Bill Auberlen, Joey Hand, and Andy Priaulx emerged from a very difficult 12 Hours of Sebring with a podium finish and the GTLM drivers’ points lead.
Their BMW Team RLL came across the finish line third in class behind the winning factory Porsche 911 RSR driven by Jörg Bergmeister, Patrick Long, and Michael Christensen and the second place SRT Viper driven by Jon Bomarito, Kuno Wittmer, and Rob Bell. Car #55 regained a lap lost to four penalties for pit lane speed violations that resulted from a faulty pit lane speed limiter.
The team’s #56 Z4, piloted by John Edwards, Dirk Müller, and Dirk Werner, lost nine laps for repairs after it was caught up in an incident that sent it into the wall. It finished tenth.
Turner Motorsport’s GTD class Z4, placed on the pole by Dane Cameron, was a strong contender in the race, but a lost lap on a late-race stop took it out of contention. The Z4, driven by Cameron, Paul Dalla Lana, and Markus Palttala, finished seventh in a class won by Andy Lally, John Potter, and Marco Seefried in the Magnus Racing Porsche 911 GT America.
After the race IMSA officials admitted that they had mistakenly penalized the Alex Job Racing GTD class Porsche for a contact incident with a Ferrari. In fact the incident involved the GTLM winning Porsche. The results were not changed.
Ganassi Racing’s Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas, and Marino Franchitti took the overall win. The Ganassi car and both of the class-winning Porsches benefited from pit stops they made just before the last full-course yellow flag period, which came out with about fifty minutes remaining. Other contenders had to pit under the caution. It was the eleventh caution period of the race; over five of the race’s twelve hours were run under the yellow flag.
Tudor United SportsCar Championship competition resumes in Long Beach on April 12.—Brian S. Morgan
