Bourdais Continues to Lead in Hour 8 at Sebring

IndyCar stars Sebastien Bourdais and Scott Dixon have paced the field in the last two hours of the 63rd Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, with Bourdais out front at the eight-hour mark in the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP.

At the start of the eighth hour, the No. 5 reassumed the lead from the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-Ford when Joao Barbosa barged his way past Dixon into Turn 17 on Lap 191.

Barbosa pitted and handed to Bourdais, four laps after Dixon stopped and turned the No. 01 car over to Scott Pruett.

The No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Racing Corvette DP of Michael Valiante continues in third as the last car on the overall lead lap, with the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP fourth and a lap back.

PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports leads in PC with Tom Kimber-Smith and now Mike Guasch in the No. 52 Oreca FLM09. Sebring debutante Andrew Palmer has also impressed in his stints.

CORE autosport and Performance Tech Motorsports are in the running for podium positions.

The GT classes remain wide open, with the top seven still on the lead lap in both GTLM and GTD.

Porsche continues to lead in GTLM with Nick Tandy in the No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR, and Ben Keating is out front in GTD with the No. 33 TI Automotive/Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper GT3-R.

The lead has shifted depending on pit cycles but generally it’s been the two Porsches or No. 3 Corvette C7.R leading in GTLM. The No. 4 Corvette briefly stopped on track with Tommy Milner behind the wheel, but restarted following a minor belt issue.

In GTD the lead has shifted among the No. 33 Viper, No. 007 TRG-AMR Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 and Nos. 22 and 23 Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT Americas.

The P2-spec cars in the race have dropped like flies in the last two hours.

Tequila Patron ESM’s pair of HPD ARX-03bs has been retired in the last two hours. The No. 1 car had steering issues and the No. 2 car had persistent boost pressure issues.

Additionally, the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ligier JS P2 Honda has been officially retired from accident damage sustained after Ozz Negri’s accident.

With the two Mazdas also out, it leaves the No. 57 Krohn Racing Ligier JS P2 Judd as the only P2-spec car running, four laps down.

Thus far there have been five full-course cautions for one hour, 41 minutes and 22 seconds.