Former Formula 1 driver Sebastien Bourdais took the flag on Saturday evening to seal an exciting comeback win for the #5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi at the 12 Hours of Sebring.
Having spent much of the race outside the top five, the #5 car piloted by Bourdais, Loic Duval and Tristan Vautier came to life in the final hour with Bourdais at the wheel after an accident involving the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac threw the race wide open.
The #55 Multimatic Mazda RT24P driven by Harry Ticknell, Oliver Jarvis and Jonathan Bomarito finished second, 1.435 seconds adrift of the winners and just clear of the #48 Ally Cadillac, driven by Kamui Kobayashi, Jimmie Johnson and Simon Pagenaud.
The #60 Acura of Dane Cameron, Juan Pablo Montoya and Oliver Pla were fourth, with the #10 Acura piloted by Alexander Rossi, Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque in fifth.
“We had nothing to lose, so we threw a bunch of changes at the car,” race winner Vautier said, as reported by RACER. “It was a crazy day, but we got into our window and our car got better and better.”
The #01 car of Scott Dixon, Renger van der Zande and Kevin Magnussen had been dominating the race but came into difficulties in the pit lane, colliding with a GTLM car. The team lost two laps while still in the pits and could only rally to finish sixth.
“It was very frustrating,” Dixon added.
“It was a very late call from the pits, so I was scrambling to get everything undone. On my way into pit road there was another car there and I had nowhere to go. I feel bad for the team, because everybody at Chip Ganassi Racing did a fantastic job.”
Magnussen also came close to the win on his IMSA debut at the 24 Hours of Daytona in January, but saw his car suffer a puncture late on to scupper their chances. The former F1 man was unfortunate at Sebring too, but looks to be in a good position to challenge for race wins as the season goes on.
In GTLM, the #79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 of Cooper MacNeil, Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell won on just their second start in the class, beating out the #25 BMW, who finished second, and the third-placed #24 BMW.
Ben Keating, Mikkel Jensen and Scott Huffaker drove their #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca to a clear victory in LMP2, while the #54 CORE autosport Ligier of Colin Braun, Jon Bennett and George Kurtz won the LMP3 class.
Finally, the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 of Laurens Vanthoor, Zach Robichon and Lars Kern sealed a dominant win in GTD.
After Sebring, IMSA heads to the Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio on May 16.