Sebring Skip Barber National
April 02, 2009
American open-wheel up and coming talent Sean Rayhall started his 2009 race campaign in fine form, competing in the highly competitive BF Goodrich/Skip Barber National Series presented by Mazda in Sebring, Florida March 18, 2009. The race was held in support of the 57th Annual 12 Hours of Sebring. Having previously won at Sebring International Raceway on December 15, 2007, at the tender age of 12 years old, Sean became the youngest open wheel race winner in North America. Now at 14 years of age, the Winston, Georgia native is the youngest competitor in the 24 car field.
"Having had previous success at the Sebring circuit, I knew that I would be competitive from the start" States Rayhall. In the two test sessions held for Skip Barber competitors on Tuesday March 17, Sean went 11th quickest in the morning session and seventh in the afternoon session. "My goal for today was to set some competitive times while getting a feel for my competition. Finding out who you can run beside and who you cannot is very important in this series."
During the first day of official practice, Sean again improved his lap time finishing fifth quickest with a time of 2:24.394, further showing his competitors that despite his young age he is a force to reckon with at the difficult 17 turn circuit.
Thursday would bring about the first round of qualifying in the morning and the first Skip Barber race in the afternoon. During qualifying Sean would progressively improve, finishing off the session in P3 which would give him the inside of row two for a starting position. When the green flag dropped Sean lost one position off the start and fell back to fourth. He would keep this position while running in the lead group until the final lap. While heading into turn 17 Felipe Polehtto spun causing Sean to take cautionary measures, lifting off the throttle in order to avoid hitting Polehtto. Once Sean was clear of the third place car, he found himself in a drag race to the line with Dennis Trebing for third place, which was won by Trebing.
"I had a great car and was able to stay with the lead pack the entire race. My plan was to make a move on Polehtto going into 17 as I knew I was quicker than him through there. But once he started spinning it was everything I could do to avoid hitting him. I am a little disappointed that I was unable to finish on the podium, but fourth is still a solid finish and I will now shift my focus on putting in another solid qualifying effort for tomorrow's race."
Friday morning's qualifying session was cut short, with half of the field only able to complete one lap due to the heavy fog. Skip Barber officials decided to cancel the qualifying session and use the driver's second quickest time from the first qualifying session to determine the starting grid. Sean once again started in third position. Upon crossing the start/finish line of lap one Sean moved himself into the second position with his sights set on Conor De Phillippi. Heading into turn one Sean overtook Connor and held the lead for three laps until being freight-trained on the back straightaway by the four chasing drivers. Determined to regain the lead, Sean then re-passed all four cars on the front straightaway heading into turn one. Later in the race Sean would get shuffled back to the third position until the last lap when the fourth place car made contact with Sean, causing both cars to go off the track. Rayhall was able to quickly get back on course losing one position to sit in fourth. The remainder of the race was difficult for Rayhall as the contact from the ensuing fourth place driver caused damage to the left rear-end of his race car. Despite that, Sean still managed a strong fifth place finish.
"All in all it was a good weekend, we wanted to put in two solid finishes and thats what we did. To leave from the first weekend in fifth in the overall points is a good start. Now I will focus on my testing program and get prepared for rounds three and four at VIR"
For more information on Sean Rayhall please see http://www.seanrayhall.com/. For sponsorship or media inquires contact Michael Duncalfe at ExclusiveManagement@shaw.ca