Another "Powered by Ford" victory and a glimmer of progress for IMSA at Sebring.

Editor's Note (3/24): Peter will return next week with a new "Fumes." - WG

By Peter M. De Lorenzo

Sebring. Despite the endless hand-wringing and rancor that have roiled major league sports car racing in this country over the last eighteen months, in some respects it was good to know that Sebring - America's oldest sports car race - is still Sebring. The brutal, unforgiving concrete Hell that makes up much of the track surface at the iconic World War II facility is still alive and malevolent, pounding the cars and drivers relentlessly over the twelve-hour race distance, while crushing hopes and dreams with equal relish.

The inaugural TUDOR United SportsCar Championship and Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup event at Sebring International Raceway was a kaleidoscope of the good and not so good for the new unified sports car series. The good was that the Daytona Prototypes and the P2 cars were much closer in terms of speed, and that was progress. The bad? A mind-numbing eleven full-course caution periods marred the flow of the race to the extent that there was no flow at all, it became just a series of sprint races between the tedium brought on by the yellow flags. Endurance racing has a rhythm and flow all its own, and this year's Sebring never got a chance to find it, unfortunately. And it didn't help that of the pitiful three hours of network television coverage, a full hour of it was run under a full-course caution. Not exactly what the new series wanted to see with its one and only burst of network coverage, to say the least.

Seasoned observers fear that the "NASCAR-ization" of American sports car racing is upon us, with full-course caution periods becoming standard operating procedure, and IMSA officials would be hard pressed to provide evidence to the contrary. Then again the first race - the Daytona 24 Hour - is on a unique circuit not really made for sports car racing, and Sebring, of course, is a world unto itself, but if there's any hope of things smoothing out anytime soon I think you better be prepared to be disappointed. Next up is Long Beach, which will be a caution-fest, guaranteed. I figure we won't know the potential - or the ingrained lingering problems - of the new series until it makes its much anticipated stop at Road America in August. 

Saying that, there was serious racing going on in the 62nd Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida, and when the track was green the competition was furious. And emerging victorious after the famous twelve-hour grind were co-drivers Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas and Marino Franchitti driving the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Telcel Ford EcoBoost/Riley DP, delivering a memorable win for Ford, Pruett and Ganassi.

The win marked the first victory for the Roush Yates-prepared Ford EcoBoost twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6 racing engine, and the first overall victory for Ford power at Sebring since 1969, when Jacky Ickx and Jackie Oliver won the event driving a Ford GT40 Mk 1 for John Wyer Automotive Engineering.

It was also the first overall Sebring victory and the record 57th in North American endurance sports car competition for Scott Pruett, coming 28 years after a GTO class victory in the 1986 running of the event. 

And Chip Ganassi Racing – in its first appearance in America's oldest endurance race – becomes the first team to win Sebring, the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500.

“It’s incredible,” Pruett said. “After all those victories you hope to get, this was still one on my bucket list. I’ve won here in class but never won overall. It’s even more exciting to win it overall, and to win it for Ford both times. I can’t say enough about the Ganassi group. We all worked together as a team and kept digging.”

The race saw 30 lead changes – one shy of the event record – among 11 different cars, and the outcome of the race was determined by the final pit-stop sequence in the last hour. When Ryan Dalziel (No. 1 Tequila Patrón HPD ARX-03b/Honda) made his final pit stop with less than 40 minutes left in the race, Marino Franchitti took over the lead in the No. 01 Telcel Ford EcoBoost/Riley DP, having completed its final service with just more than 50 minutes to go (see more coverage from Sebring in The Line - WG).

The race’s 11th full-course caution set up a final, 20-minute shootout between Franchitti and Dalziel, with Franchitti fending off his hard-charging fellow Scotsman to secure the victory by 4.682 seconds in the closest “contested” finish in race history. (An “orchestrated” team finish had a 0.482-second margin of victory in 2001.)

“It wasn’t too bad on the final restart,” Franchitti said. “I had a break with a couple of GT cars that helped me get a break on the first lap. To rebound from Daytona like this, and to bring Chip the victory in his first Sebring Twelve Hours, and to follow cars like the GT40 for Ford, is an … exciting day.”

Chip Ganassi Racing also celebrated a victory in the second round of the four-race Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup. The No. 02 Ford EcoBoost/Riley DP driven by Tony Kanaan, Scott Dixon and Sage Karam earned the most points from Sebring’s three segments toward the $100,000 prize for the top-performing team in endurance races at Daytona, Sebring, Watkins Glen International on June 29 and the Road Atlanta season finale on Oct. 4.

Congratulations to the entire Chip Ganassi Racing team for a tremendous effort, and congratulations to the people of Ford Racing who brought the Ford EcoBoost to major league sports car competition. Well done to everyone involved.

As for the USCC, wishing that it was something other than what it is probably is not a value-added proposition at this juncture. There are challenges at every turn: with the cars, the TV package, the tracks, the sponsors, basically everything. As I said last week, they've managed to come a long way in the eighteen months they've been working on it, but they still have a long, long way to go.

(John Thawley  ~  Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com  ~ 248.227.0110)
The winning No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Telcel Ford EcoBoost/Riley DP driven by Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas and Marino Franchitt.

(John Thawley  ~  Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com  ~ 248.227.0110)
Marino Franchitti, Memo Rojas and Scott Pruett celebrate after their big win in the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring.

Publisher's Note: As part of our continuing series celebrating the "Glory Days" of racing, we're proud to present another noteworthy image from the Ford Racing Archives. - PMD

(Photo by Dave Friedman courtesy of the Ford Racing Archives)
Sebring, Florida, March 21, 1964. The No. 10 Shelby American Cobra Daytona Coupe driven by Bob Holbert/Dave MacDonald on its way to 1st in GT and 4th overall in that year's 12 Hours of Sebring. The race was dominated by the Ferrari sports car prototypes, which ran 1-2-3, with Mike Parkes/Umberto Maglioli (No. 22 S.E.F.A.C. Ferrari 275 P) taking the win, followed by Ludovico Scarfiotti/Nino Vaccarella (No. 23 S.E.F.A.C. Ferrari 275 P) and John Surtees/Lorenzo Bandini (No. 21 S.E.F.A.C. Ferrari 330 P). Shelby American would place three cars in the top six positions, with Bob Bondurant/Lew Spencer (No. 12 Shelby American Cobra - roadster) finishing fifth and Jo Schlesser/Phil Hill (No. 14 Shelby American/Ford of France Cobra - roadster) coming in sixth.

Publisher's Note: Like these Ford racing photos? Check out www.fordimages.com. Be forewarned, however, because you won't be able to go there and not order something. - PMD