SEBRING, Fla. — Former Floridian Randy Pobst’s local-weather-pattern knowledge helped make the pivotal decision to pit early for rain tires, as he came back through the field to win the SCCA Pro Racing Speed World Challenge GT Championship season opener Friday at Sebring Int’l Raceway.
Andy Pilgrim and Michael Galati completed the top three.
Dark clouds rolled in as the cars prepared to roll off the grid and, by the formation lap preceding the standing start, heavy drizzle began to fall around the 3.7-mile circuit. After seeing cars have difficulty negotiating the track, SCCA Pro Racing officials elected to run an additional pace lap and begin the race with a rolling, single-file start. Pobst immediately moved his No. 1 K-PAX Racing Porsche 911 GT3 past polesitter Brandon Davis’ No. 10 ACS/Sun Microsystems Ford Mustang Cobra as the cars kicked up spray and searched for grip on the opening lap.
Defending race winner Eric Curran brought out the first of three lengthy full-course cautions when he went straight off turn one. Pobst took advantage of the caution to pit from the lead. Pilgrim and Davis followed in the ensuing laps, handing the lead to Galati’s No. 23 K-PAX Racing Porsche 911 GT3.
“We started with the rain early on and it was quite livable, but then somebody crashed which didn’t surprise me one bit,” Pobst continued. “So then, we’re riding along under yellow, watching the skies, the windshield and the road. I looked at the weather and decided to go with the wet tires. I felt that the rain tires were a kind of intermediate tire, that would be OK in the dry too. So we changed the tires and went to the back, and to our great fortune it started raining harder and harder. As I watched that water build up I knew that everybody on dries was in trouble. When we changed, it still wasn’t a sure thing. We took a gamble. It could have quit raining right there, but it didn’t.”
As the other competitors took turns spinning, Pobst slowly made his way to the front and was back in front on lap 10.
The field restarted on lap 11 and Pobst sped away from the field to win the time-shortened 12-lap, 44.4-mile race by 4.014 seconds, averaging just 51.594 miles per hour.
Driving the No. 8 Remington Shaving Cadillac CTS-V, Pilgrim came home second.
The finish:
Showing driver, car and laps completed: 1. Randy Pobst, Porsche 911 GT3, 12; 2. Andy Pilgrim, Cadillac CTS-V, 12; 3. Michael Galati, Porsche 911 GT3, 12; 4. Brandon Davis, Ford Mustang Cobra, 12; 5. Jeff Courtney, Dodge Viper, 12; 6. Tony Gaples, Chevrolet Corvette, 12; 7. Mike Davis, Ford Mustang Cobra, 12; 8. Jason Daskalos, Dodge Viper, 12; 9. James Sofronas, Porsche 911 GT3, 12; 10. Paul Brown, Porsche 911 GT3, 12; 11. Eric Olberz, Porsche 911 GT3, 12; 12. Michael McCann, Cadillac CTS-V, 12; 13. Jeff Altenburg, Dodge Viper, 12; 14. John Bourassa, Porsche 911 Turbo, 12; 15. Ritch Marziale, Dodge Viper, 12; 16. Sonny Whelen, Chevrolet Corvette, 12; 17. Phillip Martien, Porsche 911 GT3, 12; 18. Tommy Archer, Dodge Viper, 12; 19. Dino Crescentini, Porsche 911 GT3, 12; 20. Sean Allen, Porsche 911 GT3, 12; 21. Lee Saunders, Dodge Viper, 12; 22. Gunter Schaldach, Dodge Viper, 10; 23. Tim McKenzie, Porsche 911 GT3, 10; 24. Brian Kubinski, Chevrolet Corvette, 7; 25. Tomy Drissi, Chevrolet Corvette, 5; 26. Eric Curran, Chevrolet Corvette, 1; 27. Robb Holland, Porsche 911 GT3, 0; 28. Joey Scarallo, Chevrolet Corvette, 0.