Rocco Pasquarella put the No. 5 KMW Motorsports Honda Civic Type R TCR on pole for the Alan Jay Automotive Network 120 at Sebring — the first IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge TCR pole in the team’s history. What followed was two hours of attrition, bad luck, and the kind of mechanical gremlins that turn front-row starts into footnotes.
The race never got a clean start. Before the Grand Sport field even completed the pace lap, a chain-reaction wreck on the pit straight swallowed 11 cars after BSI Racing’s Harrison Goodman appeared to pull out of line at low speed. CarBahn’s Steven Wetterau checked up, got drilled from behind by Murillo Racing’s Aurora Straus, and became a roadblock.
Crumpled carbon fiber and sheet metal scattered the straight. Everyone walked away, but only two of the heavily damaged cars drove away.
The TCR cars, still on their final pace lap, had to pick their way through the debris field near Sunset Bend. IMSA officials froze the starting order, so Pasquarella kept his pole position once the race finally went green more than 30 minutes into the two-hour window.
He made the most of it early, leading a significant chunk of the opening green-flag stint and holding off Victor Gonzalez Racing’s Franco Girolami, one of the quickest cars in the field. A debris caution for a piece of BMW bodywork exiting Turn 3 scrambled strategies. Some pitted, some stayed out.
Then the electrical problems started. An intermittent issue sapped straight-line speed from the No. 5 Civic, pulling Pasquarella out of the lead fight. After handing off to co-driver Tim Lewis Jr. during a pit stop with 52 minutes remaining, the car could only manage fifth.
The real heartbreak belonged to the No. 93 MMG Honda of Karl Wittmer and LP Montour. Forced to start from the back of the grid after a tire problem in qualifying, they carved forward relentlessly, climbing as high as fourth and sniffing a podium on the final lap. Contact from a competitor punctured a tire and dropped them to seventh.
Tyler Gonzalez and Girolami collected the TCR victory for Victor Gonzalez Racing in their Hyundai, winning by a comfortable 13.9 seconds. It marked VGR’s second Sebring triumph, though their first came in a Honda back in 2022 — a detail that stings a little for the Honda camp watching from the wrong side of the results sheet.
Bryan Herta Autosport’s Harry Gottsacker and Lance Bergstein took second. Bryson Morris recovered from an early spin to grab third.
In Grand Sport, the story was Ibiza Farm Motorsports‘ resurrection. Michael Cooper and Moisey Uretsky were invisible at Daytona but dominated the second half at Sebring in their McLaren Artura GT4, Cooper slicing from ninth to the lead in 15 minutes. He won by 2.5 seconds over Winward Racing, cruising the final lap.
The broader numbers tell the story of a brutal day. Eighteen of 49 starters failed to finish. The opening-lap pileup accounted for ten of those, but mechanical failures and contact picked off more as the Florida heat and Sebring’s infamous concrete-patched bumps took their toll.
Honda’s HART entry of Tyler Chambers and Chad Gilsinger finished a quiet 11th. The No. 72 Pegram Racing car spun early and never recovered, crossing the line 12th. Four Civic Type R TCRs entered. None reached the podium.
Pasquarella’s pole lap proved the speed is there. The race proved speed alone doesn’t survive Sebring. Honda heads to Laguna Seca on May 2 needing the kind of clean day this circuit refused to give them.
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