Rutronik Racing by TECE has broken Porsche’s dominance in this year’s 24H Series season with victory in the inaugural Hankook 24H Sebring. Swen Herberger drove the team’s Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo to a 1 minute and 44-second win over the No. 91 Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R of Ralf Bohn following a race-long battle between the two German entries.

The Rutronik Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 (#18, Michael Doppelmayr / Markus Winkelhock / Elia Erhart / Swen Herberger) took a sensational maiden pole position during saturdays’s 30-minute qualifying session at Sebring, the German team extending its advantage during the early changeable stages of the race before its nearest rival, the Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R (#91, Daniel Allemann / Ralf Bohn / Alfred Renauer), began to pile on the pressure. Superb opening stints from Markus Winkelhock were not enough to prevent the Herberth Porsche from moving ahead during the pit stops, though the Audi and the Porsche rarely circulated more than one minute apart thereafter.

Following a light shower both at the beginning of the event and early on Sunday morning, heavy rain at three-quarter distance briefly brought racing to a halt at the Sebring International Raceway as more and more standing water pooled on the Floridian circuit’s famous concrete. All cars were returned to the pits during this brief red flag period.

A rare mistake by Herberth Motorsport however saw the Porsche rejoin the track ahead of the race restart without “respecting the pit exit signal”, the Bavarian team incurring a 120-second penalty in the process. Though the top two still finished less than two minutes apart, the way was clear for Rutronik Racing to take a well-deserved victory at Sebring

In an incredible turn of events, the Willi Motorsport by Ebimotors Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (#955, Fabrizio Broggi / Sergiu Nicolae / Sabino de Castro) secured both the 991-class win and the final spot on the overall podium after a flawless run. Sebring was the Romanian-Italian team’s fourth win of the season and also marks the first time since last year’s Hankook 24H PORTIMAO that a ‘991’ competitor has breached the overall top three at a 24H SERIES event.

In a further shot in the arm to the Porsche-only category, Willi Motorsport / Ebimotors’ nearest class rival – the RPM Racing Porsche 911- II (#907, Tracy Krohn / Niclas Jonsson / Patrick Huisman / Andy Lally) – collected 2nd in-class and finished 4th overall after an impressive race.

Further back in 5th, the Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo (#710, Gregg Gorski / Gerhard Watzinger / Lance Bergstein / Al Miller / Kenton Koch) is the third different class winner to finish inside the overall top five after a commanding performance in GTX, despite the Lamborghini suffering a loose steering rack. The MRS GT-Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup ‘992’ (#987, Jeff Courtney / Alexander Marmureanu / Omar Balkissoon / Sebastian Moreno) recovered from early delays to finish 2nd in-class ahead of the troubled Vortex V8 Vortex 1.0 (#701, Philippe Bonnel / Boris Gimond / Sebastien Lajoux / Steve Brooks), the latter of which struggled with drivetrain issues and a loose rear canopy. Despite this, Sebring marked the six time in seven races that Vortex V8 has claimed a GTX-class podium.

In 6th overall, the NOLASPORT Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS MR (#470, Matt Travis / Jason Hart / Anthony Noble / Alex Mayer / Zac Anderson) took victory on home turf after an extraordinarily close fight for GT4 class honours. The Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 (#423, Gray Newell / Ian James / Roman De Angelis / Alex Riberas) remained well in striking range as the race entered its closing stages only for gearbox issues to bring the Aston to a halt with just two hours left, opening the door for the ST Racing BMW M4 GT4 (#438, Samantha Tan / Chandler Hull / Jon Miller / Nick Wittmer / Bryson Morris) in the process.

The result also confirms ST Racing as this year’s 24H SERIES Overall GT Teams’ champion, impressively, in the Canadian team’s maiden endurance racing season. 2nd in-class simultaneously secures Samantha Tan, Chandler Hull and Jon Miller the Overall GT Drivers’ championship.

A recovering Team ACP – Tanger Associates BMW M4 GT4 (#421, Catesby Jones / Jim Norman / Josh Norman / Ken Goldberg), which lost time with damaged left rear suspension after hitting the tyres at turn 17, took the final GT4 podium spot.

Herberth Motorsport second entry meanwhile (#92, Jürgen Häring / Bobby Gonzales / Wolfgang Triller / Felix Neuhofer / Marco Seefried) eventually finished 10th overall. The Porsche 911 GT3 R led the race outright at the very start of the event, but later fell back with gearbox issues.