Porsche’s new 911 RSR continues to prove best in class, as the #912 team of Patrick Long, Michael Christensen and Jörg Bergmeister claimed victory at the 62nd annual Mobil One 12 Hours of Sebring yesterday. The trio outpaced factory competition from SRT, BMW, Corvette and Ferrari, keeping clean and avoiding the bad luck that caused a record 11 full-course cautions at the historic WWII-era Florida airfield.
The victory gives the new Porsche works program wins in both of North America’s premier two sports car racing events; the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January and today’s 12 Hours of Sebring. The No. 912 held off a field of factory efforts from the class pole position. However, the race came down to a final 20-minute sprint after a late race caution flag packed the field for a last push to the checkered flag in the second event of the Tudor United SportsCar Championship season. Bergmeister, behind the wheel for the final stint, out-distanced the field to give new Porsche’s 911 RSR victories at the three legendary racetracks of Sebring International Raceway, Daytona International Speedway and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The victory is Bergmeister’s fourth at Sebring and Long’s second. It was a first for Christensen who also scored his first career pole position as a Porsche factory driver this weekend.
Long said, “Last night, we were here until well after the dinner hour and our mechanics asked why? I said because we are here to win. This morning we showed up this morning said the same thing. We had a plan and we stuck to it. That plan was to convert Michael’s awesome qualifying into a lead for the opening stint. We knew we didn’t have anything for them in the daylight but once the sun went down the race was going to start. We were able to execute.”
Next up is Long Beach, a perpetual fan and driver favorite, on April 11-12, 2014.
Photos © 2014 Porsche AG; audio content courtesy of John Dagys, https://sportscar365.com