The ISRA held it's second World Endurance development event this weekend at the famous Sebring International Circuit. The ISRA was thrilled to welcome a full grid of 39 drivers from all over the world who took up the challenge of 2.4 hours of tight multi-class racing around this very fast and bumpy airport turned racetrack. The race would feature three car classes using the Radical SR8, Ford Faclon FG01 V8 Supercar, and Ford Mustang FR500S. Endurance was definitely the name of the game, as survival would prove to be the key to getting a good result in this event.

After three flying laps of qualifying, Pablo Lopez put his Radical on pole, just edging out Alex Arana by only two hundreths of a second! Dylan Sharman would head up the V8 Supercar field when he probably should have been sleeping as one of three drivers from Australia/NZ showing the dedication to take the green at 0400 local time down under. Leading the Mustang drivers to the start was Florida driver Keegan Lunsford, taking his class pole by only one one-hundreth of a second over Jonathan Diclemente.

When the field took the green flag, it was Arana who rocketed off into the lead ahead of pole-sitter Lopez. The gap between them would stretch and shrink repeatedly as they both wrung the necks of their Radicals while working their way through the congestion of slower class traffic. It was traffic that would eventually be Arana's undoing though when he came together with a slower car after leading 25 of the 72 laps. Lopez took over the lead and never looked back, eventually taking the race win by a full lap over Mike Kelley and John Cousland.

In the V8 Supercars, Dylan Sharman would back up his pole by opening a comfortable early race lead but would suffer early problems, catching the trackside grass while working through the mixed class field causing damage to his car and ending his chances for a win. Tim Claessens, Valerio Chietti, and Brad Forsberg would inherit the battle for the lead. After pit stops shook out, Tim Claessens would dominate the remaining laps of the race, and take the class win ahead of Forsberg. Daniel Graulty rounded out the V8 Supercar podium after taking advantage of some mid-race problems for Chietti.

Some of the best racing would come from the Mustang FR500S drivers, with Diclemente taking over the class lead over Lunsford six laps into the race. At that point he would motor away to an eventual class win. Behind him Jasper Groeneweg and Edward Van Velsen would fight for second place, with Van Velsen holding the early race advantage. Groeneweg made the better call on pit strategy though, eventually securing a hard fought second place from Van Velsen.

The ISRA would like to congratulate every driver who managed to survive to see the checkered flag. That is the true challenge of endurance racing. However, there is no rest for the league organizers, as planning begins for the next ISRA World Endurance Series event. We would like to thank all the drivers who participated and hope to see everyone at the next event! We would also like to thank Sean Siff and the staff at iRacing for recognizing the efforts of the ISRA to bring multi-class endurance racing to the membership of iRacing, and helping to promote the event.

Thank you, and we look forward to seeing you all back very soon!