Despite a brilliant effort by both crew and drivers, the 64th running of the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida, was a challenge. Looking for a repeat of their podium finish in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the team worked diligently throughout the week trying to get everything to click. Drivers, Johnny Mowlem, Ryan Lewis, Marc Drumwirght and Don Yount were all getting quicker as the week went on. Come race day, the BAR1 No. 20 Southwest Realty Advisors / Southwest Funding prototype team was starting second on the grid with momentum on their side.

“The thing with endurance racing,” noted team owner Brian Alder, “you need everything… absolutely everything, going your way. You need speed, reliability and in the end, you need luck. And even with all of that, you’d better be perfect. We just weren’t perfect. With hard work the crew got the car working fairly well. Johnny [Mowlem] put in a brilliant effort qualifying the car on the front row. Everybody… and I do mean everybody, did their job and did it well. I have no complaints.”

“The start of the race was a bit of a scramble,” added Brian. “Johnny didn’t flinch… he put his head down and within a few laps he was right in the thick of it running second and challenging for the lead.”

“The weather moved in and that put everyone’s strategy out the window,” laughed Alder. “I’d have to say, the weather was the wild card of the race. It changed everything… from tires, to driver line ups … even fuel strategy. And then the red flag for over 2 hours. Nobody could have predicted that and it really affected how we shuffled our driver line up mid race. But we hung in… we were in it, we definitely had a shot at the podium.”

That shot expired when late in the race, an additional stop was required to repair the front suspension due to residual damage from an earlier incident. The team pushed on with their “never quit” attitude and finished the 12 hour event 6th in class.

“Today things just didn’t go our way, noted Alder. “We were making crucial race strategy decisions on the fly when the weather rolled in, hoping to take advantage of our more experienced drivers and land our car on the podium… but our best efforts were not enough. Thats racing, we win together and lose together as a team”