Story By: MUSTANG SAMPLING RACING – SEBRING, FL – After making a record-breaking and winning start to the 2018 ISA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Mustang Sampling Racing will continue that positive momentum as the team looks to return to victory lane in the 2018 edition of the Sebring 12 Hours this Saturday.
Joao Barbosa (PRT) will team with Filipe Albuquerque (PRT) in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R, along with fellow IMSA champion Christian Fittipaldi (BRA) as the trio look to add their names to the select list of teams that have won both the Rolex 24 and Sebring 12 Hour in the same year. The driver line up marks the third consecutive season that the trio have combined for Mustang Sampling at the track.
Sebring’s 3.7-mile circuit is one that has long played a central role in the history of IMSA racing, as the circuit is set to stage the 66th running of the race. Saturday’s 12 Hour opens with a 10:30 am ET start (live coverage on FS1) and will race through the afternoon and well into the night with the checkered flag coming 12 Hours later.
The large crowd of Sebring fans should expect to see the leaders deliver more than 300 laps of the circuit. Saturday’s race will once again feature three classes of competition in WeatherTech with the Prototypes, GTD and GTLM machines all sharing the 17-turn confines of the track.
After taking third in 2014, the team won the 2015 edition of the race and has followed that up with podium results in 2016 (3rd) and 2017 (2nd).
The Sebring round is also the second race of the 4-event Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup, which the Mustang Sampling squad has secured for four years (2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017) running. The endurance-only battle awards points at the four, eight, and twelve hour marks in Sebring as the No. 5 entry targets a return to the top of those points as well.