Stevenson Motorsports Perseveres For Top-10 in Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Debut

Just two months after their IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship debut at Daytona International Speedway, Stevenson Motorsports scored another top-10 finish at Sebring International Raceway on Saturday. For round two of the premier North American sportscar championship, Connor De Phillippi joined Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis in the No. 6 Stevenson Motorsports Audi R8 LMS to take home an eighth place finish while teammates Matt Bell, Lawson Aschenbach and Dion von Moltke were scored with a 16th place result in the No. 9 Stevenson Motorsports Audi R8 LMS. A disappointing qualifying session for both cars on Friday saw the No. 9 machine start from 11th while the No. 6 car started from the rear of the pack. But the team arrived on race day optimistic and energized for the 12-hour sprint despite a late night for the Stevenson boys as they replaced the gearboxes in their twin Audi R8 LMS machines. Race day for the 64th annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida dawned bright and clear. Unfortunately, the weather did not hold and made way for an uncharacteristically wet race day providing a unique challenge for the entire paddock, but one for which the twin Stevenson Audis were more than prepared.

Although the second round of IMSA WeatherTech Championship competition marked just the second outing for Stevenson in their new Audi machines, the 2015 IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge Championship winning team proved its mettle as they fought through the changing conditions and sailed through a deluge with both the No. 6 and No. 9 Audi machines running in the top-10 as track conditions deteriorated to the point that IMSA red flagged the race for over two hours. The No. 6 Stevenson Motorsports Audi R8 LMS led the charge for the Jacksonville, North Carolina-based team, battling both the elements and the bumpy 3.74-mile track to drive home to an eighth place finish. Despite a penalty after getting caught out on strategy early in the race and having to serve a penalty for emergency pit service for rain tires in order to survive the slippery track, all three drivers managed to keep their noses clean throughout their diverse stints.

Team Strategist Mike Johnson called a smart race, with the strong driver lineup also posting a stout performance that saw the team consistently racing in the top-five, often in podium contention. The brother No. 9 Stevenson Motorsports Audi R8 LMS showed strong pace early in the race and remained in podium contention for a majority of the endurance classic. Despite an afternoon deluge, all three drivers fought through to put in racing laps in the Audi machine, with both Aschenbach and von Moltke leading the field. Unfortunately an engine issue with just under 3 hours remaining in the race forced the No. 9 machine back to the garage where the condition was diagnosed to be race-ending and the crew had to accept a 16th place finish.

“There were parts of the races in both Daytona and Sebring where we were leading, and we knocked off all of the goals and we were in position for the win like you want to be, but then we seem to have failures or we make mistakes or we just don’t have the car that we want to have,” explained Team Strategist, Mike Johnson. “But really if you look at the cars, they are good. The No. 9 car had the lead with just a couple of hours to go and the No. 6 car was right there with it. So the good news is that we will get to some tracks that are going to work in our favor coming up, but we definitely have some work to do.” Stevenson Motorsports will be in action next at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on April 29 - May 1.

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