[woodcote]

   

Jean and Mike joined us for the second race of the day - the Sebring Seventies 45-minute team race. A late change to the line-up saw Écurie Escargot enter the McCann Corvette Stingray, which would be driven by the McCann brothers - Stephen & Daniel - plus Andy and Rob A. The other 'non-Porsche' entry was the Gastropoda Fly BMW 3.5 CSL, featuring a genuine IMSA livery. There were four teams of four drivers and two teams of three, giving us driver changes at 11, 22 & 33 minutes for the fours and 15 & 30 for the threes. That driver change bell would be ringing often...

   

First, we had a 2-minute super-pole session to sort out the starting order - the drivers competing in qualifying would start the race. It was a remarkably close call for pole - Ash beating Jeremy by 0.003 of a second!

   

So that was two Porsches at the front, a BMW and Corvette on the second row and the other two Porsches starting at the back...

   

Our RCS64 software was set up for dry weather throughout the day, in homage to Florida in February. Teams would need to manage fuel and tyre simulations - and that was still a new challenge for Kinsley, Jaxson and Keith, whose digital racing experience has mostly been with the simpler SSDC software.

In the early laps, Jeremy eased into the lead with the blue 'Wallys' AST One Porsche, closely followed by Dean, who'd moved the green 'Valliant' Porsche through the field. Stephen was third with the Corvette, ahead of Mike's Fly IMSA BMW. Ash had dropped to fifth, ahead of Simon in the Laps in Concentration Porsche...

   

That's how it stayed as the race settled into a rhythm, Simon and Ash swapping places and the Corvette looking good on fuel efficiency. Mike was penalised for an unsafe pit release, the BMW coming back in for a 5-second Stop-Go. The teams of four swapped drivers after 11 minutes - Ollie taking over the Shift Happens! Porsche and Daniel getting into the Corvette. Mike handed the BMW to Rob and Isaac was now in the Gearzilla Porsche. The other two teams would swap at 15 minutes, when the order looked like this...

15 minutes
AST One - 74 laps
Écurie Escargot - 72
Gearzilla - 71
Gastropoda - 71
Shift Happens! - 70
Laps in Concentration - 70

That was a pretty close start to the race. Kev was now driving for the leaders and Terry for the sixth-placed team. It was all-change in this part of the race, especially as teams drifted out of sequence on pit stops. The BMW got out front and Rob handed the BMW to Steve with a lap lead over the Gearzilla Porsche. The Corvette was still third, ahead of three Porsches - AST One, Laps in Concentration and Shift Happens!

   

Keith was now in charge of the Gearzilla Porsche, being chased by Rob A in the Corvette. Jaxson had taken over from Ollie in the Valliant Porsche. Kev moved AST One back into the podium places, with the positions looking like this a two-thirds distance...

30 minutes
Gastropoda - 143 laps
Gearzilla - 142
AST One - 141
Écurie Escargot - 141
Laps in Concentration - 138
Shift Happens! - 131

Alex was in the AST One car for the final 15 minutes and Duncan took over the Laps in Concentration Porsche. Alex worked his Porsche up to second and as Steve handed the BMW to Jean, the two cars were on the same lap. Two back were the Gearzilla Porsche - with Oliver at the wheel - and the Écurie Escargot Corvette driven by Andy. It would be a frantic last ten minutes...

   

Jaxson handed the Shift Happens! Porsche to Kinsley - both doing well in their first full-fat WHO team endurance race. Alex was soon past Jean and into the lead, but it was Oliver who was fastest and gaining ground on the front two. Ultimately, fuel consumption and late race pit stops shook up the order - Gearzilla getting everything right and ending the race on the same lap at AST One, but not quite close enough to win the race. Meanwhile the fuel-guzzling BMW dropped back to fourth - Andy getting ahead of Jean with a slick final stop and the Corvette finished just a few meters ahead of the BMW...

   

Congrats to Alex, Kev and Jeremy for winning our first Sebring Seventies race...

         

         

         

That was lunch time - ten minutes ahead of schedule. The track stayed open for more testing of new cars, before we'd start the afternoon with two individual races - Carrera Classic Nascar and Can-Am.