Sebring 2015: Friday is the day to watch the Canadians
By: Chris Jameson / RaceCanada
March 17, 2015
As the 2015 racing season starts to pick up pace (pun intended), cars are set to get on track at Sebring International Raceway for the 63rd running of the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring fueled by Fresh from Florida featuring the IMSA TUDOR United Sports Car Championship. The series will be joined this weekend by the IMSA Continental Tire Sport Car Challenge, Cooper Tire Prototype Lites and Porsche GT3 Cup USA. Action gets underway Wednesday (18th) with practice for the three undercard series.
Based on the preliminary entry lists for each series, the one to watch for maximum Canadian content will be the IMSA Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge (CTSC) Microsoft Visual Studio 150. The CTSC race will see Compass 360 Racing (Toronto, ON) fielding a Subaru (#76 GS) and the first appearance of the teams new Audi S3s (#74 & #75 ST), Multimatic Motorsports (Markham, ON) with two Ford Mustang Boss 302Rs (#15 & #158 GS) and Mantella Autosport with two Chevrolet Camaro Z28.Rs (#8 & #80 GS). Scott Maxwell (Toronto, ON) will be in the #15 for Multimatic while the Mantella is an all-Canadian effort with Anthony Mantella (Toronto, ON) and Mark Wilkins (Palgrave, ON) paired in the #8 with Martin Barkey (Huntsville, ON) and Kyle Marcelli (Barrie, ON) in the #80. To that list we can add drivers Louis-Phillipe Montour (Montreal, QC) in the #57 Racers Edge Motorsports Ford Mustang Boss 302R (GS), Kuno Wittmer (Brossard, QC) in the #93 HART Honda Civic Si and announced earlier today (17th), Remo Ruscitti (Vancouver, BC) in the #37 MINI John Cooper Works Team Mini JCW.
There are still a few cars listed with drivers To Be Announced so we will be watching timing and scoring first thing to see if any need adding to this list.
In Porsche GT3 Cup USA, Jesse Lazare (Montreal, QC) returns for another season (#21 inum). Joining him on the grid this weekend are Marco Cirone (Toronto, ON, Masters #88 Platinum) and Sean McKaigue (Ottawa, ON, Masters #34 Gold).
The Cooper Tire Prototype Lites field does not have any Canadian entries listed. The 2014 series champion Mikhail Goikhberg (Vancouver, BC) now competes in the TUDOR series.
And speaking of the TUDOR United Sports Car Championship, Canadian content continues to dwindle in that series. Yes, there are still (effectively) six entries but it's certainly not what it used to be.
The Prototype class has Michael Valiante (Vancouver, BC) in the VisitFlorida.com #90 Corvette DP while Sylvain Tremblay (Montreal, QC / Lakeland, FL) will be in one of two Mazda Prototypes run by his SpeedSource team.
Prototype Challenge sees 2014 Lites champion Goikhberg in the #85 JDC/Miller Motorsports entry while Chris Cumming (Vancouver, BC) is in the #11 RSR Racing entry. There is till one car listed with a driver position T.B.A. – the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports entry which has previously had a Canadian in that seat.
With SRT pulling out this season, that leaves just one car in GT Le Mans (GTLM) flying the Red Maple Leaf – the #98 Gulf Aston Martin with Paul Dalla Lana (Toronto, ON)
That leaves GT Daytona (GTD) and with AIM Autosport leaving for another series, that class is, well, Canuckless.
Live timing and scoring will be available through all sessions starting with practice on Wednesday (18th) at 8:45 PM ET. There will be live streaming of the CTSC Microsoft Visual Studio 150 on Friday (20th) (start time 1:05 PM ET) followed by live streaming of TUDOR United Sports Car Championship qualifying for all classes. Updates on start times will appear on RaceCanada's Facebook and Twitter feeds.
The Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring fueled by Fresh from Florida will be broadcast on SPEED/Fox Sports Racing to cable subscribers in Canada whose provider makes those channels available. At the time of writing this report, we do not know if the race – in whole or in part, will be available via live streaming. We will update as information becomes available.
For those with cable access (SPEED/Fox Sports Racing), the broadcast schedule for Saturday (21st) is as follows:
10:30 AM - 11:30 AM ET - TUDOR 12 Hours of Sebring
11:30 AM - 3:30 PM ET - NASCAR form Fontana
3:30 PM - 7:00 PM ET - TUDOR 12 Hours of Sebring
7:00 PM - 10:00 PM ET - AMA Supercross
10:00 PM - 11:00 PM ET - TUDOR 12 Hours of Sebring.
*Please check your local listings
Links:
Live Video: www.imsa.com
Social Media
www.twitter.com/RaceCanada_ca
www.twitter.com/RaceCanadaLive
www.facebook.com/RaceCanada.ca
Following is a complete rundown of the week's schedule for on-track activities
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
8:45 am - 9:15 am PRACTICE #1 - LITES
9:30 am - 10:00 am PRACTICE #1 - GT3 CUP
10:15 am - 11:00 am PRACTICE #1 - CTSC
1:30 pm - 2:10 pm Practice #2 - LITES
2:25 pm - 3:05 pm PRACTICE #2 - GT3 CUP
3:20 pm - 4:05 pm PRACTICE #2 – CTSC
Thursday, March 19, 2015
8:00 am - 8:20 am QUALIFYING - LITES
8:35 am - 8:55 am QUALIFYING - GT3 CUP
10:15 am -11:15 am Practice #1 - TUDOR Championship (All Classes)
12:30 pm -12:45 pm QUALIFYING - CTSC ST
1:00 pm - 1:15 pm QUALIFYING - CTSC GS
1:35 pm - 2:05 pm RACE #1 - LITES - 30 MINUTES
2:25 pm - 3:25 pm Practice #2 - TUDOR Championship (All Classes)
3:50 pm - 4:35 pm RACE #1 - GT3 CUP - 45 MINUTES
7:15 pm - 8:45 pm Practice #3 - TUDOR Championship (All Classes) Live Refueling
Friday, March 20, 2015
8:45 am - 9:30 am RACE #2 - LITES - 45 MINUTES
9:50 am -10:50 am Practice #4 - TUDOR Championship (All Classes)
11:10 am - 11:55 am RACE #2 - GT3 CUP - 45 MINUTES
1:05 pm - 3:35 pm RACE - CTSC - 2 HOURS AND 30 MINUTES
4:20 pm - 4:35 pm Qualifying - TUDOR Championship (GTD)
4:45 pm - 5:00 pm Qualifying - TUDOR Championship (GTLM)
5:10 pm - 5:25 pm Qualifying - TUDOR Championship (PC)
5:35 pm - 5:50 pm Qualifying - TUDOR Championship (P)
Saturday, March 21, 2015
8:00 am - 8:20 am Warm Up - TUDOR Championship (All Classes)
10:30 am -10:40 am TUDOR Championship - Formation Laps
10:40 am -10:40 pm Race - 63rd Annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida for the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship - 12 Hours