SEBRING, FL (March 24, 2015) – Nothing in endurance racing comes easy, and the 2015 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring was no exception for TRG-AMR. After qualifying fifth quickest in the 007 Royal Purple/Orion Energy Systems/LaSalle Solutions/PassTime V12 Vantage GT3, the team endured a grueling 12 hours and some topsy-turvy closing laps en route to a hard fought second place finish.
Danish sensation Christina Nielsen teamed with Australian James Davison and Brandon Davis, a native Californian and World Challenge Champion. All three did their part in contending all day long and raced incredibly well. TRG-AMR’s entry had a very competitive race, leading several times throughout the race.
While they weren’t able to capture the elusive win, TRG-AMR was pleased to come out of the event earning top honors in the 2nd round of the North American Endurance Championship, which awarded points based on running position at the four hour, eight hour, and of course when taking the checkered flag.
Kevin Buckler:
“I am so incredibly proud of this team we’ve assembled. The crew did a phenomenal job all day and night, and my hats off to our 3 of drivers. The closing laps were about as unpredictable as racing gets, and James did a great job keeping us in contention for a victory. Christina’s drive was one for the ages… I mean truly truly an amazing performance running with some of the top professional GT drivers and keeping us up front and on the lead lap.
We may not have had the fastest car out there; the Porsches and Vipers were just beasts all day and the series still needs to work on the Balance of Performance as these cars are unbeatable in a fair fight (which is frustrating to all) but they made mistakes. We executed 11 nearly perfect pit stops that were error and penalty free for the entire race. We were also pleased to have some of our corporate partners and guests in attendance and what an exciting race it was to have so many lead changes and such tight competition down to the very last lap in this 12 hour sprint race; and proud to represent Aston Martin Racing in North America. The Aston Martin GT3 V-12 Vantage is the car and the program to have right now and we’re looking to add a few more teams this year in the series.”
Brandon Davis:
“The 12 Hours of Sebring is one of the toughest races and layouts in America. Second is a great reward especially after the tough luck we had at Daytona (Davis was hit by a Ferrari during the night while on lead lap). It was a very good effort by all. We had a little trouble in the heat, but the team performed its job to perfection and we continued to bang out quality laps until the end.”
James Davison:
“We ran as perfect a race as we could. It was a very good result and it was a long time coming. We’ve always had solid equipment (five straight poles prior to Sebring) but did not have luck on our side. This was a great team effort.”
Christina Nielsen:
“We had some real challenges with Porsches and the Viper, but we got a 100 percent team effort from everyone. All the drivers did really well with their stints. We’ve always thought we belonged among the top teams, and today we ran up front all day with a nearly perfect race.”