Ford's last overall victory at the 12 Hours of Sebring was in 1969, when a MkI GT40 beat out Andretti's Ferrari 312P at the tail end of Enzo and Hank II's longstanding feud. Now, 45 years on, Chip Ganassi Racing's Ford Daytona Prototype has brought the glory back to Dearborn with a win at a chaotic (and dramatic) 12 Hours of Sebring.
At the deft hands of Marino Franchitti, Scott Pruett, and Memo Rojas, the EcoBoost-powered racer eked out its place atop the podium by less than 5 seconds. Victory was snatched from Ryan Dalziel in the Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD ARX-03b after a late restart bunched the field.
Coming off safety with 20 minutes remaining, the eight top Prototypes were on the same lap. Same goes for the two leading Challenge cars as well as the five top GT-Le Mans. But it was the recently-pitted Ganassi with Franchitti at the helm that picked through traffic over the final 21 minutes.
The win makes Chip Ganassi the lone owner with titles from the Daytona 500, Indianapolis 500, Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, and the 12 Hours of Sebring.
The GT classes? It was all Stuttgart taking the checkers. Andy Lally, John Potter, and Marco Seefried won GT Daytona in the No. 911 car. Stellar pits helped Jörg Bergmeister, Patrick Long, and Michael Christensen drive CORE Autosport's 911 RSR to victory in GTLM class.
In the Prototype Challenge Class, former NASCAR Nationwide hand Colin Braun helped the CORE ORECA-Chevrolet FLM09 best pole-sitter Bruno Junqueira.
Fuel pump issues and a pair of spins from Oliver Gavin dropped the lead Corvette C7.R to sixth, while Ben Keating's No. 33 SRT Viper GT-D retired in the first hour after a spectacular fire.
Despite holding its first-ever race lead for several laps, the DeltaWing was hindered by a botched pit stop and mechanical issues, eventually retiring after a collision during lap 104.
This year's 11 yellow flags matched the most to ever be thrown at the Sebring 12 Hours.
READ THIS: Vettel falters, Rosberg triumphs at F1 Australian Grand Prix
