As a class, the growth will continue throughout the season, with up to 6 cars appearing at Laguna and the possibilities are that more will show later.  It’s a long, long ways from last season in P2…
 
As usual, GT was where the action was at Sebring.   Unfortunately the action kicked off early, starting in morning warm-up, when late in the session, Bryan Sellers found himself stranded on track, victim of what was a blown motor in his Falken Porsche.  Surprisingly, the Derrick Walker led team got the work done in order to make the start.

The next to suffer was the Flying Lizards.  On the pace lap, just before the green flag, heading down the back stretch, Jörg Bergmeister was hit in the backsides by Dominik Farnbacher.  The damage was extensive, but the team got the car ready to go before the first hour was up, despite some pretty extensive damage.  Obviously Jörg was very upset about the incident, as anyone would be, given the circumstances.  It took what seemed like forever to get the car back to the Lizard nest, and it looked pretty iffy about the team taking the track before the 1-hour mark.  If they had actually started the race, they would have had more time, but as they did not take the green flag, they, at the time were considered non-starters.  It was tight, but they made it on track in time to be classified and to finish in the points.  To Dom’s credit, he did come down and offer his apologies for the incident, which took his car out of the race. 10th in class points may seem insignificant right now, but at least it keeps the 45 Lizards Posche in the points chase for the season. 

By mid-race, the combined GT classes looked to be going good for Corvette Racing.  They’d had a clean race and the cars were fast, as were the shuffled drivers corp.  It looked like they were due for the win, but somebody forgot to tell two of their nemesis.  Reigning GT Champion Joey Hand brought his BMW to the forefront, as did ex-Corvette driver Olivier Beretta, now racing for Ferrari (AF Corse).  In the last hour pit stops shuffled the GT class standings and the race came down to a BMW-Ferrari shootout.  Unfortunately another Ferrari came into play.

Hand and Beretta fought back and forth, but eventually Hand took the lead, one that Beretta actually conceded.  Only nobody knew that.  Gianmaria Bruni, many many laps back and running in an identical looking AF Corse came into play.  With most everybody, including Hand thinking it was Beretta, Bruni first tried passing Hand and then later crowded the BMW off track and into a spin.  Beretta, among others also spun in the melee, but most thought it was Beretta that was taking the lead.  When the Ferrari got passed in the last corner, slowed by a cut tire, it looked like it was a pass for the lead.  Even Hand thought so.  But it was Bruni that had slowed.  Beretta, knowing that he was secure in the WEC points had backed off and let Hand go.
 
Even in the post race interviews, Hand was fuming.  He’d obviously had some run-ins on track with Beretta before and was berating him quite clearly.  Eventually what happened was explained to the drivers, mostly by the media – Hand that Beretta had not hit him and Beretta what many had thought (incorrectly) had happened to him.  It was definitely yet another bizarre finish at Sebring.   As Janos put it, it isn’t Sebring without some bizarre incident taking place.
 
A 2-3 finish for Corvette in the ALMS GT category may not have been what the team had hoped, or even expected part way through the race, but it could have been a lot worse.  Ask the Lizards and Falken.  At least the team knows that they are in better shape than they were last season and they leave Sebring looking alright in the points.

Unfortunately, by the sheer number of cars racing at Sebring, the Challenge classes got treated as nothing but grid fillers.  There are some that consider both PC and GTC as fillers anytime they race, but that is not fair to those in the classes.  Here at Sebring they got the short straw and were effectively ignored.  Maybe a separate Challenge race may not have been that bad of an idea, at least here at Sebring.
 
In the end, it was teams that you expected to be there at the end that were.  CORE had a 1st and 3rd in PC, while it was a 1-2 finish for Alex Job Racing in GTC, the last time (at least that we know of) that we’ll be seeing that, as the AJR team will now be splitting their efforts between the GTC Porsche and the new Lotus in GT.
 
For CORE, some struggles in the lead-up to the race were more than compensated for by their race performance.  For the 06 entry to finish 3rd overall in the ALMS was a testament to the team that they are doing something right.  Impressive stuff, especially considering the winning car program came together just 10 days before the race and that only one of the 3 drivers (Burt Frisselle) had driven one of the cars before.  It was an especially significant win for the young driver, as 35 years prior (1977), Burt’s father Brad won the 12-hour classic and was at the track for this year’s event as part of the 60th anniversary celebration.

For AJR, this win was the 8th victory at Sebring, showing the team knows what it takes to win.  To make it a 1-2 in class just makes it sweeter.  Their focus will be split from now on though, with the addition of the Lotus GT program – it was fitting that the same drives slated to start the Lotus program (Sweedler and Bell) are the same ones that tasted victory at Sebring.  Sort of a nice going away present for the team.