USC – 12 Hours of Sebring – Ganassi makes history in Florida

We had seen Ganassi's Riley-Fords in good shape from free practice and we suspected that we would have to count on them in this second round of the 2014 United Sportscar Championship. Ganassi, who had somewhat missed his 24 Hours of Daytona, was hoping clearly raise the bar at Sebring with its two trio Marino Franchitti – Memo Rojas – Scott Pruett on the No. 01 and Scott Dixon – Tony Kanaan – Sage Karam on the No. 2. However, during qualifying, it was Action Express Racing's No. 5 Corvette DP driven by Frenchman Sébastien. Bourdais who had won pole.

The first half of the race was very choppy and marked by numerous accidents including the exit of Matteo Malucelli on the Ferrari n°62 of Risi Competizione in turn n°1. The Italian had already been involved in Memo Gidley's terrible crash at Daytona. Furthermore, when Malucelli tried to restart, a settling was created at the exit of the first turn from which the Porsche n°30 of the NGT which hit the Ferrari which was traveling at very low speed. Another notable event at the start of the race was the fire of the #33 SRT Viper.

As night began to fall and the tours finally began to follow one another, the positions became somewhat rigid in the different classes. The HPD ARX-03b n°2 of simon pagenaud – Johannes Van Overbeek – Ed Brown led the proceedings in Prototype while it was the No. 911 Porsche 912 from Bergmeister-Long-Christensen's Porsche North America which dominated in GTLM. The PCs were dominated by the ORECA FLM09 from Gue-Bennett-Braun's Core Autosport and the GTDs by the Porsche 911 GT America from Magnus Racing. With less than an hour to go, Marino Franchitti refueled again with his No. 1 Riley-Ford – Ganassi. Extreme Speed ​​Motorsport regained leadership with the No. 1 led by Ryan Dalziel. The latter did not pass the pits a few moments later before 20 minutes from the end, a final interruption, the 11th complete for this 2014 edition, came to restart the race. But the HPD ARX-03b n°1 will never be able to challenge the victory of the Ganassi team car. “It wasn't too bad on the final restart, explained Franchitti. I had several GTs help me get a gap on the first lap. It's great to bounce back like this after Daytona. »

In the end, the two cars will only be separated by 4″682, the smallest gap ever recorded. The winners of Daytona, the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP of Bourdais-Fittipaldi – Barbosa, in the lead for a long time at the start of the event, ultimately finished 3rd. Simon Pagenaud, entered in the second Extreme Speed ​​Motorsport HPD ARX, takes 5th place just behind the OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan of Olivier Pla – Alex Brundle – Gustavo Yacaman. The LM P2 was one of the favorites in Florida but did not materialize. Note the retirements of the ORECA-Nissan of Muscle Milk Racing from Mardenborough – Luhr – Graf, which had experienced transmission problems, the Mazda SkyActiv of Tristan Vautier and the Deltawing.

In GTLM, victory for the #911 Porsche 912 from Porsche North America of Jörg Bergmeister – Michael Christensen – Patrick Long ahead of the #93 SRT Viper from SRT Motorsports of Jonathan Bomarito – Kuno Wittmer – Robert Bell and the Team's BMW Z4 GTE RLL by Joey Hand – Bill Auberlen – Andy Priaulx. The 911 n°911 of Patrick Pilet took 20th place overall, and 9th in the category, after being caught in a collision with a PC in distress at the start of the race.

In the PC category, the No. 09 ORECA FLM54 of Colin Braun – Jon Bennett – James Gue of Core Autosport maintains the advantage over the FLM09 of RSR Racing of Bruno Junqueira – Duncan Ende – David Heinemaier Hansson who had led the debates for a long time . Finally in GTD, the Magnus Racing Porsche 911 GT America won with the trio Andy Lally – John Potter – Marco Seefired. Kevin Estre and the Park Place Motorsports 911 finished 45th.