JAS Motorsport Article: Civic Type R TCR continues unbeaten run at Sebring

The Honda Civic Type R TCR scored its second straight IMSA Michelin  Pilot Challenge win at the legendary Sebring Raceway as the LAP  Motorsports-run LA Honda World team stormed to victory.

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Shelby Blackstock and Tom O'Gorman claimed the spoils in the two-hour  race while HART duo Ryan Eversley and Chad Gilsinger came home third to  make it a double-podium for the JAS Motorsport-built Civic.

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Blackstock had qualified fourth and ran third throughout the opening  hour, while a superb pitstop lifted them to second. O'Gorman snatched  the lead at a safety-car restart with 30 minutes remaining and was never  headed.

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Having started well, Gilsinger was hit from behind by another car  early on and dropped to 10th. A strong recovery and the fastest pitstop  of any TCR crew elevated co-driver Eversley to fifth.

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A brilliant piece of opportunist overtaking as the safety car pulled  in helped the Pirelli World Challenge TCR champion climb into the final  podium position; the first for HART in the series and the fourth for the  Civic Type R TCR from just two IMPC races in 2019.

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Brian Henderson was the fastest of the Civic drivers in qualifying as  he put the lone Atlanta Speedwerks car second on the grid. He ran  inside the top two throughout his stint.

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A superb pitstop put co-driver Todd Lamb into a sizeable lead, which  was eradicated by the appearance of the safety car soon after.  Unfortunately, a technical issue at the restart slowed the car, which  finished eighth.

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The second LA Honda World car of Colin Mullan/Max Faulkner came home  fifth while their team-mates Mat Pombo/Mike LaMarra, who had finished  second at Daytona, were eliminated in a first-lap incident.

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Blackstock and O'Gorman lead the Drivers' championship with two wins  from two races. LA Honda World heads the Teams' standings while Honda  tops the Manufacturers' points.

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Mads Fischer, JAS Motorsport TCR Project Leader, said:  "It's fantastic to see the Civic Type R TCR remain unbeaten in the  Michelin Pilot Challenge after another brilliant performance from LAP  Motorsports and Tom and Shelby. Without some bad luck, I'm sure they'd  have had all three cars in contention. It's wonderful also to see Ryan  Eversley - who gave the current Civic Type R TCR its first title last  year - write another chapter of his story with the car by helping HART  score their first podium. Huge congratulations must also go to Atlanta  Speedwerks. They scored the car's first front-row qualifying spot and -  after losing victory at Daytona with a late puncture - were ahead when  an issue that was not their fault denied them a chance to win here too.  You could see from the laptimes in practice and qualifying that all the  brands represented in the Michelin Pilot Challenge are incredibly  evenly-matched, but the fact that our customers have performed so well  in the races shows not just the car's speed, but also the high quality  of the teams themselves. A final thank you must go to our colleagues at  Honda Performance Development [HPD], without whose support we would  never have been able to enter the North American market so  successfully."

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