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Sebring 12 Hours: Ganassi's Pruett, Rojas and Franchitti take win

Chip Ganassi Racing claimed victory in the Sebring 12 Hours at the first time of asking in a dramatic 62nd running of North America's oldest enduro

The Ganassi Riley-Ford EcoBoost DP shared by Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas and Marino Franchitti won the second round of the new United SportsCar Championship by just under five seconds as nine cars in the Prototype class finished on the lead lap.

The winning Ganassi car looked out of it after Rojas and then Franchitti spun over the course of the final two hours, but an early stop just before the safety car came out for one final time gave Franchitti track position for what turned out to be a 20-minute run to the flag.

Franchitti exploited the three cars lined up between him and chasing fellow Scotsman Ryan Dalziel to open up a six-second lead over the first two green-flag laps.

Dalziel, who shared his Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD ARX-03b LMP2 with Scott Sharp and David Brabham, came back at the Ganassi Riley over the final five minutes before settling for second after hitting traffic two laps from home.

Franchitti said: "When I was backwards at the hairpin, I didn't think it was going to happen. To be honest the car was a real handful."

The best of the Action Express Racing Coyote-Chevrolet Corvette DPs driven by Joao Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi and Sebastien Bourdais appeared on course to repeat its victory in the USC-opening Daytona 24 Hours late in the race.

Bourdais was the fastest man on the track early in the final hour and closing down race leader Dalziel with ease before the yellow flags came out.

The Action Express car dropped to fourth in the pits, then quickly took third from Olivier Pla in the OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan LMP2 after the restart.

But Bourdais was unable to challenge Dalziel and ended up four seconds adrift of the ESM car at the chequered flag.

CORE PORSCHE WINS GTLM

An early stop for the factory CORE Autosport Porsche 911 RSR gave Jorg Bergmeister track position for the run to the flag in the battle for GT Le Mans class honours.

The German, who shared the car with USC regulars Patrick Long and Michael Christensen, had a clear advantage over the chasing SRT Viper GTS-R driven by Jonathan Bomarito when the race went green and had no problems completing a Daytona-Sebring double for CORE and Porsche.

The best of the factory Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs looked on course for class honours in the hands of Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner and Robin Liddell until the closing stages.

Two spins for Gavin and a fuel pump problem, which also delayed the sister Corvette earlier in the race, left the car sixth at the finish.

Prototype Challenge honours went to the CORE ORECA-Chevrolet FLM09 driven by Colin Braun, James Gue and Jon Bennett. Braun came out on top over the RSR Racing entry driven by Bruno Junqueira over the final 20 minutes.

An early final pitstop was also crucial in victory for Magnus Porsche drivers Andy Lally, John Potter and Marco Seefried in the GT Daytona class.

Results - 291 laps:

Pos  Cl    Drivers                            Team/Car                         Time/Gap
 1.  P     Pruett/Rojas/Franchitti            Ganassi Riley-Ford          12h00m09.985s
 2.  P     Sharp/Dalziel/Brabham              Extreme Speed HPD                 +4.682s
 3.  P     Barbosa/Fittipaldi/Bourdais        Action Express Corvette DP        +8.965s
 4.  P     Pla/Brundle/Yacaman                OAK Morgan-Nissan                +11.994s
 5.  P     Brown/van Overbeek/Pagenaud        Extreme Speed HPD                +17.027s
 6.  P     Dixon/Kanaan/Karam                 Ganassi Riley-Ford               +17.837s
 7.  P     Angelelli/Taylor/Taylor            Taylor Corvette DP               +34.229s
 8.  P     Frisselle/Frisselle/Fogarty        Action Express Corvette DP       +39.559s
 9.  P     Pew/Negri/Wilson                   Shank Riley-Ford                 +40.568s
10.  PC    Bennett/Braun/Gue                  CORE FLM                          +3 laps
11.  PC    Ende/Junqueira/Heinemeier Hansson  RSR FLM                           +3 laps
12.  GTLM  Long/Christensen/Bergmeister       CORE Porsche                      +5 laps
13.  GTLM  Bell/Bomarito/Wittmer              SRT Viper                         +5 laps
14.  GTLM  Auberlen/Priaulx/Hand              RLL BMW                           +5 laps
15.  GTLM  Krohn/Jonsson/Bertolini            Krohn Ferrari                     +5 laps
16.  GTLM  Henzler/Sellers/Holzer             Falken Porsche                    +6 laps
17.  GTLM  Gavin/Milner/Liddell               Corvette                          +6 laps
18.  GTLM  Farnbacher/Goossens/Hunter-Reay    SRT Viper                         +7 laps
19.  GTLM  Magnussen/Garcia/Briscoe           Corvette                          +8 laps
20.  GTLM  Tandy/Lietz/Pilet                  CORE Porsche                      +9 laps
21.  PC    van der Zande/Bird/Fuentes/Cheng   Starworks FLM                    +10 laps
22.  PC    Miller/Kraut/Simpson               JDC/Miller FLM                   +11 laps
23.  GTD   Potter/Lally/Seefried              Magnus Porsche                   +13 laps
24.  GTD   Sweedler/Bell/Mediani/Segal        AIM Ferrari                      +13 laps
25.  GTD   James/Farnbacher/Riberas           Alex Job Porsche                 +13 laps
26.  GTD   MacNeil/Keen/Frommenwiler          Alex Job Porsche                 +13 laps
27.  GTD   Neiman/von Moltke/Albuquerque      Flying Lizard Audi               +13 laps
28.  GTD   Mies/Putman/Espenlaub              Fall-Line Audi                   +13 laps
29.  P     Westbrook/Valiante/Rockenfeller    Spirit Corvette DP               +13 laps
30.  P     Tremblay/Long/Devlin               SpeedSource Mazda                +13 laps
31.  GTLM  Muller/Edwards/Werner              RLL BMW                          +14 laps
32.  GTD   Cameron/Dalla Lana/Palttala/Lewis  Turner BMW                       +14 laps
33.  GTD   Canache/Pumpelly/Latif/Winkelhock  Flying Lizard Audi               +15 laps
34.  GTD   Plumb/Snow/Heylen/Plumb            Rum Bum Porsche                  +18 laps
35.  GTD   Faulkner/Faieta/Avenatti           GB Porsche                       +19 laps
36.  GTD   Sofronas/Welch/Basseng             GMG Audi                         +20 laps
37.  PC    Kimber-Smith/Marsal/Lux/Rayhall    8Star FLM                        +20 laps
38.  GTD   Miller/Haase/Bell                  Miller Audi                      +21 laps
39.  GTD   Griffin/Cioci/Rugolo/Gerber        Spirit of Race Ferrari           +21 laps
40.  GTD   Roda/Ruberti/Venturi               Spirit of Race Ferrari           +28 laps
41.  P     Curran/Said/Cosmo                  Marsh Corvette DP                +42 laps*
42.  GTD   Dempsey/Davis/Foster/Siedler       Dempsey Porsche                  +47 laps
43.  GTD   Davis/Riddle/Wilson                TRG Aston Martin                 +49 laps
44.  GTD   Lindsey/Vess/Estre/Norman          Park Place Porsche               +56 laps
45.  GTD   Case/Marcelli/Balzan/Westphal      Corsa Ferrari                    +57 laps*
46.  PC    Bielefield/Ducote/Plowman/Drissi   BAR1 FLM                         +63 laps
47.  GTD   Block/Carter/Davison               TRG Aston Martin                 +76 laps

* Not running at finish

     P     Graf/Luhr/Mardenborough            Pickett ORECA-Nissan             204 laps
     P     Pace/DeFoor/Hinton                 Highway Riley-Dinan              200 laps
     P     Meyrick/Legge/Chaves               DeltaWing                        185 laps
     GTD   Bamber/Gimple/Melgrati             Muhlner Porsche                  154 laps*
     PC    Cumming/Tagliani/Mitchell          RSR FLM                          125 laps
     GTD   Engelhart/Ineichen/Konrad          Dempsey Porsche                  113 laps
     PC    Kearby/Hamilton/Kasemets           BAR1 FLM                         112 laps
     P     Miller/Nunez/Vautier               SpeedSource Mazda                104 laps
     PC    Guasch/Montecalvo/Jeannette        PR1/Mathiasen FLM                 89 laps
     PC    Shears/Matos/Ostella               Performance Tech FLM              88 laps
     GTLM  Bruni/Malucelli/Fisichella         Risi Ferrari                      62 laps
     GTD   Cisneros/Nielsen/Giermaziak        NGT Porsche                       61 laps
     GTD   Lindsey/Vess/Estre/Norman          Park Place Porsche                34 laps
     P     Mayer/Kaffer/Saavedra/Popow        Starworks Riley-Honda             26 laps
     GTD   Bleekemolen/Bleekemolen/Keating    Riley SRT Viper                   13 laps
     GTD   Bamber/Verdonck                    Muhlner Porsche                    0 laps

* Running again at finish

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