Patrón Endurance Cup Heating Up With One Segment Remaining At Sebring

Action Express Racing extended its points lead in the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup at the eight-hour mark of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida.

Sebastien Bourdais led at the end of the segment in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP to score the maximum five points, extending the team’s points lead in four-race competition to three points, while also taking the lead in the Sebring round with nine points.

Points in the Patrón Endurance Cup are awarded at specific intervals throughout each race – every four hours in the Twelve Hours of Sebring – with the leader at the end of each segment scoring five points, four points for second, three points for third, and fourth place on back receiving two points.

The No. 3 Corvette Racing Corvette C7.R team opened up a three point lead in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class after the team’s sister No. 4 entry battled a belt issue. While it faces a substantial deficit overall in the four-race competition owing to a difficult outing in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the No. 911 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR leads Team Falken Tire by two points in the Sebring round after running second at the four-hour mark and leading at the eight-hour mark.

In Prototype Challenge (PC), the battle continues between the No. 54 CORE autosport and No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA FLM09 teams. The two teams are tied in the overall competition with one segment remaining, but the Sebring round lead belongs to the No. 52 entry, 10-6, over a trio of teams.

It’s been a flawless race so far in the GT Daytona (GTD) class for the two-car TI Automotive/Riley Motorsports team. The No. 93 Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R ran third at the end of the second segment to extend its lead in the four-race competition, while the No. 33 Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R ran second to extend its lead in the Patrón Endurance Cup round at Sebring.

The Patrón Endurance Cup continues with the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen at Watkins Glen International on Sunday, June 28, and concludes with the 10-hour Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda at Road Atlanta on Saturday, Oct. 3.

IMSA.com has coverage of the Twelve Hours of Sebring from 7-10 p.m., with FOX Sports 2 returning from 10-11 p.m. A two-hour special highlights show will be aired on FOX Sports 1 on Sunday, March 22, from 8-10 a.m.

QUOTEBOARD

Scott Dixon, Driver - No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing w/ Felix Sabates Ford EcoBoost/Riley

“I was just trying to hold and maintain ground. Everybody on the Ford EcoBoost team is trying to do their very best, but we just don’t have the outright speed right now. Overall, I think if we can keep it together we can fight for a podium here. It will be tough. I was trying to do what I did at Daytona in the (Rolex) 24 and not try to get outright lap speed, but rather get good pace laps in. So that stint it seemed to work for us and we’ll see what happens in the last four and a half hours here in Sebring.”

Bob Johnson, Owner - No. 5 Mustang Sampling Action Express Racing Corvette DP

“It's a tremendous accomplishment for our team. We couldn't think of a better place to achieve this milestone than historic Sebring Raceway. Before this was one of the greatest racetracks in America, it served our country training the airborne heroes of World War II. Now that we've accomplished the mileage milestone, we've got another milestone we would like to accomplish at 10:40 p.m. tonight with one of our two entries."

Tom Kimber-Smith, Driver – No. 52 Cuttwood/Spyder ORECA FLM09

“We’re in the lead, but that doesn’t mean anything at Sebring. The car is running good, and we’re keeping a close eye on CORE autosport at the moment. This weekend we’re looking to bag as many points as we can. We had a good result at Daytona, and we automatically started thinking about the championship. The Patrón Endurance Cup is a great thing to do, and it’s all about consistency. You saw at Daytona, we won the race but didn’t win the Patrón Endurance Cup. So to win that particular championship, you’ve got to be consistent”

Joerg Bergmeister, Driver – No. 912 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR

“We had problems with our windscreen early in the race that dropped us back to last in class. Now we’re up to third. We’re pushing as hard as we can, and we’ll see where we end up.”

Media Contact:

Nate Siebens

nsiebens@imsa.com

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