PF Racing Wins at Sebring; TCR Goes Down to the Line

James Pesek and Chad McCumbee won Thursday’s Alan Jay Automotive 120 at Sebring, the second round of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge season.

The PF Racing duo took the victory in the No. 40 Ford Mustang GT4 in the first two-hour race of the season.

McCumbee moved to the lead of the race during a round of pitstops under a lengthy full course caution, which was caused by a heavy crash for the TCR pole-sitting No.77 Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai Elantra N TCR of Mason Filippi and Kyle Marcelli’s JG Wentworth by Infinity Toyota GR Supra GT4.

Both drivers walked away under their own power.

Once McCumbee took the lead of the race, he had to hold off the No. 56 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Jeff Mosing and Eric Foss to capture Ford’s first win since Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta 2019.

The North Carolina native had to work through a third and final caution caused by the FastMD Racing Audi R8 GT4 of Max Faulkner.

The Murillo Mercedes lost a podium spot in the final lap, with Alan Brynjolfsson and Trent Hindman taking second for VOLT Racing and the No. 14 Riley Motorsports Toyota driven by Andy Jakos and Alfredo Najri finishing third.

Behind Mosing and Foss, Gregory Liefooghe and Sean Quinlan rounded out the top-five in the Stephen Cameron Racing BMW M4 GT4.

VGRT Honda Wins TCR Thriller

Karl Wittmer and Victor Gonzalez outperformed the fleet of Hyundais to take a hard-fought class win in the TCR class.

The No.99 VGRT Honda Civic Type-R TCR moved into podium contention after the final restart, but fell behind the charging No. 17 Unitronic JDC Miller-Motorsports Audi RS 3 LMS TCR driven by Mikey Taylor.

However, Wittmer took the lead ahead of the No.1 Hyundai in the hands of Michael Lewis after the third and final restart of the race.

Lewis and Taylor Hagler had served two separate drive-through penalties for a reported tire infringement but fought their way back throughout the two-hour event.

Wittmer and Lewis then engaged in an intense battle for the win on the final lap, which culminated with the two drivers sprinting down to the line out of the final corner.

The gap between the two cars was 0.182 seconds when they crossed the line.

Taylor and Chris Miller completed the podium in the JDC-Miller Audi.

RESULTS: Alan Jay Automotive Network 120