Autosport

Joao Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi and Sebastien Bourdais claimed a clear victory in the Sebring 12 Hours for the Action Express Racing team.

The trio’s Coyote-Chevrolet Corvette DP hit the lead in the second hour and went a lap clear before the end of the ninth hour.

That advantage gave no way back for the chasing Chip Ganassi, Spirit of Daytona and Wayne Taylor cars even when the safety car came out for a sixth time with two hours to go, and the Action Express car to take the flag one lap clear in the second round of the 2015 Tudor United SportsCar Championship.

Bourdais said: “It feels great; that was a heck of race and was physically very tough.”

The Wayne Taylor Racing Dallara-Chevrolet Corvette DP finished second in the hands of brothers Ricky and Jordan Taylor and Max Angelelli.

They had to fight back from braking issues that blighted their Dallara’s performance in qualifying and the first third of the race.

Ricky Taylor moved up to third ahead of Richard Westbrook in the Spirit of Daytona Coyote-Chevrolet during the penultimate pitstop sequence and was then able to catch and pass Scott Dixon in the Ganassi Riley-Ford EcoBoost DP.

Westbrook, who shared his Coyote with Michael Valiante and Mike Rockenfeller, then overhauled the Ganassi Riley for the final podium spot with just six minutes to go.

Top LMP2 car was the Krohn Racing Ligier-Judd/BMW JSP2 shared by pole winner Olivier Pla, Nic Jonsson and Tracy Krohn in eighth place.

Pla led during the opening exchanges, but a series of delays, including a stop to address a problem with a loose exhaust, left the car six laps down at the finish.

A high attrition rate among the Prototype class entries allowed the winning Prototype Challenge car to claim sixth place overall.

The class was won by the PR1/Mathiasen ORECA-Chevrolet FLM09 driven by Tom Kimber-Smith, Andrew Palmer and Mike Guasch.

Kimber-Smith resisted a late challenge from Colin Braun in the CORE ORECA before a quicker final pitstop gave him breathing space for the run to the flag.

CORVETTE BENEFITS AS PORSCHE WILTS

Corvette Racing repeated its Daytona 24 Hours victory with Jan Magnussen, Antonio Garcia and Ryan Briscoe after the factory Porsche team’s challenge wilted in the closing stages.

The #3 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R took over the lead in Garcia’s hands when Porsche’s Nick Tandy encountered gearbox problems with 40 minutes of the race left to run.

The second Porsche, which had been running second in Frederic Makowiecki’s hands, had an issue with the left rear wheel, resulting in a series of pitstops that left it seventh in class at the finish.

The problems for the CORE-run factory Porsche 911 RSRs allowed the Corvette to come through to take a one-minute victory from the Risi Competizione Ferrari 458 Italia driven by Giancarlo Fisichella, Pierre Kaffer and Andrea Bertolini.

Alex Job Racing claimed its 10th class triumph at Sebring with GT Daytona honours with the Porsche 911 GT America driven by Mario Farnbacher, Ian James and Alex Riberas.

The car came back into contention after a puncture during the final yellow.

Farnbacher was able to take the lead, before going off under pressure from Jeroen Bleekemolen in the best of the Riley Motorsports Dodge SRT Viper GTS-Rs.

Bleekemolen, who had led much of the way together with brother Sebastiaan and Ben Keating, was deprived of victory when engine problems brought the Viper into the pits to retire with just five minutes left on the clock.

RESULTS – 340 LAPS:

Pos Class Driver Team Car Gap
1 P J.Barbosa, C.Fittipaldi, S.Bourdais Action Express Racing Corvette/Chevrolet 12h01m40.097s
2 P R.Taylor, J.Taylor, M.Angelelli Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette/Chevrolet 1 Lap
3 P R.Westbrook, M.Valiante, M.Rockenfeller visitflorida.com Racing Corvette/Chevrolet 1 Lap
4 P J.Hand, S.Pruett, S.Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Riley/Ford 1 Lap
5 P E.Curran, D.Cameron, M.Papis Action Express Racing Corvette/Chevrolet 2 Laps
6 PC M.Guasch, A.Palmer, T.K.-Smith PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA/Chevrolet 6 Laps
7 PC J.Bennett, C.Braun, J.Gue CORE Autosport ORECA/Chevrolet 6 Laps
8 P T.Krohn, N.Jonsson, O.Pla Krohn Racing Ligier/Judd 6 Laps
9 PC J.Mee, J.French, C.Daly Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA/Chevrolet 7 Laps
10 GTLM J.Magnussen, A.Garcia, R.Briscoe Corvette Racing Chevrolet 10 Laps
11 GTLM P.Kaffer, G.Fisichella, A.Bertolini Risi Competizione Ferrari 10 Laps
12 GTLM B.Sellers, W.Henzler, P.Long Team Falken Tire Porsche 11 Laps
13 GTLM J.M.Edwards, L.Luhr, J.Klingmann BMW Team RLL BMW 11 Laps
14 GTLM N.Tandy, P.Pilet, R.Lietz, E.Bamber Porsche North America Porsche 12 Laps
15 GTD I.James, M.Farnbacher, A.Riberas Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing Porsche 22 Laps
16 GTD C.Nielsen, J.Davison, B.Davis TRG-AMR Aston Martin 22 Laps
17 GTLM P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, D.Turner, M.Lauda Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 22 Laps
18 GTD B.Sweedler, T.Bell, A.Lazzaro Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 22 Laps
19 GTD A.Carter, M.Goossens, B.Keating, C.Lawrence Riley Motorsports Dodge 23 Laps
20 GTD C.Haase, B.Miller, D.von Moltke Paul Miller Racing Audi 23 Laps
21 GTLM J.Bergmeister, E.Bamber, F.Makowiecki, N.Tandy Porsche North America Porsche 23 Laps
22 GTLM B.Auberlen, D.Werner, A.Farfus BMW Team RLL BMW 23 Laps
23 GTD M.Snow, J.Heylen, M.Valverde Wright Motorsports Porsche 24 Laps
24 GTD C.MacNeil, L.Keen, A.Davis Alex Job Racing Porsche 24 Laps
25 GTD M.Marsal, M.Palttala, A.Priaulx, B.Said Turner Motorsport BMW 25 Laps
26 GTD B.Keating, J.Bleekemolen, S.Bleekemolen Riley Motorsports Dodge Not running
27 P J.Pace, B.Defoor, D.Hinton, D.Schroeder Fifty Plus Racing Riley/BMW 31 Laps
28 GTD P.Perazzini, M.Cioci, R.Aguas, E.Potolicchio AF Corse Ferrari 32 Laps
29 PC M.Goikhberg, C.Miller, R.Mitchell, G.Kraut JDC/Miller Motorsports ORECA/Chevrolet Not running
30 PC R.van der Zande, M.Hedlund, M.Schultis, A.Popow Starworks Motorsport ORECA/Chevrolet 60 Laps
31 PC B.Junqueira, C.Cumming, G.Menezes RSR Racing ORECA/Chevrolet Not running
32 GTLM O.Gavin, T.Milner, S.Pagenaud Corvette Racing Chevrolet Not running
33 P E.Brown, J.van Overbeek, J.Fogarty Tequila Patron ESM HPD Not running
34 PC M.Drumwright, T.Drissi, D.Cheng, M.Plowman BAR1 Motorsports ORECA/Chevrolet 146 Laps
35 GTD J.Potter, A.Lally, M.Seefried Magnus Racing Porsche Not running
36 P S.Sharp, R.Dalziel, D.Hansson Tequila Patron ESM HPD Not running
37 GTD P.Lindsey, S.Pumpelly, J.Norman Park Place Motorsports Porsche Not running
38 P T.Nunez, J.Bomarito, S.Tremblay Speedsource Mazda Not running
39 P T.Long, J.Miller, B.Devlin, S.Tremblay Speedsource Mazda Not running
40 GTD D.Faulkner, M.Skeen, M.Avenatti GB Autosport Porsche Not running
41 P M.Rojas, K.Legge, A.Meyrick Claro / TracFone DeltaWing Racing DeltaWing/Elan Not running
42 P J.Pew, O.Negri, J.Wilson Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Ligier/HPD Not running
43 GTD M.Holzer, R.Thorne, C.Thompson Flying Lizard Motorsports Audi Not running
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Dixon fourth in Sebring 12 hour, Bourdais, Fittipaldi, Barbosa win

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