SEBRING, Fla. - With five of the new Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsports entered in the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge’s Sebring 150, it was only a matter of time before it won its first race overall in the series.
The team that delivered the win for Porsche’s new factory-supported car though wasn’t the much heralded and ST class champions CJ Wilson Racing, though.
Instead, courtesy of a brilliant drive from 2014 GS class champion Trent Hindman and a great leadoff stint from co-driver Cameron Cassels in the team’s No. 12 Porsche, it was the Mike Bavaro-owned and Geoff Abel-led Bodymotion Racing that captured the win Friday at Sebring International Raceway.
It’s Hindman’s second straight win, having also won the season finale at Road Atlanta last year co-driving with Ashley Freiberg in the No. 46 Fall-Line Motorsports BMW M3. The team missed the first race owing to a family commitment Cassels needed to attend to.
Bodymotion pitted only twice while most of the other GS cars pitted three or four times. Alas, Hindman still needed to pressure Matt Plumb into a mistake, which he did, in a rare mistake for the driver and team manager of the No. 13 Rum Bum Racing Porsche 997.
Plumb, who’d emerged ahead of Hindman on the final pit stop sequence, ran wide through Turn 17 on Lap 49. Hindman went to the inside and made it past Plumb.
Billy Johnson, in the No. 15 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Shelby GT350R-C he shared with Scott Maxwell, got by Plumb not much later to get into second.
Meanwhile in ST, courtesy of a typically brilliant strategy call from the Rum Bum crew that also services the CRG-I Do Borrow Honda Civic Si, Owen Trinkler and Sarah Cattaneo scored a popular and perhaps surprise win in their No. 44 car.
Honda bagged a 1-2 finish with the CRG-I Do Borrow car ahead of the No. 93 HART Honda, driven by Chad Gilsinger and Michael Valiante.
The No. 84 Bimmerworld BMW 328i made it up to third with James Clay and Tyler Cooke, Cooke having driven a sterling opening stint from the back of the 26-car ST field up to second before handing over to Clay. The car had an engine change and went to the back of the field.