| This is ‘damn good racing,’ and ‘Leave Sebring alone!’ March 22, 2021 By John Oreovicz IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – In the old days, you could let most of an endurance race like the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts unfold before starting to truly pay attention near the end, when attrition routinely began to take its toll. That’s not the case any longer. The drama and action in the 69th running of the Sebring classic started early, continued throughout, peaked late and resulted in a surprise but thoroughly deserving overall winner in the form of JDC-Miller Motorsports and drivers Sebastien Bourdais, Loic Duval and Tristan Vautier. The GT Le Mans (GTLM) class also served up 11th-hour, 50th-minute theatrics as the privateer WeatherTech Racing Porsche took advantage of a clash between factory Corvette and BMW entries to score a memorable victory. To understand how this year’s Sebring Twelve Hour truly played out, you had to follow the action from start to finish. No afternoon siesta, no break for happy hour cocktails or a leisurely dinner. Thankfully, we were paying attention throughout and came up with three takeaways from the action: This is damn good racing You can talk about Balance of Performance, full-course cautions and wave-arounds that didn’t exist way back when. But the cold, hard facts are that the top four cars finished within 5.3 seconds at Sebring, and the Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing entry that led those four almost into the 11th hour before scuffling with a GTLM car was just two laps behind in fifth place. It’s not a cliché to say that IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship endurance races have turned into sprint races. Even at a punishing track like Sebring, where 12 hours of racing is equated to 24 or more hours of competition on a more traditional purpose-built circuit. Sebring 2021 was a throwback to when the fastest car didn’t always win. The No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R driven by Bourdais, Duval and Vautier qualified sixth of seven entries in the Daytona Prototype international (DPi) category. Not having the luxury of testing at Sebring in the weeks before the race – as most of their opponents did – left the all-French driver lineup uncertain as to their chances of victory. But they drove a smart, heady race, and the wily Bourdais was at the helm when the loss of a rear wing plane might have caused a less-experienced driver to lose control and crash. The four-time IndyCar champion drove through the problem to secure victory for JDC-Miller Motorsports. Meanwhile in GTLM, the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 team of Cooper MacNeil, Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet benefited from a late-race clash between the No. 3 Corvette and No. 25 BMW to triumph. All three cars remained in close contact throughout the first 11-plus hours, along with the No. 24 until its chances were extinguished at the same time that a fire on the car was being extinguished in the pits. Every race, every class is compelling. This is a golden era for IMSA, and it’s only going to get better.  Memories don’t fade Regular followers of the WeatherTech Championship recall that some animosity broke out late in the 2020 championship following a couple on-track skirmishes between several DPi drivers, including Action Express Racing’s Pipo Derani. We were reminded that racers have a long memory when the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac being driven by Renger van der Zande made contact with the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac in the hands of Derani, barely an hour into the race. Working traffic, Derani made an optimistic move to the inside of van der Zande into the tight final corner of the Sebring circuit. But Derani didn’t realize the GT Daytona (GTD) Aston Martin that van der Zande was trying to pass at the same time into the same corner would veer inside to make its apex, smashing all three cars together. The No. 31 – farthest on the inside – clouted a concrete wall, leaving it in comeback mode for the remainder of the race. In the immediate aftermath, van der Zande gave one of the more candid driver interviews in recent memory, calmly calling out Derani for being over-aggressive. “He’s a great guy to talk to, but on the track he’s just too wild,” van der Zande said on the NBCSN telecast. “He was almost wiping out four cars at one time in that last Turn 17 corner. “I think for Pipo, he just needs to chill out,” the Dutchman added. “He’s taken himself out far too many times now, and I just feel bad for the team. I think they have a fast car, the car to win today, but (he was) not so clever.” Derani’s car lost two laps repairing suspension damage, then suffered a litany of problems in the aftermath and failed to finish. Don’t repave Sebring This just in: Racetracks – at least the special ones – have unique character. A not-so-smooth track surface that is 75 years old in some areas is part of what makes Sebring a legendary race venue. That’s why a number of racers from past to present believe that the suggestion of repaving Sebring would be the worst thing possible. Six-time Sebring winner Tom Kristensen said as much when he popped in for an interview during NBC Sports’ flag-to-flag coverage of this year’s classic. “You have to be tough to win at Sebring – both the car and the driver – and the slogan ‘Respect the bumps’ is one of the truest in all of motorsport,” he remarked. “Repaving Sebring would make Turn(s) 1 and 17 insanely fast and actually make it more dangerous!” Jonathan Bomarito, co-driver of the No. 55 Mazda Motorsports DPi that won last year at Sebring, wrote on Twitter. “The bumps slow down the corner speed and make it more technical on the driver and machine. Leave Sebring alone!” There’s always an element of “be careful what you wish for” when making major changes to historic venues. With rare exception, the consensus with Sebring is “let it be.” |
