Sebring, Fla. -- Tafel Racing celebrated a podium and a fifth place effort today in the team’s American Le Mans Series (ALMS) Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring debut.  Henzler, Liddell and Long come home third, with Tafel, Farnbacher and James finishing in fifth.

Drivers Wolf Henzler, Robin Liddell and Patrick Long drove to a podium finish.  The trio had to overcome first lap contact, which dropped them back to thirteenth to soldier back and finish on the bottom step of the podium.

“The race started off hard for us, with Wolf getting spun around,” Liddell said.  “Patrick ran a really strong stint mid-race and we were in the top two.  The car was competitive and aside from a little bad luck we had a car that could have possibly fought for the win.  I had a difficult last stint when an LMP1 car came out of the pits in front of me on cold tires and then spun forcing me into the dirty part of the track.  It took me several laps to get the tires cleaned off and a result was a slow leak which eventually went all the way down.”

Wolf Henzler was in the car when the contact happened on the first lap.  The German came back and brought the car through the field into the top three by of the end of the drive.

“I was very angry after the Ferrari hit me and I pushed hard to make up the time,” Henzler said.  “I was able to do some consistent lap times and we weren’t so far from the leader when I handed the car over.  Our mechanics didn’t finish preparing the car until 2.45 a.m. this morning and they gave everything to us.  I like to win, but to finish third is a very good result for the team.”

Patrick Long put in a strong mid-race stint that witnessed the young California native lapping faster than the cars qualifying time.

“I had a pretty good day behind the wheel,” Long said.  “I was able to run some fast times in my first stint and try to make up some ground.  As the race went on the track became really dirty which made it vital to stay on the racing line.  The Tafel guys really prepared a great car today.  We had a few issues, but I think we put everyone on notice this new team will be a group that will contend for wins nearly every race this year.”