The IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge series held its second race of the season at Sebring on Friday, a two-hour contest in very warm Florida weather. The Steve Dinan-led CarBahn with Peregrine Racing team took the win in the GS class and was joined on the podium by Turner Motorsport. Auto Technic Racing also finished in the top four.
Earlier in the week, it didn’t look like the BMW M4 GT4 entries would be that competitive at Sebring. A BMW only cracked the top five lap times once in the two practice sessions (in fifth), but the CarBahn team had their car dialed in for qualifying, with Sean McAlister driving the #39 M4 GT4 EVO to second on the grid, just 0.073 seconds behind the pole-sitting Aston Martin. Two other BMWs were in the top ten, with Austin Krainz eighth in the #27 Auto Technic Racing car and Dillon Machavern tenth in the #95 Turner Motorsport car.
CarBahn with Peregrine Racing started second and finished first at Sebring.
The race didn’t start off that well for the #39 of McAlister and Jeff Westphal. McAlister started the car and dropped back to third in the opening laps. Just over a half-hour in, he made contact with the Ford Mustang, battling him for third position, and spun, dropping him back several spots. Luckily, he could carry on and worked his way back into fourth before handing off to Westphal in the race’s only pit stop.
A key moment in the race happened in the pits, when the CarBahn with Peregrine Racing team got Westphal out in front of the #28 Porsche, running in second and in front of the BMW before pitting. Westphal had a battle with Jan Heylen in the Porsche, but with thirty minutes in the race, he was in the lead in the #39 car, with Francis Selldorff in fifth in the #95 and Stevan McAleer in sixth in the #27.
Turner Motorsport finished in third with drivers Francis Selldorff and Dillon Machavern.
Westphal held the lead comfortably until the end, aided somewhat by the second-place #28 Porsche being hounded by the #57 Mercedes. Another key moment happened with six minutes to go when the #57 Mercedes suffered a cut tire and had to pit, which moved Selldorff up into third and McAleer into fourth. Second place went to the #28 Porsche of Heylen and Luca Mars. “The pit stop (where the #39 came out ahead of the #28 Porsche) was super critical,” said Westphal after the race. “The team is so solid. Everyone hit all their marks. We knew Jan (Heylen) would be hard to pass – he’s always competitive, and the Porsches are super-fast at the end of the straightaway. We knew we had to get him in pit lane, and we executed.”
Auto Technic Racing drivers Stevan McAleer and Austin Krainz finished fourth.
CarBahn had a second M4 GT4 EVO entry for Aaron Povoledo and Bill Cain, who finished in the top ten in ninth. The #96 Turner Motorsport entry of Robby Foley and Vin Barletta finished in thirteenth out of 25 total cars in the class.
Amazingly, for a Michelin Pilot Challenge race, the Sebring race went the entire two hours without a caution flag being flown. Next on the Michelin Pilot Challenge schedule is a two-hour race at Laguna Seca in California in May.
—David Haueter
[Photos courtesy LAT Images]
