The WTRAndretti Driver Makes the Decisive Pass with Five Minutes Remaining
By Mark Robinson
SEBRING, Fla. – Louis Deletraz passed Sebastien Bourdais in the closing minutes of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Cadillac on Saturday to take a thrilling victory in the iconic endurance race at Sebring International Raceway.
Deletraz, driving the final stint in the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 that he shared with Jordan Taylor and Colton Herta, was running second to Bourdais in the No. 01 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R on the final restart from a full-course caution with just over 20 minutes remaining. Deletraz hounded Bourdais from that point on, making the decisive move with five minutes left.
The two cars bumped several times negotiating through lapped traffic, with Deletraz finally edging ahead. He pulled away from there to win by 0.891 seconds in the 72nd running of the Sebring race and the second race of the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.
The victory is the third of Deletraz’s WeatherTech Championship career and first at Sebring. For Taylor, it is career win No. 35 and his third at Sebring. Herta, the full-time IndyCar driver who joins the No. 40 for the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup events, collected his third career win and first at Sebring. Wayne Taylor Racing notched its third triumph at Sebring and first since 2017.
For manufacturer Acura, it is the first Sebring victory but second for Honda Racing Corp. U.S., following a Honda-badged win in 2016. It also snapped a streak of three straight Sebring wins by Cadillac.
Other class winners on Saturday at Sebring were: Dwight Merriman, Ryan Dalziel and Connor Zilisch in the No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA LMP2 07 in Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2); Jack Hawksworth, Ben Barnicoat and Kyle Kirkwood in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 in Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO), and Russell Ward, Philip Ellis and Indy Dontje in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 in Grand Touring Daytona GTD). Both the No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA and No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes also won their class at the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona in January.
The next WeatherTech Championship race is the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 20, where the GTP and GTD classes will compete in a 100-minute race that airs live at 4:30 p.m. ET on USA Network and Peacock.