(Sebring, Fla.) March 18, 2023 — In what looked to be a promising race for the No. 93 Harrison Contracting Company Acura NSX GT3 Evo 22 for Racers Edge Motorsports and Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport ended in heartbreak after suffering damage on a restart over seven hours into the 12-hour race. In Friday’s qualifying session, Kyle Marcelli ran an impressive lap to place the Rely on Red No. 93 machine on pole position in GTD for the 71st Running of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. As the12-hour event saw the warmest heat of the week, Ashton Harrison, Danny Formal and Marcelli rotated through stints behind the wheel of the NSX to alleviate effects of the Florida heat. A flux of multiple caution periods in a row caused a stack up of cars, and while still in contention for a solid result, the No. 93 fell victim to contact during a restart.

Continuing their pursuit in the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup championship, the No. 93 Harrison Contracting Company Acura NSX GT3 Evo 22 will take on the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen at Watkins Glen International on June 25, 2023.

No. 93 Harrison Contracting Company Acura NSX GT3 Evo 22 DRIVER QUOTES:

Ashton Harrison: “This is just such a super unfortunate way to end the weekend having such strong results in practice and qualifying, with Kyle laying down a monster lap to get the pole in GTD in our Harrison Contracting Acura NSX GT3 Evo. I feel like we were in a really good spot up to that point in the race. We really had a strong car and had a lot of potential and the chance at the podium. There are a lot of things that can happen in a 12-hour race and to that point, we were part of the mix. But then contact from an incident that we just couldn’t avoid took us out of the race altogether. I know the Racers Edge Motorsports with WTRAndretti crew will have us ready for our next event. I’m super thankful for all of their hard work this weekend, all of the crew over the wall, our engineers gave us some great strategy, and we really had the opportunity. I’m disappointed we really couldn’t showcase all of that here at Sebring. We’ll be ready to push for the podium at Watkins Glen.”

Kyle Marcelli: “We came into this weekend full of excitement and confidence after such a strong showing at Daytona. We knew we had a strong team, strong car, and strong driver lineup coming into Sebring. The weekend started off great. We were quick in all of the practices, top five every time. And then we snagged the pole and everything was looking good, until it wasn’t. With about four and a half hours left in the race, we just got caught up in some drama during Ashton’s stint. No fault of hers, just really a silly, silly racing incident. A car spun off track a few cars ahead and there was just sort of a stack up that we couldn’t avoid. It was just a freak accident, and you hate to see it. Unfortunately, it put us out of the race. Next up for us is Watkins Glen. We’ve had success in the past there with this car, so we’ll just show up and do what we do best.”

Danny Formal: “Not the result we wanted today at Sebring after an amazing qualifying lap yesterday from Kyle. It’s very unfortunate. We were just keeping the car safe and out of trouble and waiting for the nighttime and the temperatures to drop. This Harrison Contracting Acura NSX GT3 is just so fast when it gets cold out. I did three stints today, so I drove quite a bit. The car was really, really good to drive. The Racers Edge Motorsports with WTRAndretti did a fantastic job with the car. I feel so bad for Ashton; there’s nothing she could do in that situation. It’s racing, it happens. And we’ll come back stronger from this and hopefully take our first win at Watkins Glen.”
About Harrison Contracting
Harrison Contracting Company, Inc. (HCC) is a commercial painting and facility maintenance contracting company headquartered in Villa Rica, GA with divisional offices in Florida and Texas. HCC provides repainting/reimaging and facility maintenance services nationwide, and new construction painting across the southeastern US. At HCC, red is more than the company color, its culture. RED stands for Reliable, Experienced, and Diligent, and is the cornerstone for all we do. We are more than just your painter; we are your partner.

Racers Edge Motorsports with WTRAndretti is also proudly sponsored by Acura Motorsports and Honda Performance Development (HPD).

No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R prevails in race of attrition

SEBRING, Fla. (March 18, 2023) — Sitting on the pit wall collecting his thoughts and barely holding back tears, Chris Mitchum personified the unpredictable nature of endurance racing.

Moments earlier, the Action Express Racing director of operations watched the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R survive the literal and figurative bumps in the Sebring International Raceway course to score Cadillac Racing’s inaugural victory in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) era.

It wasn’t easy, somewhat surprising and certainly satisfying.

“Everybody says you never quit, but all the way through the end there was belief,” said Mitchum, who celebrated Action Express Racing’s 29th victory. “We had our issues, we had a good car all weekend and you have to be there at the end and we were. I could not be more proud to get Cadillac’s first GTP win in IMSA.”

Cadillac’s third consecutive win in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring is the longest manufacturer streak since Audi’s 2000-07 run, and the luxury brand has won five of the past seven on the 3.741-mile, 17-turn racetrack starting in the IMSA DPi era, including the past three from the pole.

But starting from the Motul Pole Award didn’t come into play in the final 15 minutes of the grueling race of attrition. Jack Aitken inherited the three GTP competitors ahead of him tangled, causing a full-course yellow. The first-year prototype driver took the green flag with 4 minutes, 37 seconds left and held off the charges of the second-place BMW to take the checkered flag by 2.940 seconds.

“This one was wild, but that’s why you go endurance racing. We worked really hard to be in the position we were at the end,” he said. “It wasn’t an easy race for us. You can’t choose how you win but we deserve that in the long ways.”

It was Cadillac’s 28th prototype win in IMSA since 2017 (most by any manufacturer) and 67th in all series/classes since 2004.

“It takes perseverance. That’s one of the great things about endurance racing. It’s not over till it’s over,” Cadillac Global Vice President Rory Harvey said in Victory Circle. “We made it entertaining for the fans today and it was a fantastic win for the No. 31 car. It was an outstanding performance collectively.”

Pipo Derani, who drove to Cadillac’s third consecutive pole start in a row in the event, earned his fourth victory (2023, 2019, 2018, 2016) in the Twelve Hours of Sebring – joining four others on the all-time list. Tom Kristensen is the leader with six overall wins.

“I’ve had so many unlucky races since the last win here so I’ll take a little bit of luck,” he said. “I feel bad for the guys who crashed. But you have to be lucky a little bit in motorsports. We had a fantastic race. We started on pole, had a flawless race after the incident in the beginning, so we recovered well and just fantastic to get number four. This is for my little girl one at home.”

The Action Express Racing team overcame contact with an LMP3 car that spun directly in front of Derani, who did not have time to take evasive action, at the two-hour mark. Replacement of a damaged nose assembly was performed quickly and Derani and co-drivers Alexander Sims and Aitken made up the lost time throughout the remainder of the first quarter of the race.

Dominating the first half of the race – leading 127 of the 168 laps — it looked as if both Cadillac Racing cars would earn podium spots.

Renger van der Zande recorded the fastest lap of the race (1:48.311) on Lap 165, endurance championship points were collected, and the two cars traded the point through pit stops and consistently blunted challenges from the field.

While leading the race, the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R with Sebastien Bourdais behind the wheel made an unscheduled trip down pit lane with 3 hours, 8 minutes left. After examination on pit lane and back in the garage, the Chip Ganassi Racing campaigned racecar was retired.

Cadillac Racing issued a statement: The No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R experienced a fuel distribution system issue. It is the first time we have seen it in testing — including a successful 24-hour test at Sebring International Raceway in November and two days of testing at the track in February — and race conditions. Cadillac Racing will figure out the root cause and prepare for the next race.

The next race is April 15 on the streets of Long Beach, California, where Bourdais and van der Zande will seek to make it two victories in a row. They won from the pole in 2022 in the No. 01 Cadillac DPi-V.R.

Overall, the Cadillac V-Series.Rs led 183 of the 332 race laps over the 12 hours.

Cadillac Racing high-resolution IMSA GTP photos available for editorial use

A 2023 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing was the pace car/safety car for the race. The race weekend marked the kickoff of the 20th anniversary of the Cadillac V-Series performance vehicle lineup, and Cadillac was announced as the Official Luxury Vehicle of Sebring International Raceway.

The CT5-V Blackwing is a Car and Driver 10Best again for 2023: “…the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing is the greatest sports sedan on sale today, if not of all time.”

On March 17, the No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R finished fourth in the 1000 Miles of Sebring – its debut race in the Hypercar class of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

An interview with the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadilac V-Series.R race winners:

Pipo Derani:

What does this fourth win at Sebring mean to you?

“I’ve been on the unlucky side a few times since my last win. I’ve been close many times but you have to be lucky in motorsports. The most important thing is that we were there in the end with a car that was still running, especially after an early incident of no fault of our own. We were able to capitalize on all the others’ mistakes. I want to say thank you to the whole group. We came here with a very strong car in qualifying and put it on pole. We had an amazing weekend from FP1 through the end of the race. Jack had to start with old tires at the end, so we didn’t quite have the pace to keep the position but we were there at the end with the mistake that others made; it allowed us to get ahead and take the win. It’s a special one for me. It’s the first win I’ve had since fatherhood. My little girl is at home and three months old. It’s the fourth win at Sebring… one that I’ve been hoping to get for a few years. Like I said, I’ve been on the unlucky side so to get it is fantastic. First win as well for the Cadillac V-Series.R and our new LMDh car. A lot of hard work has been put into this program from the beginning, especially on the reliability side. To finish at Daytona and Sebring now with a win and already have pole position is a fantastic effort form the whole group. A big thank you to Whelen Engineering for providing us with amazing lights, Action Express for the amazing job that they’ve done since the beginning and Cadillac for providing us a very fast racecar.”

What about double-stinting the qualifying tires?

“I think we underestimated the fact that it was quite hot out there. We tried. We knew we couldn’t make it, especially if it was green most of the race, on the amount of tires that we had. We tried to be a little aggressive at the beginning to have more tires at the end. Obviously it wasn’t great at the end of the second stint; the second half of that stint was quite difficult. Very quickly after that, I had contact with a P3 that spun right in front of me. I had to stop for repairs and we removed that set of tires from the car. It was not an easy race in terms of tires. At the end, some had a few new tires to put on their car and some didn’t. It was a balance between using them at moments where the track was a bit warmer and temperatures were hotter or trying to save them for the end. So it’s a bit of you win early or you win later. We had an extra set of tires, but we decided at the end to gain track position on one of the last restarts. Jack continued on his tires and unfortunately we didn’t have the pace to keep the cars behind, but luck played into our side today.”

Jack Aitken:

What was going through your mind when you saw the accident at the end?

“I was trying to do some quick counting at that moment. In those moments so late in the race, you’re pretty much in the moment. I saw the crash and was watching out for debris and other cars because there were cars pretty much everywhere and just trying to survive. It was after I got through that I was waiting for the caution and I thought, ‘That was quite a lot of GTP cars. Maybe we’re alright here.’

Were you worried about the BMW at the end?

“We’ve had a lot of trouble on the restarts previously. We had a great strategy call to get us into the lead. The team were fantastic with that one, and it was quick thinking. I just wasn’t able to fight it and the other guys were really impressive with their speed at the restart. We didn’t quite have the pace, especially on warm-up. I was a little bit concerned, but luckily when the flag dropped we were able to sprint away pretty quickly and could just bring it home safely for the last laps.”

Going three-wide into Turn 1 late before the accident.

“It was very, very tough racing. We were trying to hold our position as good as we could. The other guys were fighting extremely hard. At some point, you have to realize when it’s time to give up and that’s part of the reason we made it to the end today. We all drove pretty smart as well as racing as hard as we could when we had the pace. I was waiting a little bit for an accident to happen at some point.”

Were driving standards OK?

“It was hard racing. I’m not going to sit here and say that because I was waiting for a crash doesn’t mean that people were necessarily over the limit. It was just really, really hard racing. In this new era where we’ve got so many teams and cars that are racing at a very similar level, it’s inevitable that you’re going to get a little bit of bumping and some close calls. I had a good time out there. I don’t think anyone was particularly out of line.”

Alexander Sims:

What was the reaction watching the accident at the end?

“From my side, it was just a bit surreal, honestly, to watch all that unfold. Until that moment and after the end of the second-to-last safety car restart, it seemed like – as Jack mentioned – we seemed not to have the pace. In your mind, you’re resigning yourself to finishing fourth. And so yeah, the emotions go through a bit of roller-coaster to realize that we’re in the seat to win the race. There’s some level of sorrow for the three ahead that did crash out, to be honest, because we’ve all been in that situation and we know how that feels. Conversely, it benefits you sometimes and we’ve got to take it and enjoy the moment.”

Have you seen anything like this before?

“That was a surprising end. An excellent effort through the race. We had really good pace at times and the race of attrition was our friend today. The car was in one piece and in good condition at the end, and it was fantastic for Jack to bring it home and capitalize on the issue at the front at the end of the race.”

No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R

Sebastien Bourdais: “It’s obviously pretty disappointing for everybody. The guys did a great job. A couple of incidents that kind of put us out of sequence and then we paid the price with the double stints on tires. Renger did a heck of a job hanging onto the car because it was well over two stints on the tires and not easy. And a typical safety car reset the field. We had a great restart from last to ninth and we worked out way to the lead with a great pit stop by the guys. The car was quick. Cadillac seems to have something that works pretty well at Sebring, so that’s really encouraging. I think we made some great progress from Daytona in performance, so that’s encouraging for the rest of the season after finishing on the podium but needing more pace at Daytona. It’s great to see the program heading in the right direction and everyone at Chip Ganassi Racing and Cadillac are working very hard to make progress.”

Scott Dixon: “It was quite the race. The car was really fast and I felt like everybody on the team did a tremendous job. We had some ups and downs, but ultimately, we were top-three most of the race and led a good majority of it. Just bummed that it ended the way it did, and we didn’t win the race. It’s one that’s eluded me, and it would have been great to take this one. But we had great speed, great teamwork and everybody did a hell of a job.”

Renger van der Zande: “Sebring is a special one, and it’s a shame that it didn’t fall in our direction. We had a strong Cadillac car here and while we’ve been testing all over, we’re still trying to improve things across the board. We’re still learning. We go deep to try to optimize performance. It’s just an unfortunate end to the race after showing so much speed.”

A wiring issue put the defending race winners down in the field but the team kept on fighting, earning valuable points

SEBRING, Fla. (18 March 2023) – Sean Creech Motorsport (SCM) came into the 71st Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring with high hopes, looking to repeat its race winning effort from last season. Unfortunately, a lap one incident and an electrical issue ended the chance for a repeat victory.

Race two of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship got off to a rough start for the SCM team, which came into the weekend as the Michelin Endurance Cup leaders (the race-within-a-race that awards points in the four endurance classics). In the inevitable chaos in turn one, Willsey had to get hard on the brakes which caused the back end of the car to come around. Clipped by another car, Willsey headed for pit lane for a new nose, but then a penalty for getting service in a closed pit forced him to do another trip down pit lane, which put the team two laps down.

During the first yellow flag, Willsey got that lap back and headed to pit lane for service and a change to Barbosa.

Setting lap times among the leaders, Barbosa slugged his way forward. When another yellow came out, he stayed out until the leaders pitted, putting himself back on the lead lap. It was only for a moment, however, as a loss of telemetry in the cockpit necessitated a master-switch recycle in the pit box and a push to engage the clutch.

Barbosa was a man on a mission. Putting down laps that were over three seconds faster than the leaders, he got the team back on the lead lap.

When Barbosa handed the car back to Willsey, he was not able to engage first gear. Taking the car back to the garage, the mechanics began their search for the issue and found that a short in the wiring loom was the cause. The team quickly put the No. 33 back together and Willsey headed back on track – albeit having lost 55 minutes in the race.

Completing his drive time with a double stint, Willsey handed off to Pino who was racing at Sebring for the first time. The 18-year-old Chilean managed traffic perfectly, making solid passes and delivering a strong race pace. Pino, Barbosa, then Willsey took the car into the night, trying to make headway on the field. Willsey clocked his drive time just as darkness fell, disappointed with what might have been.

“I’m not sure exactly what happened on that first lap, but when I got on the brakes, the rear just came around on me,” said Willsey. “It’s on me – things stacked up, I saw a gap and I had to take it. The team did a great job getting the nose on and we got back up to P4, then out of the blue we had an electrical issue. I feel bad for the team and our supporters – we had a good car and we would have been in the hunt. It’s always great to be at Sebring: sometimes it works with you, sometimes it works against you.”

Sebring is a tricky 17-turn, 3.74-mile circuit. The mixture of asphalt and concrete, along with cool morning and evening temperatures combined with humid heat in the afternoon makes it one of the toughest tracks in the world on the team engineers. The SCM team kept the car in contention, pace-wise, as the drivers worked to secure as many points as possible.

Pino and Barbosa split the final hours, with Barbosa bringing the car home – and making the pass on the last lap of the race of a car that had retired to finish in seventh position. Barbosa set the team’s fast lap of 1:57.531 on lap 201.

“My first stint, I had an alarm on my steering and everything froze,” said Barbosa. “I had no telemetry at all, I was driving by ear. But the car was good, I was making up time. Then with the electrical problem, it took a while to figure out what it was. But I’m super proud of the team – it would have been easy to just quit, but they kept pushing to get the car back on track, and it was worth it. They kept working through the rest of the race as if we were in the lead, and that’s a testament to them. We didn’t get the result, but the direction we’re going in is good.”

“It was an unfortunate race for us, between the lap one crash and the electrical problem,” said Pinot. “But the team did a great job to keep at it, getting that position on the last lap to get more points. The car was quick, one of the fastest cars on track. So overall, I’m happy with the way we performed, thought the results weren’t there.”

“Tough day all around,” said team principal Sean Creech. “We were able to recover from the lap one incident well, but then had the electrical issue. We’ve had it before, so we tried what worked before, and it didn’t work. When you plug into the car, there’s a list of items to check and it turned out to be something not even on that list – just a bad wiring harness. After that, it was about getting as many points as possible. I thought Billy (Glavin, Jr lll team owner) and the 30 car was going to win but they got taken out and we got past them on that last lap, the hard way. But this crew, they’re the best. They work tirelessly, every one of them.”

SCM thanks partners Exelixis and Focal One for their continued support.

About SCM

Team leader Sean Creech has competed in a multitude of sports car series from 1990 until the present day, including Group C, IMSA GTP, WSC, Grand-Am, SRO World Challenge, and IMSA. SCM will contest the full WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in 2023 with João Barbosa and Lance Willsey. http://seancreechmotorsport.com/

About Exelixis

Founded in 1994, Exelixis, Inc. is a commercially successful, oncology-focused biotechnology company that strives to accelerate the discovery, development and commercialization of new medicines for difficult-to-treat cancers. https://www.exelixis.com/

About Focal One

One in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime in the United States. The Focal One® HIFU Prostate treatment offers patients a non-invasive outpatient procedure to target prostate tissue while avoiding the common side effects such as loss of urinary continence and sexual function. The Focal One treatment uses high-performance, high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) to precisely target and ablate the prostate, allowing patients to quickly return to normal activities. http://www.focalone.com/

Sebring, Fla. (18 Mar 2023) – The Heart of Racing (HOR) was back in IMSA WeatherTech action this weekend, returning to another legendary circuit to take on the Sebring 12 Hour with the two-car squad looking to build on its strong start to the 2023 season.

HOR drivers Roman De Angelis, Marco Sorensen, and Ian James teamed in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GTD, while the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin GTD PRO machine once again had Alex Riberas, Ross Gunn, and David Pittard sharing the driving duties.

Starting from the seventh row, James powered through the opening three hours of the race and moved forward as the track temperatures rose in the warm Florida conditions. Racing forward and into podium contention within the first hour, James then turned the car over to Sorensen. De Angelis was next up in the car, driving it up to third before turning the Aston Martin back to Sorensen, who drove the car into the lead on lap 185.

After a driver change under a caution, De Angelis was hit from behind on the restart, forcing him back to thirteenth. Over the course of 24 laps and two caution periods, De Angelis made his way back to sit second in GTD competition with three and half hours remaining. Sorensen took the Aston Martin to the lead on lap 284 before a caution returned just three laps later.

Unfortunately, the promising run to a Sebring podium ended when Sorenson was forced off track as he raced through traffic late in the race. The World Champion was able to get the car off to a safe location, but the race was run for the team.

The GTD Pro effort saw Riberas place the Aston Martin Vantage third on the starting grid. A pair of procedural penalties slowed the effort briefly before Gunn took over the controls in seventh. But the bad luck didn’t stop there, as three and half hours into the race Gunn encountered an electrical issue exiting turn seven forcing the car to the paddock. The HOR team was able to diagnose and fix this issue in just 18 minutes and get the Aston Martin back on track. Restarting 10 laps down, the No. 23 team continued to push forward as the team continued to deliver quick pit stops and well-executed strategy to take an eighth place finish.

The Heart of Racing’s next IMSA WeatherTech event will be the Grand Prix of Long Beach April 14th and 15th. The WeatherTech teams will be joined by HOR’s Formula Drift squad at the California event.

Heart of Racing Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Quoteboard

Roman De Angelis: “The race was pretty chaotic, we went from the front to the back a couple of times. I thought we had a really good change at the end leading the last few hours, but some pretty stupid driving from somebody else put us in a bad position and the car couldn’t finish due to a broken suspension. That was not the way we wanted to end, at least we could have grabbed some good points at the end with the way our strategy turned out, but that’s racing. Hopefully we can come back and get some points in Long Beach.”

Marco Sorensen: “To end the weekend like we did just now was definitely not the plan. There isn’t a whole lot that I could have done differently when a car just cuts across the track. It shows a little bit of lack of perspective in general in the paddock, but it is what it is now. We can’t change it. We just have to come back at Long Beach. The team did a really really good job and the car was actually better than what we expected to have here at Sebring. It’s been a pleasure all weekend and we have a good car, it was just unfortunate.”

Ian James: “I think the team performed really well, it was a pleasure to drive with Roman and Marco here at Sebring. I had three pretty good stints to start there and I really thought we were on for a good result, but unfortunately somebody else’s stupidity took us out. That is all part of racing, you have the highs and the lows. Our high was Daytona and now we are seeing a low. The most frustrating part is we had a car that could have won, but that’s okay because we will bounce back.

Alex Riberas: “In the beginning of the race everything was going very well and according to plan. It is tough to process the fact that we had a car to fight to the victory today, but due to mechanical failure we were unable to stay on the lead lap. On the other side the team stayed positive and we know we are executing well, everything that is in our control is really well. I remain positive for the future and I can not wait for Long Beach.”

Ross Gunn: “Super disappointing to have an issue early on when we had a very strong base. It’s a very similar story to Daytona, very unfortunate because all the guys worked super hard for this weekend to give us a great car. Really, really disappointing, but we will fight back in Long Beach.”

David Pittard: “This was the first Sebring Twelve Hours for me, it was actually good to finish because that was an experience on its own for me. I have always loved watching IMSA racing because the races are always so close in the final minutes. It was awesome racing, I am ashamed we were a few laps down, but it happens. Big huge thank you to the Heart of Racing guys for their hard efforts.”

About The Heart of Racing

The Heart of Racing races to raise funds and awareness for Seattle Children’s Cardiology Research. The team competes internationally with concurrent campaigns in IMSA, SRO, Formula Drift and the 24H SERIES. Last season The Heart of Racing won the IMSA GTD Championship title in the No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3. The Heart of Racing team hosted their first all-female driver shootout in November of 2022, bringing to the team Hannah Grisham and Rianna O’Meara-Hunt for the 2023 SRO GT4 America season. To contribute to The Heart of Racing’s fundraising efforts please visit: https://give.seattlechildrens.org/fundraiser/3642390