36 of the 46 cars that started are still running, as we reach the final hour of the 12 Hours of Sebring. Pit stop time for GT cars and they will hit the lane soon. The #3 Corvette is ready for a stop and so is the leading GTD #33 Mercedes, and he's got four new tires. Bleekemolen will take it to the flag. New Michelin tires for the Corvette and the Ferrari. Both Ford's, the #911 Porsche, and the #63 GTD Ferrari in the lane. Tires for GTLM. Only fuel for #63. Double file for the GT machines exiting the lane. #33 remains the GTD leader. A dud wheel gun for the #911 Porsche, and that was their delay. #3, #66, #67, #62, #911, the GTLM top five. Poor Patrick Pilet. Alessandro Balzan goes ahead of Jeroen Bleekemolen in GTD. All the positions in GTD have changed since their pit stops.
Grasser and SunEnergy got snookered on their pit stops and lost track position. The sister #912 Porsche is in the lane, and the #54 CORE Autosport GTD car is being towed to the garage. Guess what else? The #25 BMW RLL BMW M6 GT and poor old Bill Auberlen, just caught the lucky dog and got back on the lead lap! The Rahal Letterman Lanigan boys will be ecstatic! The fastest GTLM lap has been set by Patrick Pilet in the #911 at lap 300. We're 306 laps in (1,144 miles). Porsche has been going fast in the cooler weather conditions. Fuel only for Alessandro Balzan in the #63 Ferrari. Prototypes need one more pit stop. The GT cars are fueled to the end. Prototypes and Prototype Challenge cars, are in need of one more stop.
Fifty minutes to go as Ricky Taylor leads the 12 Hours of Sebring. Four wide in GTLM. Two Fords and the Corvette. GTD cars are also in this mishmash. Tristan Vautier has been bumped back down to seventh as the delayed #14 Lexus RC F GT3 is down in 38th spot, with Sage Karam at the controls. The #3 Corvette finally has a clean windshield but it's been wiped off because they seem to have run out of tearoff's. Antonio Garcia is still at the wheel. Ricky Taylor has the Dane Cameron driven #31 Cadillac wedged between him and Joao Barbosa. Barbosa will have to be allowed to attack the #10. Race Direction asks the #911 to go ahead of the #62.
The GTLM battle is bonkers right now. Bill Auberlen is 17.5 seconds behind the class leader. They filled the tank on that car enough to get to the end. Dane Cameron has allowed Joao Barbosa by. Jeroen Mul is close behind Jeroen Bleekemolen in GTD. Bleekemolen has new Continental tires. Balzan has the existing tires he was on before. Bleekemolen goes inside Balzan in turn 17! Bleekemolen has successfully made the pass, and he has to gain the advantage, right here, right now. In the race lead, Ricky Taylor runs a 1:51.6. Side by side stuff between Porsche and Ford.; Pilet snatches second away. The gap between first and second is now 2.2 seconds.
Corvette wants their second consecutive Sebring win, but, with the other car (#3), this time around after #4, which is out of this one, won in 2016. Patrick Pilet is reeling in Antonio Garcia. #10 Cadillac. Box, box, box. Through the parkland sweepers, there's nothing in it between Porsche and Corvette for GTLM honors. It's offical. #10 Cadillac, in the lane. Barbosa takes the lead. This could be a timed stop depending on the fuel. No tires. No driver change. Take the tearoff off the windscreen. Fuel only, and just 14 seconds worth of it.
Those 14 seconds of VP Rascing fuel, will have to last 36 minutes. Meanwhile, Patrick Pilet is pressurizing Antonio Garcia, who has put in his fastest lap. #5 is in the lane. Clean the windshield, no tires. Fuel in. No driver change. Ricky Taylor has just crossed the start/finish line. That was far more fuel for #5 than just 14 seconds. Ricky Taylor does officially retake the lead. Patrick Pilet in the pit lane. Four Michelin tires. Slow puncture. Fuel will go in. One tire changed. They ran over the fuel hose! They'll have to take a penalty! Heartbreak for Porsche in GT Le Mans! Corvette leads Ford in GTLM by 2.5 seconds. It's the bow tie vs. the Blue Oval.
There was no chance at Porsche of getting the hose out of the way, because the tire man was on the left front, and the hose for the rattle gun was still hung up when the crew took the car off it's air jacks. Bill Auberlen is now in sixth in GTLM. #911 serves it's penalty. This has put the dagger in the heart of Porsche GT as far as a chance for winning the class. No chance now. Joao Barbosa runs nine seconds behind Ricky Taylor. 30 minutes should allow for another 15 laps to be run, and Barbosa has to push at gaining a second a lap if he wants to beat that #10 squad. Joey Hand sets his best first sector time of the race. He's going for it.
There's so much history and tradition here at Sebring, holding the first ever U.S. Formula 1 Grand Prix in 1959, and so many great drivers have run, and won here. The concrete they are racing on is the same as in the beginning 65 years ago. 8.3 seconds is the lead. Joao Barbosa is not giving up, chasing down Ricky Taylor. Bill Auberlen has done very well today. His father Gary, won Sebring in class in 1986. Correction. His car finished 31st. The #54 S P Racing Porsche 911 Carrera in GTU. Gary Auberlen shared with Peter Jauker, Cary Eisenlohr, and Karl Durkheimer.
Maybe they won in class. Not sure. #38 and #8 in Prototype Challenge are up to sixth or so overall. We've had far fewer full course yellows than expected. The GTLM battle is heating up. Joey Hand only has 1.3 seconds between himself and Antonio Garcia. Bryan Sellers and Jorg Bergmeister are both pushing in GTD. Christopher Mies and Bryan Sellers have been on similar driving schedules and they've been close together all day. 20 minutes now remain in the race. The #68 Ford squad has one new Michelin tire. The air gun and air jack are prepared. Monitoring a slow puncture on the Ford.
Last time by, the gap between the two GTLM leaders was 1.7 seconds. Richard Westbrook is being harried by James Calado. Calado is coming fast, towards Westbrook. Anyone who has made the slightest mistake, is out of contention for the win. That's how endurance racing is working. Both Cadillac's have driven very clean races. We have done 338 laps (1,264 miles). The #38 PC car is in for a splash and dash. They are a couple laps up on the #8 car. No distance record challenge this year. But, it will be a record in the current era. The Ford GT uses LED lights very effectively to identify the cars. 1:58.091 for Antonio Garcia, who has pulled out 2.1 seconds on Joey Hand for GTLM honors, as James Calado and Richard Westbrook continue to fight over third in GT Le Mans. Stefan Mucke in the #68 car is fifth in class. That's the third Ford GT.
Something is so special here at Sebring about racing into the night. There's a battle in GTD as Lawson Aschenbach in the #57 Audi is chasing Tom Dyer in the #86 Acura. Ten GTD cars will be on the lead lap at the end of the race with twelve minutes remaining. Major sliding for a couple Audi's onto the backstretch. No spins. It was the earlier battle we saw with Dyer and Aschenbach, the Acura and the Audi. Alessandro Balzan is quicker, reducing the gap to 6.4 seconds on Jeroen Bleekemolen. Ricky Taylor leads Joao Barbosa by 12 seconds. The #10 team has one hand on the trophy at the moment. Chevrolet leads Ford in GTLM. Calado cannot pass Westbrook. Mul, Mies, and Sellers, run third, fourth, and fifth in GTLM.
Can Tristan Vautiget get back to the podium in nine minutes? They've been through tons of trials in this race. 2.6 seconds the gap between first and second in GTLM. 343 laps done by the leaders. That's 1,283 miles. Mies and Sellers went off the road a short time ago in that earlier GTD scrum. Calado is going to make his move on Westbrook, now! Ricky Taylor's lead now stretches to 10.6 seconds. Balzan drops away from Bleekemolen by ten seconds. The competition is two seconds behind Bleekemolen. Tristan Vautier runs a 2:02.5 and is the quickest GTD car on the road. Mies and Sellers have to pass Mul. Jeroen Mul is defending his position.
Joao Barbosa runs 13 seconds behind Ricky Taylor with less than five minutes to go on the clock. Westbrook and Calado have breathing room over the rest of GTLM. White flag this time by. Keep an eye on the relative positions as Ricky Taylor will lap past Antonio Garcia. Two laps to go it looks like for Ricky Taylor. The distance will be 348 laps (1,301.5 miles). Vautier passes Sellers. Mercedes passes Lamborghini. White flag in the air. The #16 Lamborghini of Mul is slowing! That's the third place GTD car! Oh dear! Christopher Mies puts the Land Motorsports Audi into third in GTD.
Ricky Taylor is halfway around the final lap. He will win Sebring! Wayne Taylor Racing, wins the 36 Hours of Florida. What a great debut for Alex Lynn too! The 2017 12 Hours of Sebring belongs to Wayne Taylor Racing!
#5 and #31 are second and third. Vautier gets the podium for the #75 Mercedes in GTD! James Calado passes Richard Westbrook for position in GTLM on the final lap. So, here are your overall and class winners from the 12 Hours of Sebring, 2017. The 65th renewal of this wonderful once around the clock classic. Cadillac first raced Sebring in 1953, and came back in 2000. But this is their first ever win at Sebring.
Overall/Prototype: #10 Taylor/Taylor/Lynn Cadillac DPi-V.R
Prototype
Challenge: #38 French/O'Ward/Masson Oreca FLM 09 Chevrolet
GT Le Mans: #3 Garcia/Magnussen/Rockenfeller Chevrolet Corvette C-7-R-
GT Daytona: #33 Keating/Bleekemolen/Farnbacher Mercedes AMG GT3
Richard Westbrook spun out of third in GTLM in turn ten. Antonio Garcia and Tristan Vautier did some hero stints. Jeroen Mul, sadly, was out of gas and didn't finish this race. The second round of the North American Endurance Cup, is in the bag. Alex Lynn wins his first ever 12 Hours of Sebring. We now move, from enduros to sprint races for a while, and the next race is this coming weekend, a street fight, on the legendary streets of Long Beach, California and yours truly hopes to bring you all the action, live. Prototype, Prototype Challenge, and GT Le Mans will be featured.
But, what a race this 12 Hours of Sebring has been! It's been a classic. We thank everyone for their involvement in this event, and we look forward to Long Beach next weekend. As Mark Donohue, the legend used to say, "the clock goes back to zero." We'll see you at Long Beach, this weekend. So long for now, from the orange groves and runways of Sebring, Florida.
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