GEBHARDT Intralogistics Motorsports’ Valentino Catalano took the lead with four minutes to go Sunday (March 8) when Toney Driver Development’s Wyatt Brichacek suddenly slowed on course. From there, Catalano was able to hold on to win the first-ever IMSA Airbnb Endurance Challenge event at Sebring International Raceway with teammate Oscar Tunjo.
“I’m very happy with the result today,” Tunjo said on the podium. “We were a bit unlucky with the drive-through [penalty] and we lost some places, but we did a mega job.”
Catalano and Tunjo won the race by 1.112 seconds over Forte Racing’s Patrick Kujala and Brian Thienes. The second Toney entry of Ari Balogh and Garret Grist were third, then the second GEBHARDT entry of Danny Soufi and Jake Williamson. Shopify Racing by TWOth Autosport’s Nicole Havrda and Travis Hill were fifth.
Tunjo started from the overall pole in his Duqueine M30-D08-Nissan. Lincoln Day got a bad start in his current-spec Ligier, but was able to regain second and keep pace with the current VP Racing SportsCar Challenge points leader.
Effectively, Tunjo and Day were able to run away from the rest of the small field from the start. Tunjo opened a small gap, then lost that advantage.
Day was able to get close enough 20 minutes into the race to attempt to make a move for the lead. That did not work out for the Toney Driver Development racer. A mistake allowed Tunjo to pull out a two-second advantage.
As the race reached halfway, Tunjo pulled out a lead of nine seconds. Day was the only driver within a minute of the lead.
Further back, Thienes led the Bronze Cup in his Ligier JS P325-Toyota for Forte Racing. He was able to slowly expand his advantage over Balogh in the second Toney entry.
Behind Balogh, Havrda was able to move up to fifth overall and slowly reeled in Balogh, who was 12 seconds up the road.
Tunjo ran the first 63 minutes on one tank of fuel before pitting to hand over to Catalano. As compared to any other IMSA series, Airbnb Endurance Challenge has different pit rules, most notably a minimum pit lane time of 150 seconds. Fuel and tires have to be taken separately as well.
Day had brought the No. 95 in a couple of laps prior to Tunjo in order to hand over to Brichacek. As a result, Catalano ended up with only a one-second advantage over the driver who swept COTA just last weekend.
Wyatt Brichacek Earns COTA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge Sweep
However, the race turned shortly afterwards. The GEBHARDT Intralogistics Motorsports team had an unsupervised tire during their pit stop. That resulted in Catalano having to serve a drive-through penalty.
Catalano serving that penalty not only gave Brichacek the overall lead, but a huge advantage. However, that lead did not last long.
Just as Catalano was serving his penalty, FASTMD Racing’s Farhan Siddiqi stalled his Duqueine just past pit out. That drew the race’s sole full course caution.
The field packed up for a restart with 37 minutes to go. Brichacek, now familiar with the Ligier JS P325-Toyota after his Austin adventure, managed to open up a big lead.
Meanwhile, Catalano had to deal with a three-way fight for second with Kujala and Grist. That battling allowed Brichacek to pull out a six-second advantage.
The race appeared to be all but wrapped up for Brichacek when trouble broke out with four minutes to go. The No. 95 slowed suddenly exiting turn 1, allowing Catalano to take the overall lead.
Brichacek was unable to drive his car back to the pits and ultimately pulled off at turn 14. He would be credited with a sixth-place finish.
With Brichacek’s issues, Catalano ended up with a small, but comfortable lead. He was able to hold on to take the overall win.
Kujala was not able to pull away from Grist in Bronze Cup. In the closing 10 minutes of the race, Grist tried to go to the outside of Kujala in Sunset Bend. However, he went a little too fast and lost time.
That was ultimately all that Kujala needed to open a small gap. With Brichacek’s issues, he was able to get up to second overall and take the Bronze Cup. The margin of victory was 3.456 seconds over Balogh and Grist.
IMSA Airbnb Endurance Challenge: Sebring Results
Next up for the LMP3 teams will be a return to Circuit of the Americas. This time, they’ll be racing on the full 3.427-mile configuration as opposed to the short course. They’ll be joined by a class of BMW M2 cars. That call was originally scheduled to debut in this event, but the debut was pushed back.
That race is scheduled for May 9 and will be streamed live on the IMSA Official YouTube channel.
