Pirelli scores at the Twelve Hours of Sebring

Pirelli scores win plus three other podium finishes at the 52 nd running of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Podium Finishes are the Order of the Day - and Night - at the Typically Brutal Florida Endurance Race Sebring, Fla., March 20, 2004 - At precisely 10:31 AM, forty four cars took the green flag under bright blue skies and temperatures in the mid 80s for the 52nd running of the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring. Pirelli tires were fitted to a total of 10 entries in three of the four ALMS classes: P675, GTS and GT. Despite the lack of rain and a cloud cover that moved in to keep the heat and humidity to very bearable levels, the roughness of the Sebring airport tarmac had its typical effect on attrition. In GTS the two Corvette C5-Rs played "hares" to the rest of the field until the third hour when clutch gremlins took the Corvette of Oliver Gavin/Olivier Beretta/Jan Magnussen out of the race. That moved the Pirelli-shod Saleen S7R of Terry Borcheller/Johnny Mowlem/David Brabham into second place. They chased the Corvette until the sixth hour when a long stop to replace a broken halfshaft elevated the Ferrari 575 GTC driven by Danny Sullivan/John Bosch/Thomas Biagi, one of a pair of 575s entered by Barron Connor Racing and also running on Pirellis, into second behind the leading Corvette. A brand new entry this year, the Ferrari 575 GTCs couldn't match the speed of the class-winning Corvette of Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Max Papis, but the Sullivan/Bosch/Biagi Prancing Horse proved to be very durable and finished second to the Corvette. Meanwhile, back in the Saleen pits, the 2004 S7R was also suffering from a few teething problems, but the ACEMCO Motorsports crew did yeomen work to keep the car running in third place to round out the podium spots in GTS. Meanwhile, in the baby prototype P675 class, the Miracle Motorsports, Pirelli-shod Lola/Nissan of John Macaluso/IanJames/Mike Borkowski spent the first seven hours of the  race swapping first place with the Intersport Racing Lola/Judd, also on Pirellis, of Clint Field/William Binnie/Rick Sutherland. A long stop in the paddock for repairs put an end to Intersport's hopes for victory, although the Lola/Judd soldiered on to finish third, leaving Miracle Motorsports to savor a hard fought victory. The four podium finishes, a first, a second and two thirds, Pirelli achieved at Sebring this year certainly represent an excellent start to the 2004 season and an indicator of even greater success for Pirelli as the season unfolds. A fitting tribute to Sir Stirling Moss who was present at the race and who exactly 50 years ago had a giant-killing victory in the under-powered, Pirelli-shod, 1500 cc OSCA. Pirelli Tire North America specializes in the manufacture and marketing of high-performance car, light truck and motorcycle tires and currently has three of its highly advanced MIRS (Modular Integrated Robotized System) modules in operation in a new factory near Atlanta, Georgia, to better serve the American OEM and Replacement markets.