After nearly two months away, Whelen Engineering Cadillac drivers Pipo Derani (Brazil), Felipe Nasr (Brazil) and Mike Conway (Great Britain) are set to return to the track for the 69th annual IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Advance Auto Parts March 17-20 at Sebring International Raceway.
Derani, Nasr and Conway are coming off a sixth-place finish in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, after putting the No. 31 Whelen Engineering/Action Express Cadillac DPi-V.R on the pole. Speaking of pole positions heading into Sebring, the Action Express team has enjoyed some recent success at that track. In fact, last July, the team not only put the No. 31 Cadillac DPi-V.R on the pole at Sebring, but went on to win that race. The team also won the Twelve Hours of Sebring in 2019. It appears that the team could be poised for a return trip to victory lane this weekend.
“It hasn’t been too long since we were there,” Derani said regarding Sebring. “We are looking forward to going back. It’s such an important race on our calendar and a very prestigious race worldwide. I’ll definitely be looking for my fourth win. Hopefully, I’ll be able to achieve that this weekend. I’m sure we’ll have a car that will fight for that win. It’s going to be a pleasure to share the car with Mike [Conway], who was with us at Daytona, and Felipe [Nasr]. Felipe and I are in our third year together. At Daytona, we had a tough race. But we were competitive from the beginning to the end. So, we’re definitely looking forward to Sebring. Hopefully, we can return to the top step of the podium.”
“Sebring is a special place,” Nasr said. “The track is very unique. It has been recognized as one of the best races to attend. We won there in 2019 and we also won the sprint race there last year, so our objective is no different. We will show up and display the pace of our car. We tested with the other teams a couple of weeks ago and it was good to measure our pace. The track is very technical with high speed, low, and medium speed turns. The track surface changes with the time of day and that is one of the things that makes it so special.”
This weekend, Derani looks to capture his fourth-career Twelve Hours of Sebring win. He won the race in 2016, 2018, 2019. Nasr won the race in 2019 with Derani and teammate Eric Curran in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering/Action Express Cadillac DPi.V-R.
The Sebring race weekend gets underway with Practice #1 at 9:05 a.m. (ET) Thursday, March 18, followed by Practice #2 at 2:10 p.m., and Practice #3 at 7:30 p.m. DPi qualifying begins at 12:30 p.m. Friday, March 19. The green flag drops on the 69th Annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring at 10:10 a.m. Saturday, March 20.
Source. Kyle Chura Associates
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