Turn 17 creates problems and opportunities for competitors
and teammates alike. Lap after lap.
In 2009, Corvette teammates Jan Magnussen and Oliver
Gavin survived side-by-side battles for many laps
in their identical Corvettes. Magnussen won his class/
team battle in 2009 and is the defending Sebring GTLM
champion. He has fi ve class victories in his 19 career
Sebring starts
“Jan and I were racing against each other and we
were nose-to-tail for
two hours at a time,”
Gavin recalls of the
2009 race. “There were
times where we were
trying to outbreak one
another into Turn 17. At
least twice we went on
the outside of the corner,
crashing into one
another or going off on
our own! It was a case
of two teammates racing
hard against each
other in a great car.
There have been many a
close call there with other cars at that spot.”
The most famous Turn 17 incident came on the last lap
of the 2007 race with Jamie Melo in the No. 62 Risi
Competizione Ferrari F430 battling Jorg Bergmeister in
the No. 45 Flying Lizard Porsche battling for the GT2
class victory. It is considered among the greatest fi nishes
in endurance racing history.
Melo led by 0.4 seconds entering Turn 16 but Bergmeister
made a daring move to the inside to pass the Ferrari
going down the Ulmann Straight. Melo cut back inside
right, the cars touched and drew alongside and then
banged together again before Melo spurted ahead to win
GT2 by 0.202 seconds– the closest in Sebring history.
Bergmeister’s viewpoint of the 2007 fi nish was tainted
by what he considered unsafe driving tactics by Melo.
“We defi nitely had the faster car at the end of the
race because the Ferrari ran out of brake,” Bergmeister
recalls. “We were faster by far. It was just a matter of
time before we caught him and got by him and we did
on the last lap. At the end, it was defi nitely disappointing
because I played fair and passed him clean without
touching and was by him and he hit me in the back at
Turn 17, twice. He loosened me up and went to the inside.
I had nowhere to go except the outside wall. And
that would not have been too pretty so I had to lift and
we ran out of time. Had the race been two laps longer
we would have won. I
could have re-passed
him. It was a good
race for Flying Lizard,
good for the points
and the championship.
You obviously
want to win and this
outcome was not
what you look for. I
was not too happy
afterwards. That is
how racing sometimes
go. That’s racing
I guess.”
And then Bergmeister issued fair warming to his GTD
class competitors at the 2018 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of
Sebring Presented Advance Auto Parts:
“With the latest models of Porsches, the 911 RSR and
the Park Place 911 GT3 R, it is so much easier than the
older cars we ran with White Lightning or the Lizards.
The new cars are so much better on the bumps. With
the older cars, even when you had them setup perfectly,
you were in for a wild ride. You had to do your very best
with the bumps. Now the suspensions and setups are
so much better. Porsche has brought the cars so much
forward in that time. You still feel the bumps but you
manage your line a little and you keep going. It is much
easier than it was even a few years ago because of the
car’s development.”
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