Vasser Sullivan Lexus Takes GTD Pro Win at Sebring

Jack Hawksworth, Ben Barnicoat and Kyle Kirkwood took the GTD Pro class victory for Vasser Sullivan in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Cadillac after a contact-heavy late race battle with Risi Competizione.

Hawksworth, driving the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3, completed a bold pass on Daniel Serra’s No. 62 Ferrari 296 GT3 at the race’s final restart to seal the win.

In the process, the British racer reversed fortunes from an earlier pass made by Serra at the previous restart.

After the 12th and final caution of the race, Hawksworth was initially wrestled down to third by the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Daniel Juncadella.

After re-passing Juncadella, Hawksworth fought his way back past Serra before going on to the class win.

The result marks an improvement from last year, when the Lexus crew finished second behind class winners Pfaff Motorsports.

The team also bounced back from a disappointing Rolex 24 at Daytona, where it retired after early-race contact.

Serra, James Calado and Davide Rigon finished second ahead of Iron Lynx’s No. 19 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 after a late drive through penalty for AO Racing’s No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R.

After losing out in the battle for second against Serra, Heinrich then made contact with Juncadella’s No. 3 Corvette as the duo scrapped for the final step on the podium.

The incident eliminated Juncadella, Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims from contention, while the penalty dropped Heinrich, Seb Priaulx and Michael Christensen to ninth.

In their place, Franck Perera, Jordan Pepper and Mirko Bortolotti finished third, ahead of the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 of Bryan Sellers, Madison Snow and Neil Verhagen.

The No. 23 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Ross Gunn, Alex Riberas and Mario Farnbacher completed the top five in class.

Winward Mercedes-AMG Wins ’36 Hours of Florida’ in GTD

In GTD, Philip Ellis withstood late pressure from Cetilar Racing’s Antonio Fuoco to take a second consecutive class victory for Winward Racing.

The Houston-based squad started from the rear of the grid after losing their class pole due to a technical infraction but quickly charged up the order.

The No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, which Ellis shared with Russell Ward and Indy Dontje, moved into the top three after 90 minutes.

It then first got into to the class lead during a round of stops under the second caution in hour three and largely remained there for the remainder of the around-the-clock enduro.

Ellis then held off Fuoco’s No. 47 Ferrari through multiple restarts in the darkness to win, adding to a Daytona class victory in January.

Fuoco, Giorgio Sernagiotto and Roberto Lacorte finished second, with Elliott Skeer, Adam Adelson and Jan Heylen completing the podium for Wright Motorsports.

Roman De Angelis, Zach Robichon and Ian James came home in fourth for The Heart of Racing, while the top five was rounded out by the No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini driven by Misha Goikhberg, Loris Spinelli and Devlin DeFrancesco.

RESULTS: Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring