Willsey, Barbosa and Edgar ready to continue the Ligier JS P217’s development program at the Florida endurance classic
JUPITER, Fla. (11 March 2024) – Returning to an iconic track where the team has raced to victory in the past, Sean Creech Motorsport (SCM) heads to Sebring International Raceway to contest the 72nd Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring (9:40 a.m. EDT Saturday, Peacock and USA Network) this weekend.
With a long history of competition at the tough track – including a win in the LMP3 class two years ago – Florida-based SCM considers Sebring to be their home track and will arrive at the circuit packing the momentum and fresh notes from a successful test with the LMP2-class No. 33 SCM Focal One Ligier JS P217 at the track last month.
Completing a 12-hour race simulation over the two-day test and checking more items off the setup database the team continues to develop, drivers Lance Willsey, João Barbosa, and Jonny Edgar look forward to a solid outing for the No. 33 SCM Focal One Ligier JS P217.
The team has re-introduced the Ligier to IMSA competition for the 2024 season, racing against teams that have worked with the Oreca chassis for years. Despite the challenge at hand, Barbosa reiterates the team’s commitment to the Ligier, and confidence in its
potential.
“The team is 100% committed to this program with Ligier,” said the two-time series champion. “We knew it would be a challenge to bring this car back – we’re writing the database for this car and competing against teams who have thousands of miles on their chassis, but we all know the potential is there to be quite competitive. Daytona (in which the team finished 9th) was not representative of what we know this car can do, but each race will be that much better as we learn what the car wants for each track and weather condition. It’s a matter of using our test and practice time wisely and continuing to move the program forward – and we’re doing that.”
Edgar, who has been named as the team’s third driver for the remaining four Michelin Endurance Cup races – Sebring, Watkins Glen, Indianapolis and Road Atlanta – was well aware of the track’s notoriously bumpy surface (which has its own hashtag, #RespectTheBumps). But the 20-year-old was pleasantly surprised by how the Ligier reacted over those bumps during the test.
“It’s the bumpiest track I’ve been on, but perhaps not as bumpy as I expected,” said Edgar. “Based on what everyone says, I actually expected worse but that’s down to how well the Ligier handles the changing surface. But we’ve definitely made strides since Daytona in closing the gap. We were able to try a lot of different things over the day and a half – some things worked and some didn’t but as long as you know why they didn’t work, it gives you a direction to go. The balance is in trying to adjust something without causing a different problem, but the team is doing a good job of that and most of what we tried did work. And I got some laps in the dark – it’s quite a bit darker than Daytona so it was good to get used to that.
“And it’s nice to be doing the rest of the endurance races with SCM,” continued Edgar. “Knowing everyone even better after a couple of weeks at Daytona and having more experience with the car, I’m getting more confident every day. If we can keep improving as we are, and for me, as I learn the car and understand more how to maximize what I can do, I think we’ll be fine.”
Team principal Sean Creech was pleased with the two-day test, despite losing much of the first morning to rain. But the 30-year veteran of sports car racing, with too many races at Sebring to count, knows that the only thing that doesn’t change about the racing surface is how quickly it can change – and he feels the team is prepared for that.
“We made good progress at the test last month, in the wet and the dry,” said Creech. “We know the track will be completely different on the race weekend, but we left the test with some more confidence. We went through all our test plan, trying most everything we wanted to. We completed a full 12-hour race sim over the two days with no problems, and that gives the team a good read on what we need to do to make the car fast and safe for 12 hours. Sebring is always challenging, you’re always finding new bumps, but this car reacts very well over them. We have a good baseline to start with in the first official practice on Thursday.”
SCM thanks partner Focal One for its continued support.
The 72nd Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring takes the green flag Saturday at 9:40 a.m. Eastern. The race will be broadcast live in the U.S. on Peacock, with the final five and a half hours on USA Network. International viewers can watch via IMSA.tv, with IMSA Radio also available at IMSA.com.
About SCM
Team leader Sean Creech has competed in a multitude of sports car series from 1990 until the present day, including Group C, IMSA GTP, WSC, Grand-Am, SRO World Challenge, and IMSA. SCM will contest the full WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in 2024 with João Barbosa and Lance Willsey. http://seancreechmotorsport.com/
About Focal One
One in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime in the United States. The Focal One® HIFU Prostate treatment offers patients a non-invasive outpatient procedure to target prostate tissue while avoiding the common side effects such as loss of urinary continence and sexual function. The Focal One treatment uses high-performance, high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) to precisely target and ablate the prostate, allowing patients to quickly return to normal activities. http://www.focalone.com/
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