12 heures de Sebring Ligier JS P320 Riley Imsa Weathertech
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The Ligier JS P320 wins the 12 Hours of Sebring for the third time!

The second round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship was held on the Sebring International Raceway on 15 - 18 March. After the Jr III Racing JS P320 dominated three of the four free practice sessions, the Ligier JS P320 clinched pole position thanks to Andretti Autosport and then won the race with #74 entered by Riley. Ligier teams led for 277 out of the 309 laps in the race! Riley gave the French constructor its third consecutive victory in the 12 Hours of Sebring since the LMP3s became eligible for the championship in 2021.

• The #30 Jr III Racing Ligier JS P320 (Ari Balogh, Garett Grist and Dakota Dickerson) topped the time sheets in the first three free practice sessions with times of 1:56.349s, 1:56.382s and 1:56.595s.

• Pole position went to the #36 Ligier JS P320 run by Andretti Autosport (Jarett Andretti, Gaby Chaves and Glenn Van Berlo) with Van Berlo setting the fastest lap in the category in a time of 1:55.215s.

• Several Ligier JS P320s swapped the lead in the LMP3 category: #74 entered by Riley (Gar Robinson, Felipe Fraga and Josh Burdon), #36 run by Andretti Autosport and JR III Racing's #30.

• Andretti Autosport's #36 had a superb first part of the race, but just when it was romping away from its rivals it suffered its first incident and fell back into the top 5. After covering just under nine hours the JS P320 stopped at its pit. The reason was a damaged radiator following various race incidents and the team was obliged to retire the car.

Battle between the Jr III Racing and Riley Ligier JS P320s

• JR III Racing's #30 took up the running and led the dance in the ninth and tenth hours concretising the performances it had shown in the free practice sessions.

• With just over an hour of the race remaining battle raged between the #30 and #74 Ligier JS P320s. #74, shod with new tyres, overtook #30. Now in the lead, Fraga in the Riley-entered JS P320 managed to avoid a tyre lost by an LMP2 by a whisker! But Grist in #30 wasn't quite so lucky. The left-hand front corner of his JS P320 was damaged in the incident and the Jr III Racing Ligier was forced to retire. Despite the incident, the team clocked the fastest lap of 1:57.073s with Garret Grist.

• The #74 Riley-entered Ligier JS P320 took the chequered flag in the 12 Hours of Sebring with a lap in hand over its rivals in the LMP3 category. “This is one of the most taxing races in the world and anything can happen here,” Robinson said. “We definitely had to make sure we were in position if someone else had a failure or a problem or a mistake, that we were able to capitalize on it. Fortunately for us, that happened.” Felipe Fraga added: “I was like going crazy on the restart to try and win; you have like one chance. I tried to pass Garett and it worked out with the new tires. Then we got so lucky as well. There was a wheel bouncing in Turn 1 (off the No. 51). The wheel was coming straight to me. It was unbelievable, and the wheel just bounced in front of me and hit him. I'm so sorry for Garett but very happy for us.”

• It is the Ligier JS P320's third consecutive victory in the 12 Hours of Sebring (CORE Autosport in 2021 and Sean Creech Motorsport in 2022).

• Ligier teams led for 277 out of the 309 laps in the race on the Sebring International Raceway.

The Ligier JS P320s in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship will be back in action between 22- 25 June in the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen.

 

To see the complete results, CLICK HERE.

To find out more about the Ligier JS P320, CLICK HERE.