RS1 sweeps GTWC America weekend at Sebring

RS1 called a duo for their No. 85 Porsche 911 GT3R in the late hour for the FANATEC GT World Challenge America weekend at Sebring, but Spencer Pumpelly and Trent Hindman were impressive from the first moment and swoop the two races by outpacing the competition, no matter the position they were.
 
Despite the car count for Sebring being reducing to 12 cars, this weekend marked the debut of the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R in GTWC America with DXDT Racing receiving the first unit of a pair of cars, with the second one promised to show up later in the season. With no examples of the Z06 GT3.R showing up in other SRO series like the Ford Mustang GT3 and the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo did, GTWC America would be the starting point for the model to show performance, as close from home as it can.
 
The No. 91 Regulator Mercedes nearly lost the lead early in the first race as the No. 85 RS1 Porsche found grip in the outside of the first corner, but since Spencer Pumpelly couldn’t complete the move, Philip Ellis started opening the gap.
 
Ellis did his part of the deal by stretching the gap over the first half of racing to leave Jeff Burton in a good position, but Burton couldn’t do much to hold the No. 85 and Trent Hindman once he started racking up the lap times, going at least 2 seconds faster per lap than Burton.
 
Once Hindman got past Burton, the No. 85 RS1 Porsche got away with first place, and even with the No. 120 Wright Porsche getting second place overall and in the Pro Cup, Eliott Skeer couldn’t do much to counter Hindman.
 
The No. 38 ST Racing BMW had the domination of the second half of the race, in special due to a position swap with the No. 28 ST Racing BMW which still finished in third in the Pro Cup. Despite having no competition around, the No. 38 had a short pit stop penalty, but escaped the demotion from the Pro-Am Cup top spot as the No. 29 Turner BMW was too far behind when it passed the No. 91 Regulator Mercedes for second in class.
 
GTWC America - Sebring Race 1 results
 

The No. 38 ST Racing BMW that showed promise in Race 1 started the Race 2 keeping things in control from the top, but Neil Verhagen would have wanted Elliott Skeer chasing him rather than falling prey of the field, as the No. 120 Wright Porsche was pressed by the No. 29 Turner BMW.
 
With 15 minutes of racing, Neil Verhagen had a problem coming as the No. 29 finally got past the No. 120, meaning he would need to push extra hard to avoid a charging Robby Foley, but then the battle for the Pro-Am Cup became a minor issue, as a divergence with the starting line speed handed a drive through penalty to the No. 38, meaning that the overall top two was back to the initial scenario when a Pro-Am Cup car was leading a Pro Cup car, both trying to protect their leads from the incoming opponents, the No. 04 Crowdstrike Mercedes and the No. 85 RS1 Porsche.
 
The No. 85 opted stop early in the pit window, and the plan worked to overcome the Pro-Am Cup cars, leave them in their own fight and attack the leading No. 120. Spencer Pumpelly kept trailing Adam Adelson until 25 minutes to go, when he used the first corners to be brave and conquer the first position.
 
While the No. 85 RS1 Porsche had the Pro Cup win secure, the Pro-Am Cup win was up for grabs as the No. 29 Turner BMW was under threat from the No. 04 Crowdstrike Mercedes and the No. 08 DXDT Corvette, at least until seven minutes to go, when the No. 08 spun on the first sector due to oversteer, which opened the way for the penalized No. 38 ST Racing BMW to join the fight ahead.
 
Samantha Tan’s pressure on George Kurtz relieved Robby Foley for a while, but in the final lap the trio was on each other’s wings, but in the end the positions weren’t changed as they were too wary of each other’s movements, meaning that no gap was left to pass.
 
GTWC America - Sebring Race 2 results
 
Adelson and Skeer (No. 120) lead the standings with 86 points against the 66 from Choksey and Auberlen (No. 28) and 54 from Mars and Veach (No. 93), with Hindman and Pumpelly (No. 85) appearing at the bottom of the Pro Cup table with the 50 points from Sebring.
 
The Pro-Am Cup table is led by Braun and Kurtz (No. 04) with 78 points while Tan and Verhagen (No. 38) have 76 and Foley and Rothberg (No. 29) have 68 points.
 
The series gets back to action at the Circuit of the Americas on 18 and 19 May.
 
PHOTOS: SRO/Fabian Lagunas