WeatherTech Porsche Takes Surprise GTLM Victory

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

WeatherTech Racing scored a surprise victory in Saturday’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, giving Porsche its fourth consecutive GT Le Mans class win in the Florida endurance classic thanks to a late-race incident between Antonio Garcia and Connor De Phillippi.

Mathieu Jaminet took the Proton Competition-run privateer Porsche 911 RSR-19 to a one-lap class win over De Philippi’s No. 25 Team RLL BMW M8 GTE after the American BMW factory driver was forced to serve a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility due to his contact with Garcia in the final ten minutes.

The two cars made contact in the Hairpin, giving Jaminet a chance to challenge De Phillippi, who had bodywork damage from the incident.

Jaminet shared top class honors with fellow factory driver Matt Campbell and Silver-rated Cooper MacNeil.

Garcia pitted his damaged No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R but returned to the track to finish fourth in class, behind the No. 24 BMW of Jesse Krohn, which overcame a refueling fire in the final two hours to end up on the podium.

Having started on class pole, the No. 3 Corvette dominated the first half of the race until going one lap down in the ninth hour due to two pit lane miscues and a spin by Nicky Catsburg.

Garcia clawed his way back onto the lead lap following a wave-by during the race’s seventh full-course caution in the final 90 minutes.

He emerged as the class leader ahead of De Phillippi and Jaminet until the late-race incident.

The No. 4 Corvette of Nick Tandy, Tommy Milner and Alexander Sims finished four laps down in fifth after a misfire and trip behind the wall for engine-related repairs.

RESULTS: 12H Sebring

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John