Corvette Teams Lead Both Prototype, GTLM Classes After Two Rounds In Patrón Endurance Cup

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Two Chevrolet Corvette teams took the points lead in their respective classes after Saturday’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida, Round 2 of the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup.

 

Action Express Racing used its victory by the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP to capture the lead in the Prototype (P) class of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, while Corvette Racing’s No. 3 Corvette C7.R scored its second triumph of the season, which opened with the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January.

 

Two rounds now remain in the Patrón Endurance Cup, which encompasses 52 hours of racing for $300,000 in post-season awards. The competition continues with the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen at Watkins Glen International on Sunday, June 28, and closes with the 10-hour Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda at Road Atlanta on Saturday, Oct. 3.

 

Action Express led two of the three segments at Sebring – coming up one point shy of a perfect 15 – to take over the Prototype lead with 27 points. Wayne Taylor Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates are tied for second with 21 points each, with VisitFlorida.com Racing fourth with 20. On the drivers’ ledger, Christian Fittipaldi, Joao Barbosa and Sebastien Bourdais hold a two-point lead over Ganassi’s Scott Dixon (27-25).

 

The No. 3 Corvette Racing team also holds a six-point lead in GT Le Mans. Jan Magnussen, Ryan Briscoe and Antonio Garcia won the Sebring race to extend the gap over the team’s No. 4 Corvette C7.R driven by Tommy Milner, Oliver Gavin and Simon Pagenaud in the team and driver standings, 29-23. Team Falken Tire and the No. 911 Porsche North America entrants are tied for third with 19 points each.

 

The Daytona-winning No. 93 Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper SRT held on to a three-point lead in GT Daytona (GTD) over the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia, 27-24. Viper drivers Al Carter and Cameron Lawrence lead Ferrari pilots Bill Sweedler, Townsend Bell and Anthony Lazzaro by the same margin.

 

The closest battle is in Prototype Challenge (PC), where the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports team with drivers Mike Guasch, Tom Kimber-Smith and Andrew Palmer took a one-point lead over the No. 54 CORE autosport team of Jon Bennett, Colin Braun and James Gue, 30-29. After taking the lead in the closing half-hour en route to winning the Rolex 24, PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports ran the table at Sebring, scoring a perfect 15 points. A year ago, CORE autosport won the three opening races to win the title.

 

Points in the Patrón Endurance Cup are awarded at specific intervals throughout each race – every four hours in the Twelve Hours of Sebring – with the leader at the end of each segment scoring five points, four points for second, three points for third, and fourth place on back receiving two points. Points will be scored at midway and the finish at Watkins Glen, and at four hours, eight hours and 10 hours at Petit Le Mans.

 

The Patrón Endurance Cup round winners at each endurance event receive a limited edition bottle of Gran Patrón Platinum, numbered and signed by Francisco Alcaraz, the creator of the Gran Patrón Platinum recipe and Tequila Patrón’s Master Distiller and Blender.

 

Adam Sinclair
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