endurance driver and Indy 500 winner added that this win ranks high on his list of accomplishments as a driver.
One of the only other cars to avoid trouble was the #6 Acura Team Penske ARX-05c of Dane Cameron, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Simon Pagenuad who finished the race in second. The #6 Acura had to carry the weight for Acura in the DPi Manufacture’s Championship battle after the #7 Acura Team Penske ARX-05c suffered a mechanical failure in the race’s first hour.
With woes to other championship-contenders, though, the #7 Acura Team Penske secured the Teams’ Championship, with Ricky Taylor and Helio Castroneves being crowned the 2020 DPi Drivers’ Champions. Castroneves, a three-time Indy 500 winner, was moved to tears on the pit box as he watched the end of the race. Amazingly, this is the first championship that the legendary Brazilian driver has earned with Roger Penske.
“Finishing last, like we started and winning the championship by one point,” Castroneves joked after the race.
“If you saw it in a movie you would think it was fake. These true friends are going to last, it was my last race after 21 years [with Team Penske]. Three years I’ve been here in the IMSA family it has been a learning curve. I can’t thank everyone enough. Today is a very special day,” Castroneves said.
Entering this race, the winner of the Manufacturers’ Championship was either going to be Acura or Cadillac, whoever finished ahead of the other. With four bullets in Cadillac’s gun to Acura’s one after the #7 Acura’s troubles, it seemed Cadillac was destined for the title.
As the race progressed, though, things started falling apart for Cadillac. The #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R. was hit by the #77 Mazda which caused damage to the car’s radiator that required repairs. The #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R.’s hunt was stymied after Pipo Derani spun the #6 Acura in a low-percentage passing attempt in the race’s ninth hour.
The contact between the #31 Cadillac and the #6 Acura was yet another chapter in the ever-evolving drama between the two teams.
The #31 Cadillac team would have to serve a drive-thru penalty for the contact and repair damage to the car’s suspension before getting back on track. The next Cadillac domino to fall was the #5 Mustang Sampling w/ JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac DPi-V.R. who needed to swap the rear deck of the car late in the running.
That left just the #85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac DPi-V.R. as Cadillac’s last hope to claim the Manufacturer’s title. Though, with two silver-rated drivers, one of whom was making his DPi-debut, they lacked the pace needed to best the #6 Acura. The #85 Cadillac of Stephen Simpson, Matheus Leist, and Scott Andrews thus had to settle for a fourth-place finish, one lap off the race-winning Mazda.
After suffering the puncture, the #77 Mazda had to settle for a third-place finish. A heart-breaking result for the team that seemed destined to spearhead a Mazda 1-2 in the brand’s final race as a two-car programme.
The #10 Cadillac ended the day in seventh, six laps off the leading Mazda, and just one spot ahead of the #7 Acura. In other words, not enough to overcome the deficit in points to claim the title.
After an emotional day that started with tribute laps from the numerous Porsche 911 RSRs that have raced in IMSA over the years, the Porsche factory programme, in its final race, earned a 1-2 finish. The #911 Porsche RSR of Nick Tandy, Frederic Makowiecki, and Earl Bamber took home the win ahead of the #912 Porsche 911 RSR of Laurens Vanthoor, Neel Jani, and Bamber, who raced in both cars.
The cool-down lap was both a loud and emotional one as Bamber and Tandy followed each other home, pausing for burnouts, donuts, and whatever else the duo could think of that would make smoke and noise for the fans at home and those in attendance at Sebring.
Bamber: I flashed my lights a bit, and then he went off into the grass and I went “oo we’re in the lead.”
The #24 BMW M8 of John Edwards, Jesse Krohn, and Augusto Farfus rounded out the podium. The #25 BMW M8, which was leading the race at the final restart, was caught up in GT Daytona drama that saw Conor De Phillippi be punted off track and out of the lead.
That incident left the #25 BMW to settle for a strikingly disappointing fourth place.
Corvette, who wrapped up the Teams’, Drivers’, and Manufacturers’ Championship long before the end of the race had a rough outing with both of their cars suffering suspension failures. The #3 Corvette finished the race in fifth, nine laps down. The #4 Corvette C8.R, which in addition to the suspension failure had a water leak, finished the race last in class, thirty-nine laps down.
In GTD, the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Patrick Long, Ryan Hardwick, and Jan Heylen took home the win but fell just short of claiming the Teams’ and Drivers’ Championship. The drivers battled through a shock failure that occurred in the third hour of the race. Long explained that the team thought they had enough pace to push through it, rather than lose time and make a repair.
“I have a tremendous migraine headache from banging my head off the roll bar,” Long said. The failure seemed to have occurred when Hardwick was in the car, “It’s just really bad. It goes left really good, but I can’t get through [Turn] 17 to save my life,” Hardwick told the team on the radio.
Claiming the Teams’ and Drivers’ Championship was the #86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 of Mario Farnbacher and Matt McMurry who, with the help of Shinya Michimi, finished the race in third. A strong enough finish that was enough to defend any challenge that the #16 Porsche might have made in the points standings by winning the race.
The #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Roman De Angelis, Ian James, and Darren Turner were second. GTD was one of the most closely contested classes of the race with everyone seemingly taking a turn at the fore of the field.
Two cars whose finishing position will not be representative of the day they had was the #63 Scuderia Corsa Weathertech Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 and the #74 Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3. Those two cars were caught up in a late-race incident that saw Lawson Aschenbach in the #74 Mercedes hit the rear of the #25 BMW, sending the BMW into the #63 Ferrari.
That contact cost three different cars a shot at victory in one fell swoop. Up until that point, though, the day was going well for Aschenbach and the #74 Mercedes who were having what was likely their best race of the season and looked well on their way to a podium had the incident not occurred.
It was also a disappointing day for Lexus who lost both of their cars when they encountered the water from the #4 Corvette strewn across the track at Turn 17, Sunset Bend. Townsend Bell in the #12 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC-F GT3 and Kyle Kirkwood in the #14 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC-F GT3 were left powerless as they slid into the tyre barriers.
In LMP2, the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA 07 of Patrick Kelly, Simon Trummer, and Scott Huffaker took home the win. It was an easy day for the team after most of the other entries in LMP2 ran into trouble.
Kelly, who secured the Jim Trueman award and earned an automatic entry into the Le Mans 24 Hours, said he plans to take up that invite and enter the classic endurance race next year. He hopes to bring PR1/Mathiasen with him and partner with a European-based team to build a competitive team.
The #52 ORECA crossed the line two laps ahead of the #8 Tower Motorsports by Starworks ORECA 07 and eight laps ahead of the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA 07.
Rounding out the LMP2 field was the #51 Inter Europol Competition ORECA 07. That car crashed out of the lead of the race when Jakub Smiechowski was on board. The car was heavily damaged but was repaired by the team. They finished the race twenty laps behind the #52 ORECA.
While it was not how they wanted their foray into North American racing to end, the #51 ORECA did show a decent pace at various points in the weekend. With more experience under their belts, they may be a stronger force if they chose to come back next season.
