Pirelli Podiums at Sebring

Pirelli earns one podium and several promising finishes at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Sebring, Fla., March 19, 2005 Many drivers claim that the 12 Hours of Sebring is a more demanding endurance race than the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Road Atlantas Petit Le Mans. The reason is simply that the rough Sebring airport tarmac tends to pound the car, driver and engine into submission. This was ever so true at todays 53rd running of the classic endurance race. Last year, Pirelli was the dominant force in the P2 prototype class as it won all three of the endurance race -- 12 Hours of Sebring, 24 Hours of Le Mans and Petit Le Mans -- as well as the coveted American Le Mans Series (ALMS) Tire Manufacturers Championship. But with over nine hours complete and leading the second-place car by over 14 laps, the #27 Kruse Motorsport Lola of Bennett/Mitchell/Primat blew an engine. The news was better in the GT2 class as the #79 J3 Racing Porsche 911 GT3 of Jackson/Sugden/Jonsson finished a surprising second, their highest ALMS result ever, only days after switching to Pirelli tires in testing. Although the two Panoz Esperantes were plagued with mechanical and electrical gremlins during the race, the #50 Panoz of Auberlen/Liddell/Naspetti led the race early and was often the fastest car in class which bodes for the upcoming sprint races which begin at Road Atlanta on Sunday, April 17. The same thing could be said for the performance of the Maserati MC12 in the GT1 class. Normally a fifth-place finish wouldnt be much to brag about. But when you consider that this was the inaugural running of the redesigned chassis, racing for the first time in North America, on the most difficult U.S. circuit, under completely new design regulations, with a 50kg (115lb) weight penalty, after losing 20 laps to a gear linkage problemMaserati Corse could hold their head high at Sebring. They surely learned a lot and hope to improve their competitiveness at the Grand Prix of Atlanta.