Sebring Hour 9: Mazda back on top
Saturday, 17 March 2018
By J.J. O'Malley / Image by Levitt/LAT
Jonathan Bomarito took over the lead of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring with three hours, five minutes remaining shortly after sunset Saturday at Sebring International Raceway.
Pitting off sequence, Bomarito held a 52.662s lead as the endurance classic reached the nine-hour mark in the No. 55 Team Joest Mazda RT-24-P.
Mike Conway ran second in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R, followed by Nicolas Lapierre in the No. 22 Tequila Patron ESM Nissan Onroak DPi, Matt McMurray in the No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Cadillac, Alex Brundle in the No. 32 United Autosports Ligier JSP217 and Jordan Taylor in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac.
GTLM is also anybody's race with the top five cars within 10 seconds. Frederic Makowiecki led in the No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR, followed by James Calado in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE, and Tommy Milner in the No. 4 Corvette C7.R.
GTD has Lawson Aschenbach leading in the No. 93 Michael Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 – which started the race at the back of the pack – followed by Madison Snow in the No. 48 Lamborghini, Trent Hindman in the No. 865 Acura and Jeroen Bleekemolen in the No. 33 Mercedes-AMG.
Hour nine began with green-flag pit stops which returned the off-sequence No. 55 (driven by Harry Ticknell) to the lead, giving him a 49-second advantage over Conway and Lapierre.
However, the lead was short-lived.
GTLM leader Gianmaria Bruni went wide at the exit of Turn 13, shedding most of the rear bodywork on the No. 912 Porsche GT Team 911 RSR. That brought out the ninth caution, which allowed Bruni to have the bodywork replaced under the yellow.
Ticknell pitted under yellow, turning the car over to Bomarito in fifth place. That put Conway in the lead ahead of Lapierre, Tristan Vautier in the No. 90 entry and Phil Hanson in the No. 32 United Autosports Ligier, while allowing the sixth-place No. 10 driven by Ryan Hunter-Reay to get back on the lead lap.
Lapierre then slowly began to challenge the lead Cadillac, and moved to his rear wing by the eight-hour, 40-minute mark as the sun began to set. At that point, though, Conway picked up the pace to retain the lead – and Lapierre fell back when he caught lapped traffic.
Lapierre pitted on lap 250, remaining at the wheel at eight hours, 48 minutes. Vautier pitted on the following lap, turning the No. 90 Cadillac over to McMurray.
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[h=1]IMSA: Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring 9-hour update – 3 hours left to go, action heating up[/h]
Jerry Bonkowski
NBC Sports•Mar 17, 2018, 7:49 PM
With nine hours complete, there are three hours left in the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring endurance race at Sebring Raceway in central Florida.
The event has picked up in terms of harder racing, increased contact and a number of drivers either knocked out or are lagging behind by several laps.
Just minutes into the start of the second half of the race, Team Penske saw one of its two cars suffer a premature end to its day.
Team Penske was riding high in the fourth hour of the race, with Helio Castroneves checking out on the rest of the field.
But as the second half began, Ricky Taylor suffered a race-ending oil pressure issue that ended the day for the No. 7 Acura DPI.
With 5 hours, 14 minutes to go, Prototype leader Harry Tincknell in the No. 55 Mazda DPI pitted for fuel and service, then stalled several times while he was trying to exit his pit stall, before finally getting going.
With just under five hours, Juan Pablo Montoya spun the Team Penske Acura No. 6 in Turn 17 but was able to get going again.
But something apparently broke on the car in that spin as Montoya limped the car to the pits and the damage was enough to end its day, as well, ending any Penske hopes for a decent finish in the second half of the event.
Shortly after, the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPI came into the pits to have its front end replaced.
The No. 10 Wayne Taylo Racing Konica Minolta Cadillac DPI made contact with another car that damaged its rear wing, bringing out the caution.
But the team chose to keep the car on the track for one lap after the restart before bringing it in for repairs, replacing the wing and deck, all in one minute, five seconds.
With 4:26 left, the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPI made contact with the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports LMP2, with the No. 5 suffering front end damage that needed to be repaired in the pits.
With about 3 hours, 50 minutes to go, the Porsche 912 GT team suffered major rear end damage that required a full pit stop to replace the rear wing, diffuser, bumper, all four tires and more. But the team did an outstanding job, repairing the damage in less than five minutes.
Here’s how the three classes look with thee hours to go:
Prototype
Jonathan Bomarito (No. 55 Mazda DPI), holds the lead, followed by Mike Conway (No. 31 Cadillac DPI), Nicolas LaPierre (No. 22 Nissan DPI), Matthew McMurry (No. 90 Cadillac DPI) and Alex Brundle (No. 32 Ligier LMP2).
GT Le Mans (GTLM)
Frederic Makowiecki (No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR) has the lead, followed by James Calado (No. 62 Ferrari 488 GTE), Tommy Milner (No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R), Giamaria Bruni (No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR) and Bill Auberlen (No. 25 BMW M8 GTLM).
GT Daytona (GTD)
At the front of the pack is Lawson Aschenbach (No. 93 Acura NSX GT3), followed by Madison Snow (No. 48 Lamborghini Huracan GT3), Trent Hindman (No. 86 Acura NSX GT3), Jergen Bleekemolen (No. 33 Mercedes-AMG GT3) and Alessandro Balzam (No. 63 Ferrari 488 GT3).