Audi, BMW Win Sebring

[cosworth151]

The #2 Audi R18 TDI of Alan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Dindo Capello have won the 60th running of the 12 Hours of Sebring. Second went to the #3 R18 of Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Lolc Duval.

The real excitement at the end of the race was in the GT class. Joey Hand, in the #56 BMW E92 M3 of Rahal Leterman Lanigan racing swapped the lead several times during the closing laps with the #71 AF Corse Ferrari F458 Italia of Olivier Beretta. At one point on the last lap, Hand even went off the course when hit by the AF Corse Ferrari driven by Gimmi Bruni (Yes, Fisi's car) but still fought his way back to the front by the time they reached the checkers. Beretta had to settle for third in class behind Hand and the C6 ZR1 Corvette of Jan Magnissen, Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor. Hand shared the car with Dirk Muller and Jonathan Summerton. Beretta's co-drivers were Antonio bertolini and Marco Cioci.

P2 was won by the Starworks HPD ARX 03b-Honda of Bruno Potolicchio, Ryan Dalziel and Stephane Sarizan. PC was won by the CORE Autosports Orica FLM of Indy driver EJ Viso, Burt Frizelle and Alex Popow.

GTE-Am was taken by the Felbermayr-Proton Porsche GT3 RSR of Ried, Rota and Ruberti. GTC honors went to the Alex Job Racing Porsche GT3 Cup of Sweedler, Bell & von Moltke.

Here in the States, a two hour recap of the race will e shown from noon to 2:00 pm EDT Sunday the 18th on the ABC network.

[lkjohnson1950]

Managed to watch part of it on-line. Sebring deserves better. ALMS needs to get a better TV deal, ESPN3 just doesn't cut it.

[cosworth151]

I agree, Lonnie. At least it's available to all, and we didn't have to hunt for bootleg feeds like we do with F1. I'm glad they use John Hindhaugh and the rest of the Radio LeMans crew for the coverage.

The real shame is that the FIA won't allow the race to continue as a part of both the ALMS and their WEC. Why does the FIA insist on ruining everything they get their toxic little claws into?

[lkjohnson1950]

I'm sure if you dug into it, you would find someone at ALMS has stepped on the toes of someone at the FIA. There is no legitimate excuse for leaving one of the oldest and most tradition laden races off the schedule.

[Alianora La Canta]

The reason is that last year, when the ILMC and ALMS shared a calendar date, there was only room for 53 cars, meaning the ALMS had to tell some of the Challenge class cars to go home. The ALMS was not happy with this arrangment and the FIA wouldn't allow the extra pit spaces to be opened (in their view Petit Le Mans is too small a track to accommodate such a grid), so there was no way WEC and ALMS could share a race at Road Atlanta.

It's said that the WEC wants to go its own way, to avoid the confusion of two sets of stewards, two sets of regulations and nine sets of podium procedures (apparently not many people stayed until the end of the ceremonies because they lost interest). Therefore the WEC/ALMS combination at Sebring may not be repeated there, despite there being plenty big enough to take both sets of egos... ...sorry, cars.