12h of Sebring – Qualifying: Bourdais Well Positioned
Green for Saint Patrick's Day! The front row of the 12 Hours of Sebring will consist of two green cars; a Ligier-Judd from Krohn Racing next to a Honda HPD from Tequila Patron ESM. Bourdais will start 3rd in a Daytona prototype.
3 days before the pre-season testing resumes and one week before the first IndyCar race of 2015, some single-seater drivers are lingering in Endurance at the 12 Hours of Sebring.
This is the case for Scott Dixon. The New Zealander’s Ford Daytona prototype will start from the 9th position. He is teaming up with Joey Hand (coming from DTM) and Scott Pruett, 54, who has experience in NASCAR and CART (IndyCar). He is last year’s winner.
The best-placed IndyCar driver at the start is Sébastien Bourdais; 3rd place on the grid for his Chevrolet Prototype: « It’s a big GT. It’s a car that’s heavy, now with quite a bit of aero, and it produces around 600 horsepower. It’s a car that drives relatively smoothly to generate mechanical grip. It’s a car I really enjoy driving. It allows me to experience something different. IndyCar is quite specific, and this allows for developing another touch of finesse at the wheel. »
The man from Le Mans reunites with the team with which he won the 2014 24 Hours of Daytona: João Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi, also a former Formula 1 and CART driver.
Simon Pagenaud, 25th at the start and 7th in GTLM class, is paired with Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin, 4-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the GT category on the Corvette: « It’s quite impressive to see how fast and efficient the GTs are over a lap. The weight is the big difference compared to a single-seater, but there is a traction control system that works very well, a big V8 full of power, and a lot of aerodynamic downforce on this car which is magnificent. »
Former IndyCar drivers are behind the wheel at Sebring:
– Justin Wilson cherche toujours un budget pour revenir en IndyCar. Il pilote une Ligier-Honda du Michael Shank Racing ;
– Ryan Briscoe, il était l’an dernier chez Ganassi, il est aujourd’hui pilote officiel Chevrolet en GT ;
– Katherine Legge, pilote sur la Delta Wing ;
– Bruno Junqueira, 3 fois vice champion de Champ Car ;
– Max Papis, passé par la NASCAR et la Formule 1.
© Simon Pagenaud – Les deux Corvette C7.R du Team Chevy
