[h=2]Happy mistake changes Keating's Sebring luck[/h] By Marshall Pruett / Images by LAT

Lady Luck owed Ben Keating a podium finish at Sebring. Any of the three podium positions would have sufficed, and thanks to a mistake made by one of his mechanics in practice, Keating and the No. 33 Mercedes-AMG GT3 team shot to the top step after 12 punishing hours of competition.
As the smiley Texan tells it, his victory with teammates Jeroen Bleekemolen and Mario Farnbacher was part redemption, and part magic.
"Sebring in general has been a race that has escaped me many times," Keating told RACER from a Caribbean port days after the race as he celebrated with his Riley Motorsports colleagues on the Gas Monkey Cruise. "In 2013, we had basically a lock on third place and ran out of fuel on the back straight on the way to the checkered flag. In 2014, we caught on fire, burned the car to the ground. 2015, we blew our engine from the lead with two laps remaining. Last year we broke an axle. We have had a really good car at Sebring many times and I've never been able to put it together.
"And this year, it was like they ran out of bad things that could happen to us. It was really special to finally, not only to have a great car, but to close the deal and win the race was really special for me."
Coming off an impressive third-place debut for the Mercedes-AMG GT3 in January at IMSA's Rolex 24 at Daytona, Keating knew the throaty V8-powered front-engine coupe would be competitive at Sebring. It took an unexpected ingredient, however, to transform the car into a genuine threat for the win.
"Talking about it being special, there are only a handful of times I can remember in my career where we made a change to the car, and a small change just completely transformed the car," he said.

"As I think about practice at Sebring, as we went through and developed the car and made small changes, it was good, but we knew it could be better. It was actually a mistake by the team in practice that helped us find that thing we were missing! I mean, it was totally incredible.



"It was one half-turn in ride height. We were supposed to raise the car on one corner and they accidentally lowered the car. We went out and all the sudden we are a second faster on the track. All of a sudden, the car comes alive. It was in the warm-up session before the race where it is like, oh my gosh, all of a sudden where has this been hiding and what is going on here now?"



The happy accident – a slight mistake with a wrench – unlocked the full potential of the big 'Benz.
"Jeroen said this may be the best car he had ever driven," Keating continued. "It wasn't really about [Balance of Performance]; it was more that this car is dialed in so well that it does whatever I am asking it to do. It was really neat from the standpoint of just from a racing driver's perspective of having a car that is that hooked up and that dialed is such a rare thing."



Keating was instrumental in making the Mercedes-AMG deal come together with Riley Motorsports after years of being the top Pro-Am representative for Dodge with the GT3-spec Viper. And while some of his competitors might disagree about the Mercedes-AMG GT3's BoP at Sebring, the car's pace was undeniable.
From the GTD pole by Tristan Vautier in the upstart No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 and their eventual third-place finish, to the win by Keating's No. 33 entry, the German brand had plenty to celebrate in Sebring.

 

Above: Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Mario Farnbacher smile after taking home the 12 Hours of Sebring win in GTD.
"We are delighted to win the 12 Hours of Sebring in what was our first attempt in the 50-year history of Mercedes-AMG and the first appearance of the three pointed star in this legendary race in 60 years," said Thomas Jaeger, program coordinator for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing. "The Mercedes-AMG GT3 has proven itself a major endurance race winner around the world but the challenge of the 12 Hours of Sebring is unlike anything else we have undertaken in the past."
Pitted against teams like Scuderia Corsa – the defending class champions – new factory teams from Acura and Lexus, and all of the monsters that make the race to Victory Lane such a brutal endeavor in GTD, Keating says Riley Motorsports' early success with the Mercedes-AMG GT3 platform is remarkable considering the opposition it faces.
"All the stars seemed to align; that was really neat," he added. "And to see our face on the Mercedes-Benz website after the win, watching them celebrate our success was really cool. From an IMSA standpoint or a championship standpoint, we are in a different position than we have ever been. We have had a really successful program in the past, but it has been really high highs and really low lows.
"But when you have a car that is that hooked up and dialed in like this, you don't mind being in fierce competition. Scuderia Corsa were right on our heels the whole time. At the four-hour mark, we were in the lead and they were in second. At the eight-hour mark, we were in the lead and they were in second. The 12-hour mark, we were in the lead and they were in second. They were not far from the fastest race lap and we had all the usual teams to go up against. The harder you have to fight for each win, the sweeter that win is, and that was our case in Sebring."
Basking in the Sebring win will soon be replaced by another fight as IMSA heads to Long Beach for Round 3 of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Keating knows Riley Motorsports' lead in the Drivers' and Teams' standings will be under fire from the moment practice begins on the legendary street circuit, and cannot count on a Sebring-style smackdown to hold the other brands at bay.
"After the [Sebring] race, I thought [Scuderia Corsa's] Christina Nielsen said it best," he said. "We were over there at the podium standing in line and she said, 'Hey, enjoy it while you've got it. Last year we had the car to beat, we had a very dominant car and we made the most of it. And congrats to you for taking a car that was very strong and making the most of it.'
"She said, 'some competitors may be upset with you because you had such a strong car, but don't pay any mind to them. Everyone is going to take their turn at the top and you have to make the most of it when it is your turn.' It was very nice to hear from a competitor. But don't get me wrong, if they get the chance to beat us, they're going to jump at it."