Breaking news

IMSA Sebring 12 Hours

Rolex 24 winners seek ideal “trade-off” over Sebring bumps

Riley Motorsports’ LMP3 class winners from the Rolex 24 Hours expect a typically torrid ride in the Sebring 12 Hours, but believe testing provided the setup direction they need to shine again.

David Malsher-Lopez

Edited: Mar 16, 2021, 8:01 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

#74 Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320, LMP3: Gar Robinson, Scott Andrews, Oliver Askew, Spencer Pigot

The 74 Ranch Motorsports-backed Ligier-Nissan, driven by Gar Robinson, Scott Andrews, Spencer Pigot and Oliver Askew, won by three laps when LMP3 took its opening bow as part of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Daytona in January.

Now Andrews, Pigot and Robinson believe the Riley Motorsports team has made further strides to ensure the car is equally at home on the notoriously bumpy 3.74-mile Sebring Raceway.

Said Robinson: “Sebring is bumpy the whole way around, but we put a couple of different setups on it in testing and found a direction that we really liked, to make the car last, and to make us last.

Fellow fulltimer Andrews explained the difficulty of finding the right compromise.

“An LMP3 car has a flat underside so a lot of downforce comes from the diffuser and the front dive planes,” said the 30-year-old Australian. “But Sebring is always a very specific setup and to get your car in the window there, to have really good ride control and be soft enough [for the bumps] but be low enough to get the downforce, is always a trade off.

“But there’s a trade-off at any track. For example, at Daytona there’s a trade-off in how much wing you take away without completely losing the car and still having good drive off the slow-speed stuff. So there’s always a compromise at the track as to what works best. It is difficult to get it right [at Sebring] but when you do get it right, it drives like any other track.”

Pigot is the enduro third man on the team this weekend, but doesn’t know if he’s going to be invited back for the Watkins Glen 6 Hours and/or Petit Le Mans, so is aiming for a 100 percent winning record in an LMP3 car this weekend. The 27-year-old, who lived for many years in Florida and who is still aiming to return to IndyCar, played down the difficulties of Sebring, given his vast experience there.

“I’ve kinda grown up racing and driving at Sebring, the whole track and short track, everything from Skip Barber cars to IndyCars, the DPi and now the LMP3 and GT cars. So… we know what we’re getting into when we go to Sebring. Honestly I don’t think it’s gotten any worse over the years.

“It’s always bumpy, and in a P3 car, compared with Daytona it’s a bit bumpier but we can run a lot more downforce at Sebring so that helps as well. Nothing that really shocks me going back to Sebring.

“Over the years I’ve driven at a lot of different street courses that are a good match for Sebring in terms of bumpiness. So as long as the car’s compliant enough, there shouldn’t be any issues.”

Primary opposition is expected to come from not only their Riley Motorsports teammates Jim Cox, Dylan Murry and Jeroen Bleekemolen, but also CORE autosport’s entry which includes Colin Braun in the lineup, and Sean Creech Motorsport, for whom former IMSA Prototype champion Joao Barbosa drives.

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Porsche ace Jaminet savoring “old-school” Sebring

Next article Hardwick to sit out Sebring as he continues recuperation

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Who will win this year’s ultimate F1 dream ticket? You decide…

Sponsored

Sponsored 17 min

Who will win this year’s ultimate F1 dream ticket? You decide…

Ferrari promotes F2 racer to F1 reserve driver role

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

56 min

Ferrari promotes F2 racer to F1 reserve driver role

Employing team orders can simply be a matter of common sense

Formula 1

Employing team orders can simply be a matter of common sense

Max Verstappen risks penalty after FP1 clash at Portimao GTWC finale

GT World Challenge Europe Endurance

WCEE GT World Challenge Europe Endurance 1 h

Max Verstappen risks penalty after FP1 clash at Portimao GTWC finale

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts