E.J. Viso and the Core Motorsports team won the Prototype Challenge class in the 12 Hours of Sebring.

The No. 06 Core Motorsports Oreca FLM09 finished 12th overall in 64-car field.

“I believe this is the right way to start the year," said Viso, who was among three full-time IZOD IndyCar Series drivers competing in the event. "This program was a last-minute thing for me. Everything happened in a great way. The teamwork we had this weekend was the key to winning."

A week earlier, Viso tested the Chevrolet-powered KV Racing Technology car on the Sebring International Raceway short course.

"I had never raced at Sebring and I didn’t sit in the car until Monday this week," Viso continued. "My teammates did a great job. We had great refueling, driving changes and the team was very professional. It was quite fun with race in the 12 Hours of Sebring.”

Simon Pagenaud, driver for Schmidt/Hamilton Motorsports in the IZOD IndyCar Series, and the Muscle Milk car the ALMS P1 class for 11 hours before a broken fuel buckeye forced the team to take the car to the garage area to fix the part and refuel the car.

The No. 6 Muscle Milk Pickett Racing Class 1 HPD ARX-03a finished 28th overall.

“It was actually a very similar weekend to the one I had last year here at Sebring," said Pagenaud, whose team was runner-up in 2011. "There were three Audis out there and they are always hard to beat. When we saw their drivers after the race, they told us that we gave them a pretty good run for their money."

Ryan Hunter-Reay led the P2 class in the No. 95 Level 5 HPD ARX-03a before being knocked out of the race.

“Unfortunately, a GTC car lost it under braking behind me and completely cleaned us out," said Hunter-Reay, of Andretti Autosport. "Very disappointing since the car was so good today.”

The IZOD IndyCar Series' season opener is two hours to the northwest of Sebring -- on the streets of St. Petersburg on March 25.