| Twenty-One Drivers Taking on Endurance Double;Van Berlo Sweeps Porsche Carrera Cup Openers March 17, 2022 By Jeff Olson and Mark Robinson IMSA Wire Service  SEBRING, Fla. – Until a few days ago, Oliver Jarvis didn’t know he was on the verge of history. Now he does. If he wins Saturday’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts, Jarvis will complete a grand slam of endurance races in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. He learned of the potential record during an interview. “I did a Zoom interview earlier in the week and somebody announced it,” Jarvis said Thursday at Sebring International Raceway. “That was the first time I realized it.” Last year, Jarvis won the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen at Watkins Glen International with Mazda teammates Harry Tincknell and Jonathan Bomarito. The three drivers then combined to win the Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, the final IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup race of the 2021. In January, after joining Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian, Jarvis teamed with Tom Blomqvist, Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud to win the Rolex 24 At Daytona. A victory Saturday at Sebring International Raceway with Blomqvist and Stoffel Vandoorne in the No. 60 would be a fourth consecutive for Jarvis in IMSA endurance races. That’s something that hasn’t happened since 1998, when Petit Le Mans was debuted as a fourth endurance race. “I don’t really pay attention to stuff like that,” Jarvis said. “Obviously, I know we had the wins last year and that we won Daytona, but I actually hadn’t put it together that if we were to win Sebring, it would be a streak of all four endurance races.” Three other drivers – Mauro Baldi, Didier Theys and Giampiero Moretti – came close to an endurance grand slam. In 1998, they won Daytona, Sebring and Watkins Glen but missed winning Petit Le Mans. Nine others – Ed Brown, Pipo Derani, Scott Sharp, Jordan Taylor, Ricky Taylor, Renger van der Zande, Johannes van Overbeek, Tincknell and Bomarito – have won two endurance races in succession since 1998. “It’s very cool, I have to say,” Jarvis said. “The only way you could add to it is to win Le Mans. You’d tick off the biggest endurance races in the world within a year.” Not bad for something he didn’t know until recently. “Something like this is just the icing on top,” Jarvis said. “I don’t pay too much attention to it, but I guess it’s the equivalent of the grand slam in tennis. … If I could win four in a row, it would be pretty special.” Twenty-One Drivers Entered in Both Sebring Endurance Races As if pounding around Sebring International Raceway, absorbing the punishment of the heat, bumps and never-endling jostling for a good portion of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts on Saturday isn’t enough, 21 drivers are doubling up this weekend by also racing Friday in the 1000 Miles of Sebring, the season opener for the FIA World Endurance Championship. Five drivers slated to run the full IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season – Filipe Albuquerque, Ben Barnicoat, Oliver Jarvis, Josh Pierson and Steven Thomas – are entered in the WEC race. All but one will compete in the WEC’s Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class, with Barnicoat the exception as he drives in the GTE Am class. A host of other names familiar to IMSA fans will also be doubling up in the WEC race. Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez are the reigning WEC Hypercar class champions and overall winners at the 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans. Conway reprises his role Saturday as the endurance driver for the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R in the Twelve Hours of Sebring. Kobayashi and Lopez make up two-thirds of the No. 48 Ally Cadillac lineup for Saturday along with Mike Rockenfeller, who’s also driving an LMP2 in the WEC race. Among other drivers competing in both races are: Felipe Nasr, last year’s WeatherTech Championship Daytona Prototype international (DPi) co-champion now driving in the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup races for Pfaff Motorsports in the GTD PRO class and for Team Penske’s LMP2 WEC effort; Ben Keating, the 2021 WeatherTech Championship LMP2 champion who’s back in the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07 on Saturday but not before he drives in LMGTE Am on Friday; and Will Stevens, endurance driver for the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-5 DPi and another LMP2 pilot for the WEC race. Van Berlo Sweeps Porsche Carrera Cup Doubleheader Kay van Berlo opened the Porsche Carrera Cup North America Presented by the Cayman Islands season by sweeping to victory in both races at Sebring on Thursday. Driving the No. 3 Kelly-Moss Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car, type 992, van Berlo won the first 40-minute race by 5.989 seconds over Parker Thompson (No. 9 JDX Racing) and the second race by 2.944 seconds over Riley Dickinson (No. 53 Kelly-Moss). Efrin Castro (No. 65 Kelly-Moss) took the Pro-Am class checkered flag first in both races but was moved to the rear of the class for Race 1 after being penalized when post-race technical inspection revealed that the car’s brake master cylinder was improperly sized. That handed the Pro-Am win in the first race to teammate Alan Metni (No. 99 Kelly-Moss). Mark Kvamme (No. 43 MDK Motorsports) swept wins in the new Am class, by 10.769 seconds over Bob Mueller (No. 28 Octavio Tequila Racing) in the first race and by 4.228 seconds on Vernon McClure (No. 10 Kelly-Moss) in the nightcap. The series returns to action April 8-9 at the Grand Prix of Long Beach, California. |
