24h Le Mans
There are 44 cars entered for the full WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season this year, but the 64th running of the 12 Hours of Sebring has attracted an extra five competitors.
Among the “extras”, several teams are contesting the North American Endurance Cup (NAEC), a mini championship that comprises the four longest races on the SportsCar calendar, i.e. the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring, Sahlen’s 6 Hours of The Glen and Petit Le Mans.
One such NAEC competitor is Extreme Speed Motorsports’ Ligier JS P2, winner of the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January. For Dragonspeed however, Sebring is a one-off. Two-time Le Mans driver Elton Julian’s team is based in Jupiter, so close to Sebring that it would be rude not to enter! Dragonspeed drivers Nicolas Minassian, Henrik Hedman and Nicolas Lapierre—the Frenchman who won the Sebring 12 in 2011 and was LM P2 class winner at Le Mans last year—will be making their first outing in the Oreca 05 before the start of the European Le Mans Series.
There are no “extra” competitors in the GTLM class but the ten cars on the grid are sure to provide plenty of excitement judging by the Corvette C7.R’s spectacular finish at Daytona! Oliver Gavin and Antonio Garcia, both of whom have several Le Mans class wins to their names, crossed the line just three seconds apart.
Reigning champion Porsche is also raring to go, set on keeping its title, while Ferrari and BMW have already shown that the 488 and M6 are going to be tough customers. The privateer teams responsible for the two new models are familiar with the championship. However, Chip Ganassi Racing, the team that is fielding the Ford GT, has yet to race against the prototypes. For Ford this is a comeback after a long absence from endurance. Meanwhile, its Italian and German counterparts have become well-known figures of the American series.
In the Prototype Challenge class, the Formula Le Mans will be testing their new aerodynamics while in GT Daytona, O’Gara Motorsport has closed its operation so Bill Sweedler and Townsend Bell remain in a Lamborghini Huracan but have changed teams.
Sebring weekend begins with the practice session at 10:00 on Thursday 17 March. The race itself starts on Saturday 19 and 10:40 (local times).
Cécile Bonardel / ACO Translated from French by Emma Paulay
PHOTO: SEBRING (FLORIDA, USA), SEBRING INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY, 12 HOURS OF SEBRING, SATURDAY 21 MARCH 2015.
