Turner Takes Sebring Victory in Chaotic Final Hour

Turner Motorsport took victory in the third GT World Challenge America powered by AWS round of the season at Sebring International Raceway after a late-race retirement for the leading JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

Robby Foley drove the No. 29 BMW M4 GT3 EVO to the flag with a healthy margin of 7.975 seconds to the No. 6 Dollahite Racing Ford Mustang GT3 EVO of Cameron Lawrence and Alex Sedgwick.

Foley, who shares the Pro class No. 29 machine with Justin Rothberg, managed to fend off Lawrence’s advances when the race restarted in the final 45 minutes of the three-hour competition, following the first and only full-course yellow period of the race.

Lawrence soon dropped off the rear of Foley’s BMW and into the sights of Frederik Schandorff in the No. 12 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo. The pair engaged in a tense dice for the second spot on the overall and Pro class podiums that lasted until the final corner.

Dollahite’s Lawrence managed to hold off Schandorff’s offensive, maintaining his second place finish.

This was a particularly significant achievement for the Dollahite team, as it had only recently rebuilt the No. 6 Mustang after a crash for Sedgwick earlier in the weekend.

The team worked through Friday night to complete the car and only completed a handful of laps in the pair of practice sessions ahead of the race. It maintained a position in the top three for the entirety of the race after a rapid opening lap for Sedgwick.

Schandorff secured third position for himself and co-driver Matias Perez Companc in the No. 12 car.

The No. 12 entry endured a challenging first hour of the race when it dropped to 12th overall after a ten-second time penalty for contact with the No. 88 Kellymoss Porsche.

The team cycled back up to the rear of the Pro class field at the start of the third hour before Schandorff made a handful of pivotal overtakes to bring the car back into podium contention.

The No. 8 McCann Racing Porsche rounded out the Pro class with a fourth place finish overall.

JMF’s pole-sitting No. 34 Mercedes-AMG had led the race from the start with Mikael Grenier and Michai Stephens at the wheel, but the car stopped on track in the final hour with a suspected oil leak.

The car, which held a gap of more than 20 seconds to the No. 29 BMW before the breakdown, brought out the yellow.

This bunched up the pack at the restart, leading to several key overtakes in the final moments of the race.

JMF had also controlled the Pro-Am class for much of the race with its sister No. 27 Mercedes-AMG of Lorcan Hanafin and Jason Daskalos, but Hanafin lost position to Daniel Morad in the No. 9 TR3 Racing car on the restart.

Morad was later slammed with a ten-second time penalty for forcing Hanafin off-track, dropping him down to tenth overall at the end of the race.

Tom Sargent eventually took the Pro-Am class victory in the No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche that he shares with Kyle Washington, taking the team’s second victory of the year.

The No. 32 car started the race in 11th overall, but an impressive middle stint from the Porsche Motorsport North America Selected Driver saw it rise up the order in class. Sargent eventually finished the race with a fastest lap of 2:01.169.

Sargent came out on top in a scrap for the final position on the podium in a multi-lap battle with reigning Porsche Carrera Cup North America champion Ryan Yardley in the No. 31 Wright Motorsports Porsche.

The Australian driver benefitted from Morad’s penalty to take victory in class.

RS1 claimed the second spot on the Pro-Am class podium with the No. 28 Porsche of Jan Heylen and JP Martinez.

The No. 27 JMF Mercedes-AMG eventually finished in third place on the class podium.

Yardley and teammate Dave Musial Jr. completed the Pro-Am top four with their No. 31 car.

The No. 163 AF Corse Ferrari finished the race in 16th overall as the only Am class competitor entered for this weekend’s event.

RESULTS: Race