Honda Civic Si Wins in Sebring

One of North America’s classic tracks played host to the second round of the 2024 SRO Touring Car America and Fanatec GT World Challenge America championships this weekend.

The wide, hot, and bumpy 17 turn 3.7-mile Sebring International Raceway always creates challenges in chassis setup for competitors, it’s the most punishing circuit the teams will face this year. Throughout the weekend, Honda and Acura teams were able to deal with the challenges and compete for podiums in every class.

TC America Powered by Skip Barber

TCX Acura Integra Type S DE5
In just the second race weekend for the new, HRC-built Acura Integra Type S DE5, Celso Neto scored Acura’s third-consecutive TCX class podium finish in Saturday’s race. Neto qualified his Integra on the outside of the front row and was able to defend that position for much of the race before briefly going off track. Falling to 4th, the former Brazilian Touring Car Champion raced side-by-side for most of lap before earning back the last spot on the podium.

In Sunday’s race, it was Cooper Broll that had his Integra battling for a podium result. Broll was involved in a multi-car battle for third throughout the 40-minute race, until last turn, last lap contact with another driver put them both into the barriers. Neto had begun in 4th and earned the race’s Fastest Lap award as he worked his way up to 3rd. After falling back mid-race, Neto worked his way back through the field to the 4th at the checkers.

TCA Honda Civic Si FE1
Alex Garcia is new to racing a Honda Civic Si FE1, but you couldn’t tell by his performance. The 23-year-old from Miami was busy at the beginning of the weekend graduating from the University of Central Florida with a degree in Business Administration.

Garcia then made his debut in his TCA class Honda in Sunday’s 2nd race of the weekend, and put on a clinic driving from 4th to 1st in just the first couple laps. Despite strong competition, he was able to keep his Civic right where he wanted it on the track leading to a TCA victory and a Super Fuel Hard Charger award.

Fellow Civic Si driver Maddy Lemke continued her young SRO career with multiple podium finishes in a very consistent and impressive weekend.

Fanatec Gt World Challenge America Powered By Aws
The weekend began very promising for the Racer’s Edge Acura NSX GT3 EVO22, as they qualified 3rd at their home track. After pressuring the 2nd place Pro-class driver throughout the stint, rookie Luca Mars handed the car over to co-driver Zach Veach. Unfortunately, the bumps and central Florida heat eventually played havoc on the NSX setup and they fell back to 7th overall, 4th in the Pro class.

Sunday’s Race 2 showed the team’s overnight adjustments were successful as Veach and Mars worked their way up to 7th place. However, contact from behind by a competitor with just over 20 minutes remaining in the 90-minute contest prevented the pair from moving any further up the standings as they again finished 7th overall, 4th in class.

Quotes
Alex Garcia (#14 Skip Barber Racing Honda Civic Si FE1) on his busy weekend including Saturday college graduation and Sunday race win: “Having a good practice, a good team, and a good strategy allowed me to keep my head down and just take it one corner at a time and get the win.”

Cooper Broll (#19 Skip Barber Racing Acura Integra Type S DE5) on his Sebring race weekend: “I’m super impressed by this HRC Acura Integra from Skip Barber Racing, I couldn’t have asked for a better racing machine! I pushed hard and drove my heart out. I did some of the best driving I’ve ever done – at a track I had never driven before qualifying Saturday. I was able to hold onto 3rd for much of the race, with two cars hot on my tail the entire time. I was pushing hard for the finish, and tried to make a pass on the last corner of the last lap but had a small collision and finished the race P6. I’m SO thankful for this team’s incredibly hard work to get me on track and allow me to perform as well as I did today.”

Next
The TC America powered by Skip Barber Racing School and the Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS fields will return for Rounds 5 and 6 at Circuit of the Americas in Texas from May 17th-19th.

TCX Sebring Saturday Race Results
3rd TCX – #22 Celso Neto, Skip Barber Racing, Acura Integra Type S
6th TCX – #19 Cooper Broll, Skip Barber Racing, Acura Integra Type S
7th TCX – #39 Christopher DeFreitas, Racers Edge Motorsports, Acura Integra Type

TCA Sebring Saturday Race Results
2nd TCA – #9 Maddy Lemke, Ascent Racing, Honda Civic Si FE1

GT World Challenge America Sebring Saturday Race Results
7th (4 in class) – #93 Luca Mars and Zach Veach, Racers Edge Motorsports, NSX GT3

TCX Sebring Sunday Race Results
4th TCX – #22 Celso Neto, Skip Barber Racing, Acura Integra Type S (Fastest Lap)
6th TCX – #19 Cooper Broll, Skip Barber Racing, Acura Integra Type S

TCA Sebring Sunday Race Results
1st TCA – #14 Alex Garcia, Skip Barber Racing, Honda Civic Si FE1 (Hard Charger)
3rd TCA – #9 Maddy Lemke, Ascent Racing, Honda Civic Si FE1

GT World Challenge America Sebring Sunday Race Results
7th (4 in class) – #93 Luca Mars and Zach Veach, Racers Edge Motorsports, NSX GT3