The fifth hour of the Sebring 12 Hours saw a brief red flag period after a heavy crash for two Prototype Challenge cars.
The crash, which happened at Turn 17, involved David Ostella in the No.38 car and Frankie Montecalvo in the No.52, after Ostella ran wide and collected the tyres on the exit, before his ORECA FLM09 spun round and was rammed by the helpless Montecalvo, scattering debris across the track and Montecalvo into the pit lane entry.
Miraculously, and to the credit of ORECA, both Ostella and Montecalvo emerged OK. The crash, however, did cause a Full Course Caution, but that eventually turned into a Red Flag in order to allow the corner workers to clear the track of debris before the race resumed under FCY.
Eventually the race resumed with seven hours and fifteen minutes left, but Muscle Milk/Pickett Racing, who had ran in the top three for most the race, suffered problems in pit lane which resulted in the team pushing its ORECA-03 Nissan behind the wall.
But, as soon as the race went green again, the No.46 Audi of Charlie Putman and the No.49 Ferrari 458 Italia of Gialuca Roda made contact, sending both into the Turn 17 outside wall, collecting the No.91 GB Autosport Porsche 911 GT America in the process.
That, however, only caused a local caution, as did the No.25 PC car of Eric Lux, which spun and got clipped by the No.94 GTD BMW of Paul Dalla Lana causing front end damage.
The fifth hour of the race came to a close under yet another full course caution, this time caused by the No.90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP of Mike Rockenfeller, after it crawled to a halt on the back straight. At the end of the hour, the No.5 Action Express Corvette DP led with Sebastien Bourdais at the wheel, with the ESM HPD in second.
P
#5 – Action Express Racing – Bourdais/Barbosa/Fittipaldi
#1 – ESM Racing – Dalziel/Sharp/Brabham
#02 – Chip Ganassi Racing – Dixon/Kanaan/Karam
PC
#54 – CORE Autosport – Braun/Bennett/Gue
#09 – RSR Racing – Ende/Junqueira /Heinemeier Hansson
#08- RSR Racing – Cumming/Tagliani/Mitchell
GTLM
#912 – Porsche North America – Long/Christensen/ Bergmeister
#55 – BMW Team RLL – Auberlen/Priaulx/Hand
#17 – Team Falken Tire – Henzler/Sellers/Holzer
GTD
#22 – Alex Job Racing – MacNeil/Keen/ Frommenwiler
#23 – Alex Job Racing – James /Farnbacher /Riberas
#555 – AIM Autosport –Sweedler/Bell /Mediani/Segal
