SEBRING, FL – America’s oldest sports car race made history in many different ways on Saturday in the inaugural TUDOR United SportsCar Championship and Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup event at Sebring International Raceway.

The 62nd Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida marked the first victory for the brand-new Ford EcoBoost turbocharged engine. It was the first overall Sebring victory and the record 57th in North American endurance sports car competition for Scott Pruett, coming 28 years after a GTO class victory in the 1986 Twelve Hours.

Co-drivers Pruett, Memo Rojas and Marino Franchitti also made Chip Ganassi Racing – in its first Twelve Hours of Sebring appearance – the first team to win  Sebring, the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500.

“It’s incredible,” Pruett said. “After all those victories you hope to get, this was still one on my bucket list. I’ve won here in class but never won overall. It’s even more exciting to win it overall, and to win it for Ford both times. I can’t say enough about the Ganassi group. We all worked together as a team and kept digging.”

A race that featured 30 lead changes –one shy of the event record – among 11 different cars came down to the final pit-stop sequence in the final hour. When Ryan Dalziel brought the No. 1 Tequila Patrón HPD ARX-03b/Honda onto pit road for its final service with just less than 40 minutes remaining, Marino Franchitti steered the No. 01 Telcel Ford EcoBoost/Riley DP to the front of the field, having completed its final service with just more than 50 minutes to go.

The race’s 11th and final full-course caution set up a final, 20-minute shootout between Franchitti and Dalziel. Franchitti managed to hold off his hard-charging fellow Scotsman to secure the victory by 4.682 seconds in the closest “contested” finish in race history, topping the 2005 event. (An “orchestrated” team finish had a 0.482-second margin of victory in 2001.)

“It wasn’t too bad on the final restart,” Franchitti said. “I had a break with a couple of GT cars that helped me get a break on the first lap. To rebound from Daytona like this, and to bring Chip the victory in his first Sebring Twelve Hours, and to follow cars like the GT40 for Ford, is an … exciting day.”

The Rolex 24 At Daytona-winning trio of Joao Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi and Sebastien Bourdais completed the podium with a third-place run in the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP.

Chip Ganassi Racing also celebrated a victory in the second round of the four-race Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup. No. 02 Ford EcoBoost/Riley DP teammates Tony Kanaan, Scott Dixon and Sage Karam earned the most points from Sebring’s three segments toward the $100,000 prize for the top-performing team in endurance races at Daytona, Sebring, Watkins Glen International on June 29 and the Road Atlanta season finale on Oct. 4.

FINAL RESULTS

Pos  C    Drivers                                Team/Car                         Time/Gap
 1.  P     Pruett/Rojas/Franchitti            Ganassi Riley-Ford                  12h00m09.985s
 2.  P     Sharp/Dalziel/Brabham           Extreme Speed HPD                 +4.682s
 3.  P     Barbosa/Fittipaldi/Bourdais     Action Express Corvette DP        +8.965s
 4.  P     Pla/Brundle/Yacaman             OAK Morgan-Nissan                  +11.994s
 5.  P     Brown/van Overbeek/Pagenaud        Extreme Speed HPD         +17.027s
 6.  P     Dixon/Kanaan/Karam              Ganassi Riley-Ford                    +17.837s
 7.  P     Angelelli/Taylor/Taylor             Taylor Corvette DP                     +34.229s
 8.  P     Frisselle/Frisselle/Fogarty       Action Express Corvette DP       +39.559s
 9.  P     Pew/Negri/Wilson                   Shank Riley-Ford                       +40.568s
10.  PC    Bennett/Braun/Gue               CORE FLM                               +3 laps
11.  PC    Ende/Junqueira/Heinemeier Hansson  RSR FLM                     +3 laps
12.  GTLM  Long/Christensen/Bergmeister       CORE Porsche               +5 laps
13.  GTLM  Bell/Bomarito/Wittmer         SRT Viper                                +5 laps
14.  GTLM  Auberlen/Priaulx/Hand         RLL BMW                               +5 laps
15.  GTLM  Krohn/Jonsson/Bertolini       Krohn Ferrari                           +5 laps
16.  GTLM  Henzler/Sellers/Holzer         Falken Porsche                       +6 laps
17.  GTLM  Gavin/Milner/Liddell             Corvette                                  +6 laps
18.  GTLM  Farnbacher/Goossens/Hunter-Reay    SRT Viper                 +7 laps
19.  GTLM  Magnussen/Garcia/Briscoe  Corvette                                 +8 laps
20.  GTLM  Tandy/Lietz/Pilet                  CORE Porsche                      +9 laps
21.  PC    van der Zande/Bird/Fuentes/Cheng   Starworks FLM             +10 laps
22.  PC    Miller/Kraut/Simpson              JDC/Miller FLM                     +11 laps
23.  GTD   Potter/Lally/Seefried              Magnus Porsche                   +13 laps
24.  GTD   Sweedler/Bell/Mediani/Segal  AIM Ferrari                           +13 laps
25.  GTD   James/Farnbacher/Riberas     Alex Job Porsche                 +13 laps
26.  GTD   MacNeil/Keen/Frommenwiler   Alex Job Porsche                 +13 laps
27.  GTD   Neiman/von Moltke/Albuquerque      Flying Lizard Audi        +13 laps
28.  GTD   Mies/Putman/Espenlaub         Fall-Line Audi                      +13 laps
29.  P     Westbrook/Valiante/Rockenfeller    Spirit Corvette DP            +13 laps
30.  P     Tremblay/Long/Devlin                SpeedSource Mazda            +13 laps
31.  GTLM  Muller/Edwards/Werner         RLL BMW                            +14 laps
32.  GTD   Cameron/Dalla Lana/Palttala/Lewis  Turner BMW                +14 laps
33.  GTD   Canache/Pumpelly/Latif/Winkelhock  Flying Lizard Audi       +15 laps
34.  GTD   Plumb/Snow/Heylen/Plumb     Rum Bum Porsche               +18 laps
35.  GTD   Faulkner/Faieta/Avenatti          GB Porsche                        +19 laps
36.  GTD   Sofronas/Welch/Basseng         GMG Audi                          +20 laps
37.  PC    Kimber-Smith/Marsal/Lux/Rayhall    8Star FLM                    +20 laps
38.  GTD   Miller/Haase/Bell                     Miller Audi                          +21 laps
39.  GTD   Griffin/Cioci/Rugolo/Gerber       Spirit of Race Ferrari           +21 laps
40.  GTD   Roda/Ruberti/Venturi                Spirit of Race Ferrari           +28 laps
41.  P     Curran/Said/Cosmo                   Marsh Corvette DP              +42 laps*
42.  GTD   Dempsey/Davis/Foster/Siedler  Dempsey Porsche              +47 laps
43.  GTD   Davis/Riddle/Wilson                 TRG Aston Martin               +49 laps
44.  GTD   Lindsey/Vess/Estre/Norman     Park Place Porsche            +56 laps
45.  GTD   Case/Marcelli/Balzan/Westphal   Corsa Ferrari                   +57 laps*
46.  PC    Bielefield/Ducote/Plowman/Drissi  BAR1 FLM                      +63 laps
47.  GTD   Block/Carter/Davison                  TRG Aston Martin            +76 laps

* Not running at finish

     P     Graf/Luhr/Mardenborough              Pickett ORECA-Nissan             204 laps
     P     Pace/DeFoor/Hinton                     Highway Riley-Dinan              200 laps
     P     Meyrick/Legge/Chaves                  DeltaWing                        185 laps
     GTD   Bamber/Gimple/Melgrati             Muhlner Porsche                  154 laps*
     PC    Cumming/Tagliani/Mitchell           RSR FLM                          125 laps
     GTD   Engelhart/Ineichen/Konrad          Dempsey Porsche                  113 laps
     PC    Kearby/Hamilton/Kasemets         BAR1 FLM                         112 laps
     P     Miller/Nunez/Vautier                     SpeedSource Mazda                104 laps
     PC    Guasch/Montecalvo/Jeannette     PR1/Mathiasen FLM                 89 laps
     PC    Shears/Matos/Ostella                 Performance Tech FLM              88 laps
     GTLM  Bruni/Malucelli/Fisichella          Risi Ferrari                      62 laps
     GTD   Cisneros/Nielsen/Giermaziak     NGT Porsche                       61 laps
     GTD   Lindsey/Vess/Estre/Norman       Park Place Porsche                34 laps
     P     Mayer/Kaffer/Saavedra/Popow       Starworks Riley-Honda             26 laps
     GTD   Bleekemolen/Bleekemolen/Keating    Riley SRT Viper                   13 laps
     GTD   Bamber/Verdonck                      Muhlner Porsche                    0 laps

* Running at finish

Photos courtesy of IMSA