Christian Fittipaldi, Joao Barbosa and Sebastien Bourdais trimphed in the 63rd Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring , taking the No. 5 Action Express Racing Mustang Sampling Corvette Daytona Prototype across the strike to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Chevrolet’s lone victory.
Jim Hall II ran exhibition laps in the Chaparral 2 his father and Hap Sharp drove to victory in the 1965 event, before the Action Express trio did their best to stand on ceremony by becoming the first TUDOR United SportsCar Championship team to lap the field.
The number 5 entry led 246 of 340 laps, including every lap after Barbosa passed Scott Dixon to take the lead at the seven-hour mark.
Action Express Racing has also completed every possible lap in TUDOR Championship competition, totaling 3,257 laps for 10,415 miles. It was the fifth Prototype (P) victory for defending champions Fittipaldi and Barbosa.
Corvette DPs swept the podium. Richard Westbrook, Michael Valiante and Mike Rockenfeller took second in the No. 90 VisitFlorida,com Corvette DP, followed by Max Angelelli and brothers Ricky and Jordan Taylor in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP. Scott Pruett, Joey Hand and Dixon placed fourth in the 2014 race-winning Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Ford EcoBoost/Riley.
The race was slowed by only six caution periods for one hour, 58 minutes under the yellow, including a green-flag run of nearly hours midway through the event.
"It feels great; that was a heck of race and was physically very tough”, said winner Sebastian Bourdais.
The Wayne Taylor Racing Dallara-Chevrolet Corvette DP finished second with the sibling combination of Ricky and Jordan Taylor alondside Max Angelelli after the trio scythed their way back through the field having overcome nrake problems earlier in the weekend.
Westbrook, who shared his Coyote with Michael Valiante and Mike Rockenfeller, then overhauled the Ganassi Riley for the final podium spot with just six minutes to go.
Pole winner Olivier Pla, Nic Jonsson and Tracy Krohn finished in eighth place to take home top LMP2 honours in their the Krohn Racing Ligier-Judd/BMW JSP2. The trio led early, but face a delay in the pits (to repair a loose exhaust) that eventually saw them fall six laps in arrears.
Images TUSSC