JUPITER, Fla. (17 March 2021) \u2013 Sean\u00a0Creech\u00a0Motorsport\u00a0(SCM)\u00a0
The team, and\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0No. 33 SCM Exelixis Ligier\u00a0JS P320, served notice in January with an impressive second-place finish in\u00a0its\u00a0first WeatherTech series event. But the team, including drivers Jo\u00e3o Barbosa, Lance Willsey and\u00a0Yann Clairay, are no strangers to IMSA.<\/p>\n
Team principal Sean Creech estimates that 2021 marks somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 Sebring 12 Hour races for himself and several team members, dating back to the former IMSA GT Championship through the American Le Mans era until today.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was even harder back in the GTP era, since those were big downforce cars,\u201d\u00a0Creech\u00a0remembers. \u201cRacing in this series is always about survival, but even more so\u00a0at Sebring.”<\/p>\n
The LMP3 class is new to the WeatherTech series in 2021, though a version of the car competes in the IMSA Prototype Challenge (Creech\u00a0won the 2018 championship title managing the ESM team before bringing the program in-house the following season). The team, like most of the LMP3 field, experienced\u00a0its\u00a0share of drama ahead of January\u2019s Rolex 24 at Daytona as they came up to speed with the new car, but near-flawless execution by team and drivers brought the car home in second position. With a second straight home state race, the team is focused on reaching that top step.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe didn\u2019t have a super easy week leading up to the Rolex 24, but I could see how hard the team was working to fix the issues with the car, and how passionate they were,\u201d said Barbosa. \u201cThis team is not interested in just competing, they\u2019re here to win every race. I\u2019ve known Sean for a long time, he\u2019s always been a racer, and I knew that mentality was there. The way they approached the race was on par with any other top team I\u2019ve raced with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Local knowledge comes in handy around Sebring\u2019s historic, but notoriously tricky (and bumpy) 3.74-mile circuit.\u00a0Creech\u2019s experience combined with Barbosa\u2019s (the Ormond Beach, Fla. resident has 13 races at Sebring, including two wins and seven podium finishes, on his CV) puts the team a step ahead \u2013 as does the return of a familiar face to the pit stand, legendary sports car team owner, mechanic and strategist Mike Colucci.<\/p>\n
Colucci worked with the team last weekend at Sebring, as they competed in both the Masters Endurance Legends series and the IMSA Prototype Challenge in the LMP3-2 class. The team took a hard-fought victory in the IPC race, with the track time keeping the team in top form \u2013 as did a recent test at Sebring, which confirmed\u00a0its\u00a0baseline setup as they prepare for the challenges of race week.<\/p>\n
\u201cSebring is a totally different animal from Daytona, so we worked on every part of the setup and the suspension at the test,\u201d said\u00a0Creech. \u201cOn paper, it looks like an easier race than Daytona, but in reality, it\u2019s so hard on the car, like no other track in the world.\u00a0Things that don\u2019t break at Daytona, break at Sebring. If you want to survive, you\u2019ve really got to test there, and we had a very productive two days.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe test was the first time I\u2019d driven the LMP3 car at Sebring, but we accomplished a lot, testing a lot of different things, and we were very happy with the results,\u201d Barbosa agreed. \u201cIt\u2019s a track that changes\u00a0a great deal, but hopefully it will just be a matter of tweaking things. Sebring puts a lot of stress on all the components, and with all the bumps, it\u2019s even more challenging than Daytona. The class is limited on the number of adjustments a team can do so to find the right compromise is difficult, but we\u2019re happy where we are now\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeveral teams have moved up to WeatherTech from IPC and they all have a great deal of experience with the first generation LMP3 car at Sebring,\u201d said Willsey, who contested the series with\u00a0Creech\u00a0the past three seasons. \u201cWe had a pretty good framework to start with, but we continued progressing through the two-day test and I feel that we ended up with a fast car that\u2019s comfortable over the long haul. The wild card this weekend is the weather, and how the car handles it, both inside the cockpit and on the components. The demands at Sebring are radically different from Daytona,\u00a0but we\u2019ve looked at every point of potential concern. We have a good sense of the amount of abuse the platform will take in different areas: for example, there are profound differences in the car between low fuel load and older tires versus full fuel and new tires, especially on the bumps. It magnifies the importance of teamwork.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clairay, from Laval, France, heads to Sebring International Raceway for the first time this week, armed with videos and data from the team\u2019s recent test. The veteran racer, who has extensive Ligier testing\u00a0experience\u00a0with the LMP3, knows well the task ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know it\u2019s a real challenge ahead of me, as the track is very physical and it doesn\u2019t allow any mistakes,\u201d said Clairay. \u201cI feel as though I’m going to rediscover the spirit of street-type racing a bit, but with higher speeds! I\u2019ve watched videos with on-board cameras and I\u2019ve also been working on my simulator, so I\u2019ll be ready. I am really very happy to race at another monument of American motorsport, and I want to thank Lance, Sean and Jo\u00e3o for their trust in me. We had a solid race at Daytona without any errors from the team and the drivers: that result has built confidence among all team members and will help us try to climb a step further.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 69th Annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts takes the green flag Saturday, March 20 at\u00a010:10\u00a0a.m. Eastern. The race will be broadcast live in the U.S. on the NBC stations listed below and on NBC Sports Gold\u2019s TRACKPASS, while international viewers can watch via\u00a0IMSA.tv<\/a>. IMSA Radio will also be available at\u00a0IMSA.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n USA:<\/strong><\/p>\n NBCSN\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 NBC Sports Gold\u00a0\u00a0 Noon \u2013 7:00 p.m.<\/p>\n NBCSN\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 NBC Sports Gold\u2019s TRACKPASS\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 10:10 a.m. \u2013 10:10 p.m.<\/p>\n