Andy's 18th running of the Sebring 12 Hours

Andy Wallace returned to the American Le Mans Series' Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring with Zionsville, Indiana based team Genoa Racing. He shared the car with teammates J.R. Hildebrand and Tom Sutherland. The race and the week leading up to it had their share of hard knocks but they ended the season opener with a second-place finish in the LMPC class. This adds to Andy's record for the nost podiums now standing at 11.

The Genoa Racing team sat at the top of the boards for more than session throughout the week despite having missed two days of practice following an incident early on that led to extensive damage. They went on to qualify 3rd in class, LMPC, only to be pushed to the back of the grid for a weight infringement.

Andy was the starting driver and had the task of picking his way through the GTC and GT2 cars to finally get back to fighting with the other LMPC’s in his three hour stint.  Andy said “the speed differential on the straight is so small that we all arrive at the corners together and it is a matter of picking them off one by one.” He did just that and ended up 4th in class and 11th overall within the first half hour. Andy had one unscheduled pit stop convinced of a puncture but it ended up to be rubber buildup and pickup. If you followed any of Andy’s season last year you would know that pickup is a dirty word! 

Tom Sutherland then took over that car and didn’t put a wheel wrong while driving to get the car into the lead position when he hopped out. This was unfortunately short lived as the team was penalised for a pit stop infraction dropping them back down to 2nd for the time being.

Next to take over was J.R. Hildebrand who started out very quick but ended up backwards in a tire wall in Turn 15 a few laps into his first stint. The car suffered extensive damage to its rear and left side but Hildebrand managed to drive it back to the tent. The team got to work and had the number 36 car back on track in an hour.

Andy was back in the car nearing the last few hours of the race and they were back up to 3rd when unexplained electrical problems occurred. Wallace lost power and rolled to a stop on the back straight. Due to his position of the track he was towed back to the pits where the crew got him rolling again.