FIA WEC/ALMS, 12 Hours of Sebring - Thursday Night Practice

Bizarre Incident Takes Out Two Audis

Did a full moon just come out at Sebring, or did Graham and Marcel’s arrival at the track trigger some bizarre disturbance in the delicate balance of on track activity?

The night session was very quiet until all hell broke loose.  One of the CORE PC cars got into the JWA Porsche, spinning it.  This started out a long and drawn out series of occurrences that eventually damaged two of the Audis, among others.  To avoid hitting the stationary Porsche, Heidfeld, who was in traffic stopped on course.  He was then hit by the No.3 Audi of Duval, who was eventually rear-ended by the No.1 Audi of Fassler, again in traffic.  The 1 came back to pit lane and was repaired, but the 3 went back to the transporter for repairs.  Significant damage was reported to the 3 – the team is evaluating what is required for repairs.

Shortly after the track went green again, the 28 Gulf LMP2 Lola had a single car incident, causing heavy damage to the car.  Reports are that Maxime Jousse was in the car at the time, but that he is OK.

Green and almost immediately red again, and again the Dyson Lola stopped, this time on track.  The team had earlier replaced the motor in the car as a precaution.  Everything had been working well, until losing power.  The car eventually returned to the track.  Fuel pump switched on this time.

Because of all of this mayhem, the session was extended an additional 20 minutes and the drivers got to let it all hang out in the cool of the night.  Fastest of them all was TK in the 2 Audi, down into the low 1:47s.  This kept the Audi 1-2-3 at the top, followed by a 4-5 HPD, Muscle Milk over JRM.

Fastest in P2 was Stephane Sarrazin for Starworks.  The GT class was led by the DTM bound Joey Hand.  Nobody in the class broke the 2 minute barrier, and 4 cars were in the 2:00 range.

In the Challenge classes, it was Performance Tech and TRG leading their classes.

This ends a long first day of activity here at Sebring…