IMSA – ESM and Lapierre triumph at Sebring

In the second part of the test (see the summary of the first half here), the No. 07 Acura ARX-6 had to retire due to an engine problem while the No. 5 Cadillac DPi-VR experienced various problems, notably resulting from the collisions in which it was involved. Then 1h40 from the finish, it was Spirit of Daytona's No. 90 Cadillac DPi-VR which saw its hopes dashed following a very violent exit from the track by Tristan Vautier, who fortunately escaped. unharmed.

Sovereign today, the No. 22 Nissan Onroak DPi controlled the proceedings, even if the No. 24 Mazda RT55-P of Spencer Pigot-Jonathan Bomarito-Harry Tincknell made several prolonged appearances at the head of the race (before being excluded from the fight during a prolonged stop following a starter problem 39 minutes from the end) just like, to a lesser extent, the No. 31 Cadillac of Mike conway-Felipe Nasr-Eric Curran. But impeccable relays of Nicolas lapierre and Pipo Derani, well supported by Johannes van Overbeek, finally offered victory to Extreme Speed ​​Motorsports, winner here two years ago. So already in the game, the last two cities offer their second success on the Florida clock tower, just like their French sidekick, winner of the 2011 edition on a Peugeot 908 HDi FAP operated by Oreca.

The podium is completed by the No. 10 and No. 31 Cadillacs, respectively lined up by Wayne Taylor Racing for Jordan Taylor-Renger van der Zande-Ryan Hunter Reay and by Action Express for Eric Curran-Mike Conway-Felipe Nasr. Followed by the No. 07 Oreca 54 from Core Autosport (Colin Braun-Jon Bennett-Romain Dumas) and the No. 217 Ligier JS P32 from United Autosports (Phil Hanson-Ales Brundle-Paul di Resta. Two cars having performed magnificently , but an LM P2 could hope for nothing this year against the DPi.

In GTLM, the battle raged between the two Porsche 911 official RSR, the Ferrari 488 GTE from Risi Competizione, the #67 Ford GT, the #8 BMW M25 GTLM and the #7 Corvette C4.R, although slightly behind in pure performance. But in the end, it was the official 911 RSR n°911 which won, thanks to its trio associating the Briton Nick Tandy with the French Frédéric Makowiecki and Patrick Pilet. During the last salvo of refueling, the M8 GTLM of Sims-De Phillippi-Auberlen was less efficient and allowed the Weissach car to escape. Porsche's triumph was completed by the third place of the #912 of Gianmaria Bruni, Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor. In the top five, follow the No. 67 Ford GT of Briscoe-Westbrook-Dixon and the Ferrari 488 GTE of Calado-Pier Guidi-Vilander.

Finally, the GTD category saw the No. 3 Lamborghini Huracan GT48 from Paul Miller Racing triumph. The Sellers-Snow-Lewis trio preceded under the checkered flag the Ferrari 488 GT3 of Scuderia Corsa entrusted to MacNeil-Balzan-Jeannette and the Mercedes-AMG GT3 n°33 from Riley Motorsports driven by the Keating-Bleekemolen-Stolz association.

The next round of theIMSA SportsCar Championship is scheduled for April 14 in Long Beach (California), but without the GTD, which will return to competition in Mid-Ohio on May 6.