CORE autosport put up a strong fight against one of the most grueling tracks in America at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida, the second round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
With a driver line up of experienced Sebring winners Jon Bennett, Colin Braun and Nic Jonsson, the team set out to take on the iconic Sebring International Raceway for the first time in the GT Daytona class with the No. 54 Composite Resources/Flex-Box Porsche 911 GT3 R. The GTD category has the largest car count within the WeatherTech series, boasting 21 entries at Sebring.
As the hours passed by, the team cycled through its driver lineup and stuck with its race plan. However, the ruthless track wasn’t going to let the team off that easy. With just over four hours to go, an engine temperature issue sent the team behind the wall for repairs.
The crew made quick work of the repairs and had the car back on track within 20 minutes, only losing one spot and rejoining the race in 16th with three hours to go.
The racing Gods had more bad luck in store for the team; with little more than an hour left in the race, Braun lost oil pressure and had to pull off the track. This ended the team’s quest for its fourth Sebring class victory.
CORE’s next opportunity to climb the GTD podium will be in three weeks’ time at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Jon Bennett
Driver: No. 54 Porsche 911 GT3 R
“It was an interesting and long day in the office here at Sebring. It started off with a lot of optimism. As the week went along, all of us—as a team—got faster. I think we were all looking forward to our first podium and our first finish with our new Porsche. We ran into a few problems today, and with a race that didn’t really have many cautions, it was hard for us to stay in the race. Nic and Colin were very fast. Colin posted the fastest lap in GTD several times this week. I think that shows promise.
“While the car is new to me, I continue to get faster as well. We’ll gather our notes and head to Long Beach. Both our team and Porsche have been very successful there so we’re looking forward to a good run.”
Colin Braun
Driver: No. 54 Porsche 911 GT3 R
“Today wasn’t the result we all wanted or deserved. We had an unfortunate engine issue at the end of the race. The guys worked hard all week, but there were a lot of things outside of our control that we fought all weekend. Everyone at CORE kept digging and working hard throughout the event. Nic and Jon did a great job in the car today as well, but some weekends just aren’t your weekend. We had great pace and felt like we were in the mix. I felt like we had some decent race pace, but just never had track position and never had the yellows fall the way we needed them to. We got a lot of the race under our belt, so we have a lot of great notes and we can keep building as a team.”
Nic Jönsson
Driver: No. 54 Porsche 911 GT3 R
“A big thanks to Jon and CORE autosport for inviting me back this weekend. It’s a first class operation around here. Unfortunately, this weekend hasn’t been what we were hoping for. We had the pace, but just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. We fought really hard to get caught up, but the yellows just fell in the wrong place for us and we weren’t able to get caught up. Six hours in or so, we started to lose power while I was in the car. After I handed the car over to Colin, it just got worse and we weren’t able to finish the race.
“To work with a group like this is always inspiring. There’s certainly potential to win here. They have shown before with their PC operation that they are a team to beat, and once they fully settle in to their new ride, they’ll be back at the top again.”
