Monday, March 14, 2016

24 Laps of Sebring Results - 3/13/16

The clouds opened up this weekend over Sebring International Raceway. On a very wet racetrack, 8 cars rolled off the starting grid for the FEC 24 Laps of Sebring. As the flag dropped, Ethan got a perfect start in his Porsche 911 GT3 and pulled around pole winner Andrew Steppat. The two would run 12 laps nose to tail in the rain until Andrew benefited from a quicker pit stop and passed Ethan for the lead.



 From the start, things looked promising for the Aston Martin of Bryan Dean, but he would come through Turn 1 a little wide and get tapped by rookie Andy Capshaw, sending Dean into the wet grass. He would get back onto the track in P5 with work ahead of him. His DNR teammate Allen Ruff would have trouble through the first turn as well, ending up on the grass and short time later in Turn 2, into the tire wall alongside Capshaw and Tyree. When asked how the race went for Tony in the #47 Aperture Science Continental GT3 he had this to say.

 "My run was pretty pathetic. Right out of the gate I got bump and knocked around and then I finally slid going into turn 2 and hit the wall hard. Did some damage to my front springs and brakes. I knew if I pitted that early I would bring up the rear the rest of the race so I managed to keep going for the next 11 laps before pitting trading spots with Andy a few times."

 Tony would have a rough race and finish P7. The same would be true for Andy Capshaw who had a rough go of it in the wet conditions. Though things would get interesting for him in the late stages of the race. After 20+ laps of wrestling to keep his Aston Martin factory ride on the track, he finally hit the wall hard enough in the late stages to do serious damage to the driveline. Hobbling along in second gear, he was overtaken quickly by front runner Andrew Steppat. Steppats Corvette had to make a quick move to keep from ramming the DBR9, a move that sent the FEC points leader onto the grass and hard into the tires. This opened the door for Ethan Maestri to pass for the win.


We asked Andrew how the race went from his perspective:

"In the first 12 laps I had a couple chances to pass for the lead, but just couldn't do it safely. So the rest of those laps I was just trying to keep up. Had a really quick pit stop and passed Ethan for the lead on lap 12. Around lap 20 Andy got into the back of me and I slid all the way into the tires. No mechanical damage to the car but fell to 2nd. Then on the last lap, I swerved to avoid Andy and crashed into the tires. Had severe mechanical damage, top speed of about 50. Had to drive about 75% of the lap like that and got passed by Bryan just before the finish line. There were probably only 2-3 car lengths. The race stewards really needed to be out on the track waving the blue flags for lapped cars."

 Frustration aside, it was a very good race for the front two cars for most of the event. There were four lead changes in the race and despite the third place finish, Steppat posted the fastest lap time of the day and maintains his points lead in the series.

 For Ethan Maestri, the wet weather wasn't too much of an obstacle. "Oh definitely, this was a track we had circled and knew we could do well on even before getting into the Porsche. We had a great week leading up to the race. Practice went well, we got some time on the track while it was wet, so the weather may actually have been to our advantage. I got the hole-shot on Andrew at the start and knew it was going to be a fight the whole way. That Corvette could run hard in a straight line, but our 911's felt like they cornered just a bit better and accelerated a little faster in the rain. I was sure I had given the race away when I came off late, but then I passed Andrew while he was up against the wall on the last lap and I just thought 'I must be hallucinating'. But we crossed the line P1 and that was just an awesome feeling."



For MBR driver Paul Maestri, it would prove to be a little more frustrating keeping his 911 on the track. "I just didn't get enough time in the car I think. I should have had 4th place. I could close up on Travis in a run but just kept coming off track too much. I hate it for this #88 Coke Zero car and crew. We could have done a bit bettter, just didn't happen this time."

For Travis Billingsley and the #18 BMW team, this was a stand out performance in his Z4 debut. After getting knocked around in Turn 1 on the first lap, Travis settled into a pretty good rythm. He would come off the track a couple of times, giving up a spot to Paul, but would get a good run and be there to take it away whenever the 88 slipped off. He would finish P4, the best of the rookie class this race.

 The points race in the series tightens up just a bit at the top with Ethan closing to within 8 points of Andrew Steppat. The manufacturer points get a bit of a shakeup at the top. Aston Martin extends their lead over now second place Chevrolet. While Porsche has a great debut race, jumping immediately into fourth place behind the vacated Dodge SRT Vipers.

 We head overseas to Belgium now as the series returns to Europe for the running of the 24 Laps of Spa.

Results:
Position: Driver: Points: Lap Time: Lap Points: Total:
1 Ethan Maestri 25 2:11.798 9 34
2 Bryan Dean 18 2:12.953 8 26
3 Andrew Steppat 15 2:11.154 10 25
4 Travis Billingsley 12 2:14.130 6 18
5 Paul Maestri 10 2:14.084 7 17
6 Allen Ruff 8 2:16.009 5 13
7 Tony Tyree 6 2:19.308 4 10
8 Andy Capshaw 4 2:23.403 3 7

Points: 
Position: Driver:  Points:
1 Andrew Steppat 95
2 Ethan Maestri 87
3 Bryan Dean 73
4 Paul Maestri 52
5 Allen Ruff 38
6 Travis Billingsley 31
7 Tony Tyree 27
8 Mikey Collins 17
9 Andy Capshaw 13
10 Carter Merkling 11
11 Chris Rader 10

Manufacturer Points:
Aston Martin  137
Chevrolet  112
Dodge  88
Porsche 51
Bentley 27
BMW 18
Nissan  11
McLaren  10



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