Wednesday, July 22, 2020 – Highlands, NJ – AIM Vasser Sullivan driver Frankie Montecalvo, along with co-driver Townsend Bell, finished P5 in class on Saturday’s Grand Prix of Sebring, the third round of the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship. Montecalvo qualified the No. 12 Lexus RC F GT3 on pole for the start of Saturday’s race.
“I’m happy to come away from the Grand Prix of Sebring weekend with a top five finish and more points towards our championship run,” said Montecalvo.
“I would have loved to have had another podium finish, but some unlucky circumstances kept us from that. The AIM Vasser Sullivan team gave us an amazing car which showed when we qualified on pole for Saturday’s race.”
“We had a great start, and Aaron (Telitz) and I started to pull away from the field. We made the call to go with alternating pit and race strategies, so Aaron took the lead while I was conserving fuel. Unfortunately, as this was happening, a full course caution came out, so we both needed to pit at the same time.”
“As we were making our pit stops, the two GTLM Porsches made contact with each other and, debris from their cars blocked the No. 14’s pit stall exit, which then had a domino effect on us, as I was unable to leave my pit stall. When we were finally able to get back on track, I was in last place and knew I had my work cut out for me.”
“From there, I was able to make my way up to fifth or sixth and was in the fight with the third and fourth place cars, but I had worked my tires a lot in that stint and wasn’t able to get around the Mercedes or the Ferrari ahead. When Townsend hopped in, he did a great job to keep us in the top five and hold off the rest of the field until the end of the race.”
“Congratulations to our sister car on back-to-back wins. I’m grateful to finish the weekend with the top five points for the No. 12 car but definitely looking forward to getting back on the podium. We race at Road America in less than two weeks, and I cannot wait to get back there with our Lexus. Road America is one of my favorite tracks, and I would love to get our first win of the season there!”
The next IMSA WeatherTech race will be at Road America on Sunday, August 2. The race will air live on NBC Network from 12:00 to 3:00 PM ET! Be sure to follow Frankie on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date with current broadcast times, networks, and all of Frankie’s racing news.