Last year’s GT World Challenge America Pro champion team, RS1, returned to the series with style. The new-look #85 Porsche 911 GT3 R of Spencer Pumpelly and Trent Hindman held on to win Race 1 at Sebring International Raceway, heading up a Porsche 1-2.
12 cars rolled out for Qualifying on Saturday morning, following the withdrawal of the #2 Flying Lizard Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage GT3, and the absence of the #92 MMG Porsche. The #91 Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Philip Ellis, now under the Regulator Racing banner, won the pole position for Race 1 by eight-tenths of a second over Pumpelly.
As they did at Sonoma, Ellis started Race 1 – the only Pro in the Pro-Am class to start the race – intending to build a large enough gap for his Am co-driver Jeff Burton to manage in the second half. Pumpelly tried to get past Ellis on the opening lap but the #91 Mercedes held first place and continued to lead throughout Ellis’ 48-minute opening stint, building a 15-second lead over Pumpelly and a 35-second lead over the #38 ST Racing BMW M4 GT3 of Samantha Tan.
At the back of the pack, the debut of the new DXDT Racing #08 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R ended abruptly. Scott Smithson spun the #50 Chouest Povoledo Racing Mercedes of Ross Chouest at Le Mans Corner. The #50 Mercedes retired in the pits from damage, followed just a few laps later by the #08 Corvette.
As Ellis opened up a lead of over 15 seconds from Pumpelly, three cars battled for third place overall. Varun Choksey in the #28 ST Racing BMW got past the #93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 of Luca Mars at the start of the race. Choksey, Mars, and Adam Adelson in the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche ran tail-to-nose throughout most of the opening stint.
Pit stops followed at the mid-race interval, where Trent Hindman took over the #85 RS1 Porsche and maintained second place. Wright Motorsports undercut their rivals in the battle for third, allowing Elliott Skeer in the #120 to emerge from the pits ahead of Bill Auberlen in the #28.
Utah’s Jeff Burton then boarded the #91 Regulator Racing Mercedes for the final stint, emerging from the pits with a 12-second lead over Hindman with 40 minutes left. Hindman would gradually cut Burton’s deficit down by several seconds per lap – and took the overall lead with 26 minutes to go. Skeer then got by Burton, and then Burton conceded the Pro-Am lead to a hard-charging Neil Verhagen in the #38 ST Racing BMW.
Over the last 20 minutes, Skeer would try and chase down Hindman for the lead – but Hindman would hang on and take the win by 0.789 seconds after 44 laps and 90 minutes of racing.
It was the first win of the season for the returning RS1 squad that won last year’s Pro title with Eric Filgueiras and Stevan McAleer. The new line-up of Pumpelly and Hindman, formed just last week, picked up right where their predecessors left off. Adelson and Skeer finished second, building their Pro class championship lead.
Third overall and the Pro-Am win went to the #38 ST Racing BMW of Tan and Verhagen. It was redemption for the pair after they were disqualified from the overall win in Sebring Race 2 last year due to a technical infringement.
Verhagen will start Race 2 on the pole position tomorrow.
The #29 Turner Motorsport BMW (Justin Rothberg/Robby Foley) finished fourth after a late overtake to get past the #91 Regulator Racing Mercedes, which would finish fifth overall to round out the Pro-Am podium behind the #38 and #29.
Sixth place and the final Pro podium spot went to the #28 ST Racing BMW of Choksey and Auberlen, followed by the #93 Racers Edge Acura of Mars and Zach Veach, which lost time after a slow pit stop.
The #32 GMG Racing Porsche (Kyle Washington/Tom Sargent), #04 CrowdStrike by Riley Mercedes (George Kurtz/Colin Braun), and #8 Flying Lizard Aston Martin (Elias Sabo/Andy Lee) completed the order of ten finishers. Kurtz was given a drive-through penalty during the race for moving out of line at the start of the race, which hurt their chances of a strong finish.
Race 2 starts tomorrow at 11:15 AM EDT (local time).
Images © Fabian Lagunas / SRO Motorsports America
