TCR / 18 March 2024
D’Alberto and Harris brothers victorious in Civic Type R TCR
The Civic Type R TCR was back on the top step of the podium as two more major TCR championships continued, while the similarly JAS Motorsport-built NSX GT3 Evo 22 once again showed its underlying pace at the Sebring 12 Hours.
TCR Australia
Tony D'Alberto was the dominant force at Symmons Plains as the Honda Wall Racing driver topped practice, qualified on pole position and, following a safety-car period and a red flag, won a shortened opening race in Tasmania in his Civic Type R TCR.
He turned 10th on the partially-reversed Race-Two grid into eighth, but did not start the finale in protest of a decision by race officials to remove the opening race's points-paying status.
Fellow Wall Racing drivers Will and Brad Harris completed a clean sweep of the Challenge class in their Exclusive Switchboards-entered Civics.
Brad spun out of third place overall in the opener but did win Challenge in both of Sunday's races to extend his category points lead.
Will, meanwhile, took his first category victory on Saturday, but contact that eliminated him from Race Two also prevented him starting Race Three.
IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge
HART's Chad Gilsinger was one of the stars of the event at Sebring as he topped opening practice and set a storming pace in the race aboard the Civic Type R TCR that was qualified sixth by Steve Eich.
Gilsinger's stint in the second half of the two-hour race netted a fourth-place finish on the road, which became 14th when the car was penalised for failing a post-race ride-height test by just one millimetre.
That elevated the Montreal Motorsport Group's highest-placed car; that of Karl Wittmer and Dai Yoshihara, to eighth place.
Louis-Philippe Montour had the sister car in podium contention during the opening stint, but his hopes of a strong result were ruined when co-driver Bryan Ortiz was punted into the tyres with 50 minutes left; sustaining a puncture and broken ABS and dropping him to 12th.
IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship
The most historic event on the calendar, the Sebring 12 Hours, was the scene for an ultra-competitive showing by the JAS-built NSX GT3 Evo 22 of Gradient Racing trio Sheena Monk, Katherine Legge and Tatiana Calderon.
Starting 14th, the trio drove cleverly to move up the order as the race progressed; Calderon setting what was, at the time, the third-fastest lap of the race in the seventh hour as she began to put the hammer down.
By that stage the #66 machine was eighth and by three-quarters distance, with Legge at the wheel, it lay fifth and just a handful of seconds away from the podium spots. Sadly she was turfed into the final-corner wall after being hit by another car and retired.
The NSX was competing as part of the NSX GT3 Customer Racing Programme; a global collaborative project with JAS Motorsport responsible for assembly of all cars.
Honda Performance Development (HPD) and M-TEC handle sales and technical support in North America and Japan respectively, with JAS responsible for these areas across the rest of the world.
