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Nunez, Visit Florida Earn Podium Result In #500 Car At Twelve Hours Of Sebring
Florida Native Tristan Nunez didn't mind that stepping up to the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) presented by Tequila Patron might be a tall order. The 2012 Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda Series' champion and sponsor VISIT FLORIDA embraced the challenge, finishing third in the #500 car, earning Nunez his first podium result within the PC class of ALMS during the 61st annual Mobile 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. An honorary crewmember during the weekend and arguably the biggest celebrity on the grid before the race began was Ponce de León, whom was on-site to help Nunez's team celebrate Florida's 500th Anniversary in 2013.
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"I'm just so stoked for the VISIT FLORIDA guys that we could get them on the podium at the Twelve Hours of Sebring this year," said Nunez. "The Performance Tech Motorsports guys worked so hard all weekend and my teammates Charlie [Shears] and David [HeinemeierHansson] were awesome out there today and I just couldn't be happier for everyone on our team. I have to thank everyone at VISIT FLORIDA, my entire team, my family and friends and everyone who has supported and helped me to get to this point. I'm so grateful."
Nunez took to the challenging 3.7-mile, 17-turn road course at Sebring to qualify the #500 VISIT FLORIDA entry on behalf of his fellow teammates, Charlie Shears and David Heinemeier Hansson, in the Prototype Challenge presented by Continental Tire class. The Performance Tech trio had just four practice sessions to ready themselves for the race. They finished practice session two, fourth on the timing sheet, which was the group's best time during practice, 1:55.970. Nunez later bested the time while qualifying the entry, putting down a lap of 1:54.598, the group's best of the weekend.
"It's so great to be back here at Sebring in the car that I've been dreaming of driving," Nunez was quoted as saying following qualifications. "I wish we would have been a bit closer there on the times but the VISIT FLORIDA car is really good and it's comfortable to drive so for a 12 hour race, I think we'll be right up there. We'll give it the best we got and ride the wave. It's a long race."
Just before the green flag flew at a brisk Sebring International Raceway, Ponce de León could hardly make it to the #500 Performance Tech car on the grid. The Florida icon was being mobbed by race fans for photographs and was on hand to carry the State of Florida flag down the grid to the #500 car, which was numbered 500 in honor of Florida's 500th anniversary of De Leon's arrival on Florida's east coast. De Leon, who was actually Nunez's twin brother Dylan, joked with the fellow Nunez on the grid about the attention from female patrons as they stopped to meet the duo before the start of the weekend's feature event.
As the grid was cleared, Nunez started the endurance race for Performance Tech while co-drivers Shears and HeinemeierHansson waited in the wings. Nearly two hours into the 12-hour event, HeinemeierHansson took over driving duties as Nunez brought the car into the pits for a full stop while in the third position.
The youngest of the three drivers, Nunez, would watch on the sidelines as his co-drivers battled it out for the balance of the afternoon steadily in the third through fifth positions as the day faded away. Nunez then returned to the cockpit just after sunset at about 7:30 p.m. to take the anchor leg to bring the 12-hour race to the checkered flag. He stepped in, bringing the car back up to third, made two pit stops for fuel and a fresh set of Continental Tires to take the trio to the checkered and help earn the team a third-place result. Surprisingly, Nunez was only driving at night for the third time in his young career but his lack of experience went unnoticed as he brought the #500 car home solidly on the podium.
Following the race weekend, Nunez will give a special presentation on Wed., Mar. 20 at Boca Raton High School on the subject of distracted driving, a message he has been spreading for several years. He then will have two weekends away from the racetrack before stepping back over to the Rolex GRAND-AM Series for his third race of the season in GRAND-AM in the SpeedSource SKYACTIV-D Clean Diesel Mazda6 and his first appearance at Barber Motorsports Park for the Porsche 250, which is set for April 4-6, 2013, in Birmingham, Alabama. The Porsche 250 will headline alongside INDYCAR's IZOD IndyCar Series and Firestone Indy Lights Series on the 2.3 mile, 17-turn road course with comprehensive television coverage provided by FOX Sports/SPEED for the sportscar series and NBC Sports for INDYCAR's events.
Nunez will also head into the final week of voting in Federal-Mogul's Champion® Spark Plugs "Search for a Champion" contest, which has Nunez pitted among a cast of 15 competing for a $50,000 racing sponsorship from the brand. Nunez is collecting votes to secure the grand prize sponsorship through March 24, 2013 at: www.alwaysachampion.com.
PaddockTalk Perspective
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