In what has been a historically good race for the team, this year’s Twelve Hours of Sebring threw up numerous hurdles for the team at every turn. All looked well for the team in the opening hours of the race, Geroge Kurtz and Jon Bennett both had strong opening stints in the brutal Florida humidity. Both Kurtz and Bennett kept the team in the top five before handing it over to Colin Bruan who charged for and nearly took the lead prior to a full course caution that ended his charge. Kurtz would keep the car in podium contention during his second stint with Bennett continuing the momentum when it was his turn behind the wheel.
It was during Bennett’s second stint that trouble arose for the team. During his stint, he suddenly slowed and came to a stop in turn one. After some brief trouble, he got the car running again just for the issue to occur once more. After this, the team decided to return the car back to its paddock to find the culprit. A faulty switch panel was activating the engine kill switch without any input. The team replaced the panel and rejoined the race in seventh, 12 laps off of the leader. With just four hours left it looked bleak, but there were no signs of quitting at CORE Autosport.
“We did have a good start to the day, and I think in many ways we were actually doing better than last year when we won, in terms of pace and fortune. Racing is racing and we began to have a little bit of an engine miss and then a complete electric failure twice,” Bennett said. “The CORE team did an incredible job diagnosing it and fixing it, but 12 laps was a bit too much for us to overcome. Colin and George’s pace were excellent, but sometimes racing just goes like that. Now we look forward to Mid-Ohio.”
Following the fix, Braun once again got behind the wheel and received minor damage to the nose following contact with another car. When Bruan pitted to hand the car over to Kurtz, the team were able to repair the damage and correct the car’s handling. During his final stint, Kurtz experienced steering rack failure and was forced to limp back to the pit lane for repairs. With 90 minutes left, the team returned the car to the track with Braun driving home to a fifth-place finish. The team was disappointed by the bad luck, but happy for the points haul nonetheless.
