Sebring: Sascha Maassen weekend recap

ALMS Seasons Starter – 12h of Sebring

3.7 miles long race track in Florida – Oldest permannt race track in America – 50th anniversary of the 12h of Sebring – Part of the ALMS since 1999 – Sascha won the seasons starter in Sebring last year and is holding the qualifying record in GT class with 2:06.764 minutes

Qualifying 2002-03-15 Result Qualifying GT class:
1. Maassen/Luhr (Porsche 911 GT3 RS) 2:07.460
2. Dumas/Amorim (Porsche 911 GT3 RS) 2:07.746
3. Bernhard/Bergmeister/ Lieb (Porsche 911 GT3 RS) 2:07.786
4. Liddell/Babini (Porsche 911 GT3 RS) 2:07.946
5. Rosa/Caffi/Riccitelli (Porsche 911 GT3 RS) 2:08.37

Sascha to the qualifying: "We waited until the last half of the 25-minute session to go out on the track, a strategy we usually use to see how times are developing, and we were surprised at the speed of the top cars, especially the Romain Dumas in the Freisinger Porsche and Robin Liddell in the P.K. Sport Porsche. We were planning to go only three laps to aim for the pole, and we needed four - and only beat Freisinger by 0.3 of a second.”

Race 2002-03-16

Race start at 10:30 am local time – Weather condition very sunny and hot – Sascha started from pole position and could hold the lead – Keeping the lead over the whole 12 hours – No problems during the race for Sascha and his team mate Lucas Luhr – Victory in GT class with an advantage of 11 laps – 12th place in total classement

Sascha to the race: “We had no problems during the whole race, it was perfect. The only thing that was not so good was the weather. It was very hot and to race 12 hours with only two drivers was really hard. We were leading every sigle lap of the race. But we were lucky at the beginning of the race where we gained two laps in two pace car phases. This was an incredible good start of the season.”

Race Result GT class:
1. Maassen/Luhr, Alex Job Racing, Porsche GT3 RS, 306 laps
2. Plumb/Ford/Collin/Bagnall, Seikel Motorsport, Porsche GT3 RS, 295 laps
3. Liddell/Babini, P.K. Sport Ltd., Porsche GT3 RS, 295 laps
4. Pace/Schumacher/Nagel, The Racers Group, Porsche GT3 RS, 295 laps
5. Masarati/Demeroutis/Alexander, P.K. Sport Ltd., Porsche GT3 RS, 291 laps

Next ALMS race on 18th May 2002 in Sears Point, California.

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