Era Motorsport Claims Sebring LMP2 Honors

Era Motorsport emerged victorious at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in LMP2 in a closely contested race that came down to the wire.

Connor Zilisch, Ryan Dalziel and Dwight Merriman backed up their class win in January’s Rolex 24 at Daytona with victory Saturday at Sebring International Raceway, co-driving the No. 18 Oreca 07 Gibson.

Seventeen-year-old Zilisch maintained the lead during a late race restart to take top class honors.

Consistent front-runner TDS Racing was second, with Mikkel Jensen finishing just 1.127 seconds behind Zilisch at the line.

Paul di Resta, meanwhile, brought the No. 22 United Autosports Oreca onto the final step of the podium in third.

Sean Creech Motorsport, running the lone Ligier JS P217 Gibson in the field, climbed the order to finish fourth in class after an early race spin, a brief mid-race stoppage and a drive-through penalty at the half-way mark.

The No. 74 Riley of Felipe Fraga rounded out the top-five.

Zilisch cycled to the class lead from seventh during the final round of pitstops in the race’s 12th and final full course caution period. The team had steadily made up ground after a pair of spins over the course of the race.

He survived late pressure from Fraga on the final restart, only for the Brazilian driver to encounter an issue with only a few laps remaining after apparent contact with Colin Braun’s No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR Oreca during the restart.

The battle for the class lead was tight for nearly the entire race with TDS, United Autosports, CrowdStrike by APR, Inter Europol by PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports, and Riley all taking turns pacing the field.

The No. 04 CrowdStrike entry of Braun was spun after contact with Fraga in the closing minutes, eliminating its chances of victory despite an impressive comeback drive that put the car in contention in the final stages.

The Algarve Pro Racing-run operation fought back from two laps down following a puncture for George Kurtz in the opening minutes of the race. Kurtz lost further time when he served a drive-through penalty for too many crew over the wall during a stop.

Toby Sowrey then got the No. 04 car back onto the lead lap in the fifth hour.

A caution in the final hour for debris saw DragonSpeed’s Malthe Jakobsen briefly inherit a full lap lead over then-leader Jensen.

However, Jakobsen was handed a three-minute and 44-second stop-and-hold penalty for improper completion of the wave-by procedure and dropped down the order.

The No. 8 Tower Motorsports entry and the No. 88 Richard Mille AF Corse Oreca were the only two retirements in the 13-car field. Both cars returned to the track after separate crashes put them behind the wall before later retiring.

RESULTS: Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring