[h=2]Happy mistake changes Keating's Sebring luck[/h] By Marshall Pruett / Images by LAT
Lady Luck owed Ben Keating a podium finish at Sebring. Any of the three podium positions would have sufficed, and thanks to a mistake made by one of his mechanics in practice, Keating and the No. 33 Mercedes-AMG GT3 team shot to the top step after 12 punishing hours of competition.
As the smiley Texan tells it, his victory with teammates Jeroen Bleekemolen and Mario Farnbacher was part redemption, and part magic.
"Sebring in general has been a race that has escaped me many times," Keating told
RACER from a Caribbean port days after the race as he celebrated with his Riley Motorsports colleagues on the Gas Monkey Cruise. "In 2013, we had basically a lock on third place and ran out of fuel on the back straight on the way to the checkered flag. In 2014, we caught on fire, burned the car to the ground. 2015, we blew our engine from the lead with two laps remaining. Last year we broke an axle. We have had a really good car at Sebring many times and I've never been able to put it together.
"And this year, it was like they ran out of bad things that could happen to us. It was really special to finally, not only to have a great car, but to close the deal and win the race was really special for me."
Coming off an impressive third-place debut for the Mercedes-AMG GT3 in January at IMSA's Rolex 24 at Daytona, Keating knew the throaty V8-powered front-engine coupe would be competitive at Sebring. It took an unexpected ingredient, however, to transform the car into a genuine threat for the win.
"Talking about it being special, there are only a handful of times I can remember in my career where we made a change to the car, and a small change just completely transformed the car," he said.
"As I think about practice at Sebring, as we went through and developed the car and made small changes, it was good, but we knew it could be better. It was actually a mistake by the team in practice that helped us find that thing we were missing! I mean, it was totally incredible.
"It was one half-turn in ride height. We were supposed to raise the car on one corner and they accidentally lowered the car. We went out and all the sudden we are a second faster on the track. All of a sudden, the car comes alive. It was in the warm-up session before the race where it is like, oh my gosh, all of a sudden where has this been hiding and what is going on here now?"
The happy accident – a slight mistake with a wrench – unlocked the full potential of the big 'Benz.
"Jeroen said this may be the best car he had ever driven," Keating continued. "It wasn't really about [Balance of Performance]; it was more that this car is dialed in so well that it does whatever I am asking it to do. It was really neat from the standpoint of just from a racing driver's perspective of having a car that is that hooked up and that dialed is such a rare thing."
Keating was instrumental in making the Mercedes-AMG deal come together with Riley Motorsports after years of being the top Pro-Am representative for Dodge with the GT3-spec Viper. And while some of his competitors might disagree about the Mercedes-AMG GT3's BoP at Sebring, the car's pace was undeniable.
From the GTD pole by Tristan Vautier in the upstart No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 and their eventual third-place finish, to the win by Keating's No. 33 entry, the German brand had plenty to celebrate in Sebring.