Vasser Sullivan, Winward Secure GT Class Wins at Sebring
Words by Matthew Boyce
Cover Image by Jake Galstad/LAT Images
Vasser Sullivan Racing took the checkered flag Saturday securing the GTD-Pro class win at the 2024 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. Jack Hawksworth, Kyle Kirkwood and Ben Barnicoat shared the No. 14 Lexus RF F GT3 and claimed the class win after Hawksworth made a move, complete with bumping and banging, on the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 of Daniel Serra to claim the win.
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After the 12th, and ultimately final, caution flag, Serra jumped away to a lead followed by the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Daniel Juncadella. Hawksworth was shuffled back to third at the start, but quickly caught and passed Juncadella, setting his sights on tracking down Serra. This left the No. 3 Corvette of Juncadella to scrap for the final spot on the podium with the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche, with the two making contact, sending the Corvette spinning. The resulting contact not only eliminated the Corvette from the podium, but the subsequent drive through penalty assessed to the AO Racing Porsche eliminated them from contention as well.
This left the third place on the podium to the No. 19 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Frank Perera, Mirko Bortolotti, and Jordan Pepper. The AO Racing Porsche dropped to ninth after the penalty was assessed. Finishing fourth in GTD-Pro was the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 of Madison Snow, Bryan Sellers and Neil Verhagen. Rounding out the top five in class was the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Alex Riberas, Ross Gunn and Mario Farnbacher.
Winward Mercedes Claims Twelve Hours of Sebring Win, Securing "36 Hours of Florida" Crown
Galstad/LAT
The GTD class win was claimed by Winward Racing, as Philip Ellis fought off late race pressure from Centilar Racing driver Antonio Fuoco to take their second win of the 2024 IMSA season. Despite starting at the back of the GTD field after a technical infraction during qualifying, Winward battled all race long to the front and secured the victory.
After only 90 minutes of racing, Winward Racing found themselves in the top three. After the races second caution flag flew, the Mercedes AMG machine made its way into the lead, and held onto it for the majority of the remaining racing action. Ellis shared the No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo with Indy Dontje and Russell Ward. The No. 47 Centilar Racing Ferrari finished in second place piloted by Fuoco, Roberto Lacorte and Giorgio Sernagiotto. Completing the class podium was the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche of Adan Adelson, Jan Heylen and Elliott Skeer.
Heart of Racing securing fourth place with Ian James, Zach Robichon and Roman De Angelis, while the top five was filled out by the No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracan of Loris Spinelli, Devlin DeFrancesco and Misha Goikhberg.
