Action Express Cadillac Wins Sebring After Three Leaders Wreck Late

With 15 minutes to go in today's 12 Hours of Sebring, a brilliant day of close racing in the new GTP class seemed to be coming down to a three-car battle between two of Porsche's factory-run Penske 963s and the No. 10 Acura ARX-06 of Wayne Taylor Racing. Seconds later, all three would find themselves in the same fence.

The story started earlier, with a late full-course yellow setting up a half-hour sprint between five remaining healthy GTP cars for the win. Fresh tires and a quick pit stop got the No. 6 Porsche being driven by Mathieu Jaminet into the lead, but closing No. 10 Acura closing driver Filipe Albuquerque was able to stay with the leading Porsche throughout the brief green flag run. He had a very narrow window to try a move to the outside into turn 1 as the pair caught GTD traffic, but he quickly abandoned the move and regrouped just in time to see a narrow window to swing around the outside one corner later. Then, disaster.

Albuquerque was nudged off the track in the melee, leaving him flying out of control into the exit of the next corner. He somehow hits the No. 6 Porsche square, immediately ending the day for both leaders. Albuquerque is not finished, though; he stops sideways on track for just long enough that the No. 7 Porsche, the car that would have easily won the race overall had the crash happened slightly further off track, piled into the same Acura and was also forced to retire.

That left two cars, the pole-sitting No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R and the No. 25 Rahal Letterman Lanigan BMW M Hybrid V8 that had just returned to the lead lap with a wave-around on the earlier caution, in contention. The race re-started with just four minutes left, and the No. 31 sailed away from the No. 25 to claim victory for Cadillac, Action Express Racing, and drivers, Jack Aitken, Alexander Sims, and Pipo Derani.