The weekend’s track action included one race meeting which, whilst not a particularly significant race in itself, marks major progress towards a very significant change for the 2019 season.
Next season Michelin becomes the official tyre supplier of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and a variety of the US-sanctioning body’s support Series, and they were on parade at Sebring over the weekend with their product, and the talents of their expanding engineering staff, being tested in racing conditions at the Michelin IMSA SportsCar Encore meeting.
A field of 20 LMP3, GT4 and TCR cars gathered for the non-points scoring event:
“We could not be more pleased with how the Michelin IMSA SportsCar Encore at Sebring played out,” said Chris Baker, director of motorsport, Michelin North America.
“Many of these teams and drivers had never worked with Michelin and our engineers and motorsport tire specialists. Our tires performed quite well, even in the hotter than expected conditions.
“And the opportunity to start building relationships with the customer racing side of the paddock is tremendously important to us. It was truly satisfying to see those relationships start to develop and grow over the weekend.”
ANSA Motorsports captured the overall and LMP3 victory with two young stars. Canadian Roman de Angelis and American Kyle Kirkwood shared the Ligier JS P3. K2R Motorsports’ trio of polesitter Kay van Berlo, Matt Bell and Jim McGuire finished second. Polestar Motor Racing with drivers Katherine Legge, Keith Grant and David Grant.
Nate Stacy, Kyle Marcelli and Dean Martin won in GT4 with the Ford Mustang GT4 for Roush Performance/KohR Motorsports. GMG Racing finished second with James Sofronas, Jason Bell and Andy Lally sharing an Audi R8 LMS GT4.
In TCR, Remo Ruscitti and Marco Cirone delivered a win for Mark Motors Racing in an Audi RS3 LMS TCR. Stephen Simpson and Michael Johnson finished second for JDC-Miller Motorsports in another Audi RS3.
LMP3
Co-driving the No. 13 ANSA Motorsports Ligier JS P3, co-drivers Kyle Kirkwood and Roman De Angelis took the victory, winning by 2.278 seconds over Matt Bell, James McGuire Jr. and Kay van Berto in the #26 K2R Motorsports Ligier. De Angelis, the runner-up in both the 2018 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama and the Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Yokohama, put the #13 machine second on the starting grid.
He and Kirkwood spent the entire race inside the top-five positions and grew stronger over the second half of the race. Kirkwood, the 2018 F3 Americas champion, took the lead for the final time with 45 minutes remaining when Katherine Legge brought the #40 Polestar Motor Racing Ligier into the pits for its final pit stop. Kirkwood pulled away from Bell following a restart with just under 30 minutes to go to secure the victory.
“This whole deal, first of all, just came together really last minute,” Kirkwood said. “(ANSA Motorsports co-owner) Patrick Madsen called me and he was like, ‘Hey, how would you like to drive the car?’ and we were able to put something together with Ligier and Onroak, so big thanks to ANSA Motorsports and Ligier and Onroak.
“That race, everything about it, was just impeccable. I’ve never driven the LMP3 car before. That was the first time on Friday that I’ve even sat in the car. It was incredible. The Michelin tires did fantastic. They held up throughout the entire race. We were running similar lap times every single lap, and every single lap just never fell off. That was perfect.”
For De Angelis, it was his second LMP3 race victory in Florida this season. He started the year with a victory in the IMSA Prototype Challenge season-opener at Daytona International Speedway in January with the ANSA team.
“Once again, I can’t ANSA, Ligier, Onroak and Michelin enough,” De Angelis said. “Especially ANSA, this is the second time I’ve raced with them and this is the second time we’ve won, so I think that says something about how well these guys perform. Another thing, too. I mean, Kyle, what an awesome job.
“He’s the guy that had to hold it together in the end. I think the two of us were a pretty dynamic duo this weekend. I just can’t thank everyone enough. It was an awesome race.”
Dutch racer van Berto acquitted himself well in his first U.S. race, securing the pole position by nearly a full second over De Angelis. He also built a healthy advantage throughout his opening stint the race, but a pair of penalties on pit lane forced the team to battle back over the remaining distance.
Legge, who normally races in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, shared the #40 machine with Keith and David Grant. The trio claimed the final spot on the podium.
GT4
The #60 Roush Performance/KohR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4 and its full-time co-drivers Nate Stacy and Kyle Marcelli, who picked up their second Sebring win this year – this time with team owner Dean Martin as a co-driver.
In March, the team took the victory in the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge Alan Jay 120. This time, Martin put the car on the GT4 class pole position and the team was a fixture at or near the front of the class field throughout.
Marcelli beat another of his WeatherTech Championship GT Daytona (GTD) class regular competitors, Andy Lally in the #22 GMG Racing Audi R8 LMS GT4, by 16.255 seconds.
“It’s a great weekend,” Marcelli said. “We’re really excited to be working with Michelin this year. So far, so good on the Ford Mustang. I had the easy job today, though. I only did about an hour. (Stacy) did about two hours in the middle of the day, so hat’s off to Nate Stacy.
“And our boss, Dean Martin, got behind the wheel. He’s got an engineering background, so it was good for him to know the tire also when we go into the season and we’re giving feedback. He can now understand what it is we’re saying and can make the best changes on the car.”
“We had a long stint in the car,” Stacy said. “We had some yellows, though, so it wasn’t too horrible. KohR Motorsports/Roush Performance did awesome today. The Ford Mustang was great the entire time, the Michelin tires held up perfectly and we never had any problem with that. I can’t wait for next season.”
Lally, who was a late addition to the Encore field, joined GMG Racing owner/driver James Sofronas and co-driver Jason Bell, in the runner-up result.
Kenny Wilden, Rod Randall and DJ Randall completed the GT4 podium in the #59 Roush Performance/KohR Motorsports Mustang.
TCR
A seesaw battle for the TCR class victory between the #22 Mark Motors Racing Audi RS3 MLS TCR of co-drivers Remo Ruscitti and Marco Cirone and the #54 JDC-Miller Motorsports Audi of Stephen Simpson and Michael Johnson ultimately went in favor of the #22 team, but not until the very end.
After he and Cirone had spent a considerable amount of the race in the class lead, Ruscitti found himself chasing Simpson in the closing minutes. He finally got around Simpson with a lap-and-a-half remaining, then cruised to a relatively easy victory as Simpson came into the pits coming to the white-flag lap as he had run out of fuel.
“Phew, tough race,” Ruscitti said. “The cars are so even. Stephen braking just as late as I was, it was really, really difficult. I don’t know if he had a bobble when I popped on him and then I saw him go into pit lane, but whoa, it was like, two hours straight. Actually, four hours straight because Marco was getting pressured by Michael for the first half of the race. I think our gap never got bigger than five seconds between the two cars, so that was really, really entertaining.”
“From the first time we got this TCR, we knew it was going to be a fantastic car,” added Cirone, who has raced extensively with Mark Motors in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada series. “We knew that once we started the program to come to IMSA and race it, we knew we were going to have tough competition. I was out there for two hours, but I think the most exciting part of the race was the last two minutes by this man. I’m so happy that we managed to bring him onboard and I’m so proud of him. He helped us set up the car. If it wasn’t for him, I don’t think we would be here, so thank you very much Remo.”
Simpson and Johnson, who scored their first victory together in the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge in July at Lime Rock Park, closed out the year with yet another podium result. Luke and Tanner Rumberg completed the TCR podium with a third-place result in the #31 Rumcastle LLC Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR.
