IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams have been gearing up for the 2024 season in private testing, but they’ll gather together at Daytona International Speedway next week for a four-day IMSA homologation test. While the test allows the …
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams have been gearing up for the 2024 season in private testing, but they’ll gather together at Daytona International Speedway next week for a four-day IMSA homologation test. While the test allows the sanctioning body to help gauge car performance and make any Balance of Performance changes — especially with the new crop of GT3 cars coming in from Ford and Chevrolet — it will be critical for the teams in preparation for the Rolex 24 At Daytona and the rest of the season.
For the Grand Touring Prototype teams, it affords them the opportunity to build upon the knowledge they’ve gathered over the first season with the cars and try some new approaches. Last year, most of the teams running the brand-new LMDh-specification cars were simply trying to figure out how to run the things and make sure they would last 24 hours. Mission accomplished, they can now turn their attention to wringing more performance out of their machines.
“One of the things that we’re excited about with our carryover program for ’24 is we’re able to focus on the car and understanding it more as well as making sure we have all the support on the GM and Dallara side ready to help the teams be successful,” says GM sports car racing program manager Laura Wontrop Klauser. “One of the most challenging things this year has been the lack of time. We’ve been running race to race to race, and we’d occasionally slip in a test. Really, it was our race schedule in 2023 that kept us busy, which was phenomenal because you can’t have a better test than a race to see what you can do with the car.”
Racing proved to the teams that the cars are more durable and reliable than many expected. The races showed what can go wrong, and how to correct the problems to keep the car on track. But it’s hard to find the time in a race weekend to try the little things that can add up to significant time over the course of every lap.
“Toward the end of the season with the couple of tests we had, we started to learn more about the car and what makes it go and what doesn’t work,” says Sebastien Bourdais, driver of the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R. “It’s just going to take time. People think we’ve had a lot of testing, but it was all centered toward homologation and reliability. We’re still really green on knowledge of the car as far as designing setups and getting performance out of it.
“Since we homologated the car, there’s really been little time to optimize it and understand it as far as finding that last half a second that’s a game-changer when you come to race weekends. It’s going to be a continuous learning process, trying to make numbers fall into place and validate the reads.”
Bourdais and company are eager to move beyond the basics in optimizing the capabilities of their LMDh prototypes. Richard Dole/Lumen
Bourdais is one of several Cadillac Racing drivers who will be testing next week at Daytona. Cadillac Racing won the 2023 GTP title with the No. 31 V-Series.R courtesy of Whelen Engineering and drivers Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims. With the addition of endurance driver Jack Aitken, they also took the the Michelin Endurance Cup. Bourdais and Renger van der Zande also scored a victory with the Chip Ganasssi Racing squad at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, helping Cadillac to the manufacturers’ title. Despite what can only be called a successful season in the inaugural year of the new GTP class, there’s no resting on the laurels — there’s a lot of room for improvement.
“Like any new car, you always want more testing, more practice time. Especially when it’s such a complex race car with the hybrid, and a heavy car makes for a longer road in terms of development,” explains Derani. “We’re a year and a bit into the development of this car but only just now starting to understand a few things that make sense to the setup and how we make this car go quicker. Still a lot to improve from everyone.
“We’ve done a strong job despite all the difficulties we had this season. It’s always a learning process and you have to be humble enough to know you have to continue that way if you want to succeed in this series.”
But beyond just working on the car, like every team Cadillac Racing also has new team members and drivers to bring into the loop. Aitken moves from endurance third driver on the No. 31 to full-time partner to Derani. Tom Blomqvist shifts from Meyer Shank Racing and Acura to join Derani and Aitken for the endurance events in addition to competing in his rookie IndyCar season. For those drivers especially, any testing time is critical.
“We have a lot to work on and improve; I think that’s the case for everybody with these cars that are still so early in the development cycle that everybody is learning quickly,” Aitken says. “We’ve made massive gains through the season, but when you don’t have racing, it gives everybody the opportunity to breathe a little bit and the capacity to make some changes and updates and advancements. It’s going to be a busy period for us. The race to be ready for the Roar and Daytona will be pretty intense. Though it feels a long way from now, it will come around quickly.”
The GTP teams, along with LMP2, will be on track next Wednesday and Thursday, joined by GTD PRO and GTD on Thursday before the series turns its attention to two days of targeted performance testing of the GTD cars.
Acura won Motul Petit Le Mans, but it was Cadillac’s day. After 10 hours, Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims claimed the first Drivers Championship of GTP’s new era in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing …
Acura won Motul Petit Le Mans, but it was Cadillac’s day.
After 10 hours, Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims claimed the first Drivers Championship of GTP’s new era in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing took the team trophy. On the strength of a 12 Hours of Sebring victory and a second in the Six Hours of the Glen, Derani, Sims and Jack Aitken are the Michelin Endurance Cup champs as well. Cadillac, with the help of the Chip Ganassi Racing arm of Cadillac Racing, took the Manufacturer Championship both overall (its fourth) and for the MEC (fifth).
“It has been an amazing 16 months,” declared Derani. “So much work behind the scenes, obviously from every manufacturer, but especially us. We weren’t the first ones to get the car rolling and there has been so much work to get to this championship. A big thanks to everyone from Cadillac, who I know spent hours and hours in simulators and development and back at the factory, missing sleeps, and it’s so much effort from everyone. To be here after what I believe is the most incredible season finale of the championship, with four manufacturers fighting for the championship, which shows how tough and how competitive the championship is…to be the one leaving with the trophy and as the manufacturers champion, it’s fantastic.”
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For Derani, it was his second championship in three years, after taking the DPi title in 2021 with Felipe Nasr. Sims, in his only season in GTP ahead of moving to Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports next season, gained his first professional championship. Former Williams F1 reserve driver Aitken has some good momentum to carry on to his role as Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing’s full-season driver alongside Derani in 2024.
“It’s been a real pleasure to be a part of this new era,” said Aitken. “I think the standard of drivers, teams [and] machinery that we have competing in the series, [and] in WEC as well, is just phenomenal. To have such a close finale, after there were so many ups and downs for everybody through the year, is really amazing. I think we’re all still slightly in disbelief, but it’s a just reward for all the hard work that’s gone on with the program.”
Cadillac didn’t win the most races in the first season of the new era of GTP. It’s two teams took a victory apiece, Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande nabbing one at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Acura captured three wins, all by Petit Le Mans winner Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian. Porsche Penske Motorsport also had drivers standing on top of the podium three times, and BMW had one win. But while Derani said it was “consistent inconsistency” that had the championship so close, one fact remains – the No. 31 was always there at the end. It may not have always been at the front, but neither was it dumped in the paddock in pieces before the race ended, nor was it parked with a mechanical issue.
Part of the latter item — the reliability — comes through the work that Cadillac and its teams put in before the season began.
“The feeling right now is pride. I’m pretty sure it’s bursting out of my chest,” smiled GM Sports Car Racing Program Manager Laura Wontrop Klauser. “Because the amount of work that went into this program, starting from day one when the car was just a picture on the computer screen, and how it grew into becoming something that we were testing physically and then finally hit ground, back in July [of 2022]. And the two championships we ran this year bringing all three cars to Le Mans, having all three at Rolex, and to walk away with an IMSA championship — I think is just something where all those long hours, those nights, [the lack of sleep]…being able to walk away here with our heads held high and and really feel proud of what we did. We were going to be proud no matter what happened today, but to come off with the championship win for manufacturers and for the team with the No. 31 is just an experience that will obviously be with me for the rest of my life.”
The fresh pavement at Road America may prove to be quite a challenge for Sunday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race, but in qualifying it was producing record laps in most classes. With most of the day having been somewhat overcast until …
The fresh pavement at Road America may prove to be quite a challenge for Sunday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race, but in qualifying it was producing record laps in most classes. With most of the day having been somewhat overcast until qualifying, track temperatures were kept a bit lower than they might have been, and it showed in ultimate speed.
Pipo Derani, with both Cadillacs having been at the top in the practice sessions, might have been an easy pick to score the pole position, and he delivered with a 1m47.730s in the Action Express Racing V-Series.R. That time, a 135.27mph average around the 4.048-mile circuit, was nearly a second better than the old DPi lap record set by Dane Cameron in an Acura in 2019, the first time the GTPs have been quicker than their predecessors all season. It also brought critical points for Derani and Alexander Sims as they attempt to maintain their championship lead.
“With the new tarmac, it’s very important to be out front not only because it will be hard to overtake GTs on the outside, being so slippery. Also, in the moment that we are in the championship, to be starting out front has a big impact, I would say,” Derani explained. “Back when I won the championship in 2021, it was decided on the minimum, like one or two, three points. Being able to take these extra points home could mean something at the end of the championship.”
Derani set the quick time, then brought the Cadillac into the pits to put on a new set of tires to scrub for the race while waiting to see if Sebastien Bourdais in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac could better his time. Not only did Bourdais fall 0.3s short at 1m48.036s, the Cadillac front-row party was spoiled by Matt Campbell in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 who posted a 1m47.798s lap — pace not shown by any of the Porsches previously during the weekend, something Derani says isn’t too surprising to him.
“I think during practice there’s so many different programs that you do with your own team that you don’t really necessarily know each one’s true pace until qualifying comes. What we do know is that the GTP class has been very close and so you would never discard anyone before the checkered flag in qualifying. Not surprised. I think it’s good for the championship that everyone is very close. It’s good for the fans, and it puts an extra pressure on the team to execute races and execute practices and qualifying at a very high level, because you know that anything can can make a difference in the end.”
Filipe Albuquerque qualified fourth with a 1m48.156s lap in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-06 to start on the outside of the second row alongside Bourdais. Connor De Phillippi will start the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 on the inside of the third row, with Colin Braun in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura alongside.
George Kurtz, who might have been racing elsewhere were he not leading the LMP2 championship with Ben Hanley, qualified the No. 04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR ORECA on the LMP2 pole with a 1m53.621s lap — more than half a second better than Rodrigo Sales in the No. 8 Tower Motorsports ORECA.
Kurrtz’s closest rivals in the championship, which was practically a dead heat coming into Road America, will start on the second row. Richard Dole/Lumen
Steven Thomas qualified the No. 11 TDS Racing entry third at 1m54.296s, with Ben Keating putting the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA on the outside of row two.
Nico Pino, who had a scary moment launching off the end of the curb at the exit of Turn 1 with all four wheels in the air, still managed to claim the LMP3 pole. Pino, a late substitution for Lance Willsey in the No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier, turned a record 1m57.930s lap before he took flight to claim the pole by nearly a second. Bijoy Garg, making his first start in WeatherTech Championship, qualified second in the No. 29 Jr III Racing Ligier. Garg was supposed to partnering with Linus Lundqvist for his debut, but with Lundqvist getting the call-up from Meyer Shank Racing to drive their IndyCar in Nashville, he is instead driving with Colin Noble. Gar Robinson qualified the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier third with a 1m58.224s.
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“This is the first time for me in Road America. I just got here for P1,” said Pino. “It was a lot of learning. We struggled a little bit through the practice sessions so we had to make big changes for qualifying, which obviously worked out. Then tried to explore the limits a little bit through the session, of course having some airtime at one point. Yeah, pretty happy with pole. It’s…a good position for tomorrow’s race, so we’ll now analyze and see how we can improve on being in great position for tomorrow.”
The GTD records were obliterated as well, with Alex Riberas beating the previous records by more than 2s in taking the pole for GTD PRO as Heart of Racing looks to repeat its double victory from Lime Rock. Riberas’s 2m02.918s (118.56mph) in the No. 23 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 was a scant 0.057s better than Daniel Juncadella in the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG. Jordan Taylor qualified third in GTD PRO in the No. 3 Corvette Racing C8.R with a 2m03.143s lap.
After some early struggles, Riberas is giving back to the Heart of Racing crew that have toughed things out and turned the year around in a big way. Geoffrey Miller/Lumen
“A great day for Heart of Racing overall,” said Riberas. “It’s been a tough year so far. A lot of things that went against our way in terms of strategy, some mistakes, some things that didn’t quite work for our car, and we had to overcome those. But at the end of the day, momentum plays a massive role in terms of performance and in terms of getting the outcome, so I feel like we have that momentum right now…after the win at Lime Rock. The guys are doing a phenomenal job getting the car ready after the big crash that Ross [Gunn] had at Mosport. It just feels very special to be able to give them back a reward for all of those super long hours of work that they had to endure.”
Madison Snow will start the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 on the outside of the second row as he scored his first GTD pole since the qualifying format was opened up to either driver. His 2m03.291s lap reset the GTD record held by Ben Keating since 2019.
“It’s a tight field, a lot of cars and if you have to work your way up to the pack, it’s definitely a challenge. We’ve been in a tight competition with the Heart of Racing car, so every little point that you can get matters and the points add up at the end of the year.”
Snow’s closest pursuer in qualifying, Brendan Iribe in the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3, will start directly behind the BMW, with Jack Hawksworth having qualified the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 fourth in GTD PRO and fifth overall. Iribe was only 0.091s off Snow’s best lap. Klaus Bachler put the GTD PRO No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R seventh overall to provide more separation to the third-place GTD car, Frankie Montecalvo in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus.
Mike Skeen was fourth in GTD in the No. 31 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes AMG, followed by Roman De Angelis in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin.
UP NEXT A 20-minute warm-up session at 8am local time ahead of a 10:10am Central time race start.
It was another Cadillac Racing one-two in the second practice session for Sunday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Road America, this time with Pipo Derani at the top for Action Express Racing. His 1m47.986s – good for 134.95mph …
It was another Cadillac Racing one-two in the second practice session for Sunday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Road America, this time with Pipo Derani at the top for Action Express Racing. His 1m47.986s – good for 134.95mph around the 4.048-mile, 14-turn circuit – was 0.201s quicker than Chip Ganassi Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais in the second Cadillac V-Series.R, reversing the order from the first practice.
“It was a positive day for all of us at Cadillac Racing,” said Derani. “A better order in the second practice, I would say. Jokes aside, it’s not only being quick in practice one and expecting to be quick in practice two. You have to keep working on it, trying different things to find a little bit here and a little bit there. It was a good start but obviously the competition is very stiff and strong. It’s a long track and a small mistake going really quick can cost you a couple of tenths and a position. Trying to put everything together is not easy and that’s why we’re trying to have a car that’s good and easier to achieve the desired lap times.
“Practice is very tight and we shouldn’t expect anything different in qualifying, which means that every detail is going to count,” Derani added.
Ricky Taylor was another 0.411s back in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-06. The two BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8s were fourth and fifth, Connor De Phillippi in the No. 25 besting Philipp Eng in the No. 24. Nick Tandy was the best of the Porsches in the Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 in sixth, just edging Mike Rockenfeller in the No. 5 JDC-Miller 963.
The new pavement at Road America has more grip, at least on the racing line, and is producing times below track records in several classes, indicating that several records will fall in qualifying. Even the GTP cars were under the DPi track record, set in 2019 by Dane Cameron at 1m48.715s.
The newfound traction on line has a price, though – a marked difference in traction once a car strays off the rubbered-in pavement, making passing in the race a challenge, and it has contributed to the plethora of session interruptions for crashes.
“It was very messy and very difficult to get a read with the red flags,” said Corvette Racing’s Antonio Garcia after the first practice session. “The track is tricky in a way. There is definitely way more grip overall. In years before, the racing line was way wider so you had room to find your way or choose your line. Here it is a tiny bit different. You need to really stick to the line, otherwise the drop-off in grip is quite fast. That’s why I think there were so many mistakes and offs and crashes. It’s going to be tricky in the race when you get passed or need to pass.”
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The second session was better than the first, in which more than a third of the practice time was lost to red flags. The second session had three stoppages — one for a harmless spin, but two for significant crashes. The first heavy crash was Steven Thomas in the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA LMP2 car toward the exit of the Carousel, the second was Mike Skeen in the No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes AMG crashing in The Kink.
Mikael Grenier had previously set the GTD fast time in the No. 32, which held as the fast GT time overall until the final 15 minutes, when the pro classes had the track to themselves. Grenier’s 2m4.327s (117.213mph) was quicker than the existing GTD record set by Bean Keating, also in a Mercedes AMG, in 2019 by almost a second.
Grenier bested Madison Snow in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 by 0.287s. Frederik Schandorff was third at 2m4.911s for Inception Racing in the No. 70 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo. Seb Priaulx (No. 80 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R) and Bill Auberlen (No. 97 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3) competed the top five.
Once the qualifying simulations for the pro classes began in the final 15 minutes, the GTD PRO cars went to the top of the time sheet, Jordan Taylor turning the top time of 2m3.712s (117.8mph) in the No. 3 Corvette Racing C8.R. That time was a relatively large margin over second-place Daniel Juncadella’s 1m4.183s in the No. 29 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG GT3. Jack Hawksworth was third in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 at 2m4.225s. All the GTD PRO cars were within a second and all under Hawksworth’s track record set last year.
Ryan Dalziel, who with Dwight Merriman is the defending race winner in the No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA, set the fast time in LMP2 at 1m52.244s (129.831mph), followed by George Kurtz in the No. 04 Crowdstrike Racing ORECA by 0.248s). Louis Deletraz was third at 1m52.581s for Tower Motorsports in the No. 8.
Garett Grist led LMP3 at 1m58.069s in the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier. Matthew Bell was second in the No. 13 AWA Racing Duqueine with a 1m58.488s lap. Gerry Kraut was third in the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Duqueine, another 0.186s back of Kraut.
UP NEXT: Qualifying in three separate sessions begins Saturday at 2:15pm Eastern. It will be carried live on IMSA.tv.
A big crash while the leaders were trying to navigate traffic in the final stage of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring took out the top three GTP cars as well as several GT cars, and produced a surprise winner that should have been no surprise. The …
A big crash while the leaders were trying to navigate traffic in the final stage of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring took out the top three GTP cars as well as several GT cars, and produced a surprise winner that should have been no surprise.
The pole-sitting No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Pipo Derani, Alexander Sims and Jack Aitken, Aitken at the wheel for the finish, won the Twelve Hours of Sebring, with the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 of Nick Yelloly, Connor De Phillippi and Sheldon van der Linde finishing second. The LMP2 winner, the No. 8 Tower Motorsports ORECA of John Farano, Kyffin Simpson and Scott McLaughlin finished third overall.
The No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsports squad of Mathieu Jaminet, Nick Tandy and Dane Cameron finished third in GTP while their wrecked heap of a 963 was carried on a flatbed back to the Penske transporter.
With several late-race yellows, a fight to the finish was set up with the top five GTP cars on the lead lap all full of fuel and with fresh tires. Jaminet led Filipe Albuquerque in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-06 with Jaminet’s teammate Felipe Nasr’s No. 7 PPM 963 in third. As Jaminet hit traffic in Turn 1, Albuquerque attacked and went inside. But as Jaminet was trying to navigate a pack of GT cars, he moved left, Albuquerque went off track, lost control and slid through the inside of Turn 3, hitting Jaminet’s Porsche on the other side of the apex. Nasr was next on the scene, hit the Acura, and then the No. 6. All three cars were done, and Aitken sailed through for the victory.
“It was a very, very tough race and we were trying to hold our position as good as we could,” said Aitken, the third driver in the No. 31 for the endurance races. “But the other guys were fighting extremely hard. At some point, you have to realize when it’s time to give up, and that’s part of the reason that we made it to the end today. We all drove pretty smart, I think as well as racing as hard as we could when we had the pace. But yeah, there was a little bit waiting for an accident to happen at some points in that race.”
It was a little bit improbable that AXR would be in a position to be fighting at the end. Derani started the race double-stinting the Michelin tires that he qualified on. Part way through the second stint, the car became a handful and Derani started sliding backward through the field, putting him in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“I think we underestimated a little bit of the fact that it was quite hot out there,” Derani explained. “We knew that we couldn’t make it, especially if went green most of the race, on the amount of tires that we had. So we tried to be a little aggressive in the beginning to have more tires at the end. The second half of the second stint was quite difficult. Very quickly after that I had a contact with a LMP3 That spun right in front of me, so had to had to stop for repairs and so removed that set of tires from the car.”
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The No. 31 nosed into the P3 car, damaging the front clip and pushing it into the tire. Shedding bodywork, the team tried to keep the car out until the pits opened, but it wasn’t going to make it. Between that and a stop-plus-10s penalty for an improperly served emergency service obligation, the team went down a lap with about 10 hours left in the race — plenty of time to get it back, and with under five hours to go, Derani was in the lead again.
However, he quickly discovered he didn’t have the pace to stay there. And later in the race, Aitken also realized the car didn’t have what they needed to fight for victory without the incident taking out the top three.
The victory was the fourth Sebring win for Derani, and put the AXR team into the championship lead.
After overcoming early setbacks, the Porsche Penske Motorsports, Porsche 963s showed winning pace…until the late chaos. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images
The Porsches had the pace at the end, but they had some issues early on, including a puncture for the No. 6, then an incident with Tandy in the car when he slowed suddenly and then opened the door, proceeding to the pit where the crew tightened a hose after Tandy complained of a “weird gas.”
And, like every Sebring, the race had its share of bizarre incidents; but the most bizarre was Robert Mau in the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports Ligier hitting the No. 6 963 with Cameron at the wheel during a yellow flag. While the field was behind the safety car, the No. 38 drove hard into the 963 as the wave-around process started, heavily damaging the Ligier and inflicting rear bodywork damage on the Porsche. Despite all that, they were there for the fight at the end, and without the notorious Sebring traffic, might have cruised to victory. But hard, aggressive racing took over.
“I’m really sorry to all the Porsche Penske motorsport group and team, all the Porsche family for that,” said Jaminet. “And luckily, I’m OK, Filipe’s OK, that’s the most important thing.
“We were racing hard — with 30 to go everybody pretty much goes all in. The 10 went on the left in the grass. And from what I saw on the outside the camera, I moved more to the left. But the thing is, I didn’t know he was there. And then I realized he’s there, so I tried to move to the right. But he’s in the grass, and then he lost control, and then that caused the accident. So that’s really unfortunate. I’m also really sorry for the 10. Filipe apologized straight away coming out of the car for his move trying to go down in the grass. So in the end, I believe it’s a really unfortunate racing accident, both drivers being fully at the limit.”
Like the 31, the No. 25 BMW went down a lap, only it was late in the race while the crew was working on the brakes. But yellows breeding yellows, they were able to get the lap back in short order and be there at the end.
“It’s Sebring, right? Last 20 minutes guaranteed, there’s always gonna be a crash of some sort, and normally it’s for the lead,” said De Phillippi. “I’ve been taken out twice from the lead myself. So from the start of the race, I told both my teammates Nick and Sheldon, if we just can be there at the end, just be on the bumper, something is bound to happen. And we had a clean race, all the guys did great stops, we kept the car in one piece … yeah, we didn’t have the perfect, outright pace. But at the end of the day it’s only our second race with the car and second race with the prototype car as a team and as a manufacturer. So hats off to everybody on the team at BMW and Dallara and all of our partners. I’m just super proud of everybody in this program.”
Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian’s chances ended late in the race when the No. 60 Acura ARX-06 lost a wheel. Two of the other GTPs had gone out earlier, the first being the No. 24 BMW M Team RLL car that had a technical issue and was retired after 172 laps. Sebastien Bourdais was looking quite strong in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing, easily taking the lead from Derani on a restart with a little less than four hours to go and pulling out a lead.
But it all went up in smoke, literally, after 241 laps, Bourdais pulling into the pits with a fire. The team described it as a “fuel distribution issue,” one that had not occurred in testing or at Daytona.
“It’s obviously pretty disappointing for everybody,” said Bourdais. “The guys did a great job. A couple of incidents that kind of put us out of sequence and then we paid the price with the double stints on tires. Renger (van der Zande) did a heck of a job hanging onto the car because it was well over two stints on the tires and not easy. And a typical safety car reset the field. We had a great restart from last to ninth and we worked out way to the lead with a great pit stop by the guys.”
Tower Motorsports had a lot to cope with en route to victory in LMP2 for John Farano, Scott McLaughlin and Kyffin Simpson. Jake Galstad/Lumen
The LMP2 win and overall third for the Tower Motorsports squad seemed a remote possibility when Kyffin Simpson had an off and backed the No. 8 ORECA into the tire wall, breaking the rear wing. But the team got the car back together and stayed in the fight, McLaughlin finally holding off the No. 11 TDS Racing squad of Mikkel Jensen, Steven Thomas and Scott Huffaker in second.
“Unfortunately, Kyffin had that little moment, but he’s been flawless for the two races I’ve been with him,” said IndyCar Series driver McLaughlin after his second race in LMP2 and first at Sebring. “The team really did the right strategy and kept us on the lead lap, fixed our bodywork, thankfully the car was straight and we had a really fast race car. I was able to just use the right strategy calls from the team and and manufacture a result there at the end.
“But it was pretty full on — it was pretty hard racing at the end and definitely difficult. This is probably the darkest race I’ve ever been a part of, I’ve never seen anything like it. So I was just building up confidence every lap out there at night. Particularly racing with people but yeah, I really enjoyed it. Just really stoked for everyone — for John, Kyffin and the team.”
Christian Rasmussen, Dwight Merriman and Ryan Dalziel were third in the No. 18 Era Motorsports ORECA – also an unlikely podium finisher after an early spin and a couple of penalties left them digging themselves out of a hole. Five cars finished on the same lap, the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports car in fourth, followed by the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA.
Riley Motorsports trio of Gar Robinson, Felipe Fraga and Josh Burdon dodged Sebring’s bullets to claim LMP3 honors. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images
LMP3 was shaping up to be fight to the finish between the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier and the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier until luck in the form of another full-course-caution-causing incident toward the end that set up the Big One. Shortly after a restart, Pietro Fittipaldi went off course and hit the tires. A wheel from Fittipaldi’s No. 51 Rick Ware Racing ORECA LMP2 bounced across track — whether that was the cause or the result of the crash is unknown. Fraga in the No. 74 avoided it, Grist in the No. 30 hit it square-on as it fell from the sky. That left Fraga a lap in the lead in the car he shared with Gar Robinson and Josh Burdon, able to cruise to victory.
“I saw the wheel,” said Fraga. “First my team told me that there was a car in the wall in Turn 1. But we were racing tight at that moment when I hit Turn 1 and I saw the wheel coming to the track and I was going to the right because the wheel was passing the road. But suddenly the wheel stopped in the middle of it. And I just waited for it to hit me. It was not meant to be, the wheel bounced and then I just saw Garret going with the lights crazy. So I said maybe he hit it. It was crazy. It was very, very lucky for us to not hit that wheel.”
The No. 13 AWA Duqueine of Orey Fidani, Matthew Bell and Lars Kern was second in LMP3, followed by the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Duqueine of Till Bechtolsheimer, Tijmen van der Helm and Dan Goldburg.
A big crash while the leaders were trying to navigate traffic in the final stage of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring took out the top three GTP cars as well as several GT cars, and produced a surprise winner that should have been no surprise. …
A big crash while the leaders were trying to navigate traffic in the final stage of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring took out the top three GTP cars as well as several GT cars, and produced a surprise winner that should have been no surprise.
When it all shook out, the polesitting No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Pipo Derani, Alexander Sims and Jack Aitken — Aitken at the wheel for the finish — won the Twelve Hours of Sebring, with the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 of Nick Yelloly, Connor De Phillippi and Sheldon van der Linde finishing second. The LMP2 winner, the No. 8 Tower Motorsports ORECA of John Farano, Kyffin Simpson and Scott McLaughlin, finished third overall.
The No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsports squad of Mathieu Jaminet, Nick Tandy and Dane Cameron finished third in GTP while their wrecked heap of a 963 was carried on a flatbed back to the Penske transporter.
With several late race yellows, a fight to the finish was set up with the top five GTP cars on the lead lap all full of fuel and with fresh tires. Jaminet led Filipe Albuquerque in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-06 with Jaminet’s teammate Felipe Nasr’s No. 7 PPM 963 in third. As Jaminet hit traffic in Turn 1, Albuquerque attacked and went inside. But as Jaminet was trying to navigate a pack of GT cars, he moved left, Albuquerque went off track, lost control and slid through the inside of Turn 3 and hit Jaminet’s Porsche on the other side of the apex. Nasr was next on the scene, hit the Acura, and then the No. 6. All three cars were done, and Aitken sailed through for the victory.
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All the late yellows also allowed several GTD and GTD PRO cars to go far farther on fuel than they would have been able to otherwise, the top cars in both classes running around an hour and 50 minutes from their last pit stop to the finish. It was the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Patrick Pilet, Klaus Bachler and Laurens Vanthoor winning GTD PRO, and the No. 1 BMW squad of Madison Snow, Bryan Sellers and Corey Lewis claiming GTD for Paul Miller Racing.
One of the late-race incidents ended the LMP3 battle between the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier and the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier. Shortly after a restart for the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura losing a wheel, Pietro Fittipaldi went off course and hit the tires. A wheel from Fittipaldi’s No. 51 Rick Ware Racing ORECA LMP2 bounced across track – whether that was the cause or the result of the crash is unknown. Fraga in the No. 74 avoided it, Grist in the No. 30 hit it square on as it fell from the sky. That left Fraga a lap in the lead in the car he shared with Gar Robinson and Josh Burdon, able to cruise to victory.
The eighth hour of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring ended under caution as a battle for the lead in GTD came to a head. Philip Ellis in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG and Zacharie Robichon in the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 had …
The eighth hour of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring ended under caution as a battle for the lead in GTD came to a head. Philip Ellis in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG and Zacharie Robichon in the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 had a light touch in Turn 1, sending Robichon spinning into the tires, but continuing with what appeared to be minor wing damage. Ellis wasn’t so lucky, as the right front suspension gave way two corners later, forcing him to park the car and bringing out the full-course caution.
That left Madison Snow in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 in the lead, followed by Andy Lally’s No. 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage, Kenton Koch in the No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG, Roman De Angelis in the Rolex 24-winning No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin and Robby Foley in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW. The polesitting No. 93 Racers Edge with WTR car is out of contention after Ashton Harrison had contact with another car on a restart.
With four hours left, the GTP and overall fight is still wide open as the real racing heats up as the temperatures cool. Seven GTP cars are together on the lead lap – the No. 24 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 has retired due to an unknown technical issue – led by Pipo Derani in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R. Polesitter Derani is at the front for the first time since the early stages of the race, last leading on lap 27.
The No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 is running second with Matt Campbell at the wheel, followed by Sebastien Bourdais in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac and Helio Castroneves in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura, although the latter two were engaged in a fierce fight as the hour closed. The yellow was a big help to the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura, in which Ricky Taylor was having to work his way through traffic after being handed a penalty for pit lane speed violation. All the GTP cars still running are on the same lap.
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As the race moves toward the setting sun – the blinding light of which may be subdued by some clouds, much to the drivers’ relief – those who have wisely set their car up for the nighttime finish will start to get serious. The drivers and teams will transition from survival mode into racing mode.
The GTD PRO battle between Corvette vs. Mercedes-AMG was raging when the yellow came out, as the No. 3 Corvette and the No. 79 WeatherTech car continued to pull away from the rest of the field with any time of racing. Tommy Milner led in the Corvette as the hour ticked over ahead of Maro Engel, but the Corvette had a problem with the left-rear shock and went a lap down while the team changed it during the yellow. Davide Rigon was third in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 when the yellow came out, followed by Bill Auberlen in the No. 95 Turner Motorsport BMW and Jordan Pepper in the No. 63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracán.
Five LMP2 cars remain on their lead lap, led by Nolan Siegel in the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing ORECA. Ed Jones ran second for High Class Racing, followed by Scott McLaughlin in the No. 8 Tower Motorsports car, Paul-Loup Chatin for PR1 Mathiasen and Pietro Fittipaldi for Rick Ware Racing.
LMP3 has five cars in contention, Felipe Fraga leading for Riley Motorsports in the No. 74 Ligier. Garret Grist was second in the No. 30 Sean Creech Motorsports Ligier, while the car that took pole and has looked the strongest all race — the No. 36 Andretti Autosport Ligier — was third in the hands of Glenn van Berlo.
The race is now live on USA Network to the finish.
Perfect morning conditions at Sebring International Raceway with temperatures in the low 60s and moderate humidity had engines and tires happy, allowing drivers to push the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship racecars to very quick times in …
Perfect morning conditions at Sebring International Raceway with temperatures in the low 60s and moderate humidity had engines and tires happy, allowing drivers to push the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship racecars to very quick times in qualifying for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.
In a rare GTP-only qualifying session — the top class is normally on track with LMP2 for qualifying — the two Cadillac Racing V-Series.Rs locked out the front row after trailing Acura in yesterday’s practice sessions. Pipo Derani turned the fastest lap of the weekend, showing the pace that was evident, but hadn’t appeared on the official results. Derani bailed out of a potential 1m45s lap in qualifying simulations during the second practice session yesterday, but posted a 1m45.836s (127.22mph) lap to claim the pole in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac.
“We’ve been having a fantastic weekend,” said Derani, a three-time Sebring winner. “It seems like rolled onto the track with very competitive car and so changes have been very small from practice to practice, and therefore we keep evolving quicker than if we were trying to find bigger lap times. It was a very competitive qualifying session.
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“I think we came from Daytona a a little bit behind some of our competitors, but we’ve been able to work really hard together between Action Express and Ganassi to continue to develop the Cadillac. I think it’s a strong track normally for the Cadillac, but with a new regulations, you never know whether that’s going to translate into still being a strong track. We’ve worked really hard and it shows that we are now a little bit more competitive than we were at Daytona. To be able to extract that in qualifying and have Cadillac one – two, it shows that we’re able to achieve what we’d be looking for.”
As comparison, Antonio Fuoco took the WEC 1000 Miles of Sebring pole in the No. 50 Ferrari 499P Hypercar last night with a 1m45.067s lap. The Cadillac Racing V-Series.R run by Chip Ganassi Racing, which runs to slightly different regulations in WEC, had a best lap of 1m46.082 in the hands of Alex Lynn to qualify fifth. The DPi qualifying record at Sebring is 1m45.025s, set by Bourdais last year in a Cadillac.
Sebastien Bourdais will join Derani on the front row, missing out on the pole by only 0.087s in the No.01 Chip Ganassi Racing-prepared Cadillac. Last year’s polesitter hadn’t looked as strong during yesterday’s sessions, but Bourdais had the pace when it counted.
Acura and Porsche will make up the second row for tomorrow’s 10:10am start, Ricky Taylor qualifying the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport ARX-06 in third with a 1m46.1s lap. Taylor set the lap on the first of two sets of tires he used, but didn’t go any faster on the second set, hurt perhaps by a shortening of the session — GTP qualifying was cut short when Matt Campbell clipped the inside wall at Turn 1, putting the No. 7 PPM 963 into a spin and into the tire barrier on the outside of the track. Mathieu Jaminet was 0.59s off Derani’s best to put the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 on the outside of the second row.
Tom Blomqvist, who had previously held the best lap of the weekend, qualified the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 in fifth, and the No. 24 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 will start alongside, Augusto Farfus being the last driver within a second of Derani. Campbell would have been within that range, but lost his two best laps for causing a red flag.
After a near-miss in WEC qualifying, Keating made amends with his IMSA LMP2 run. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images
Ben Keating, who just missed out on the GTE-Am pole for the 100 Miles of Sebring WEC race, took the LMP2 pole by 0.120s over Francois Heriau. Keating turned a 1m51.780s (120.45mph) lap in the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports before heading over to the WEC paddock where he’s racing the No. 33 Corvette in GTE-Am. Keating reported that he didn’t expect to be that quick, but also said he had a brake lockup on a lap that would have been even quicker.
Heriau’s 1m51.9s lap in the No. 35 TDS Racing ORECA, which was near the top of the time sheets in every session yesterday, put that car in second, with Steven Thomas in the other TDS Racing car, No. 11, another 0.269s back in third.
Glenn van Berlo destroyed the LMP3 competition, turning a record 1m55.215s (116.86mph) lap to put the No. 36 Andretti Autosport Ligier on pole for the class. Second-place Tonis Kasemets in the No. 4 Ave Motorsports Ligier was 1.659s slower. Dan Goldburg qualified the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports third with a 1m769s lap.
“Our car was really on point during qualifying,” said van Berlo, who is running his first race with Andretti and will serve as the team’s third driver alongside Jarett Andretti and Gaby Chaves for the rest of the Michelin Endurance Cup races. “I think we’ve been experimenting quite a lot yesterday to find the right balance, and today it worked out, so I’m really, really pleased with that.
“I didn’t really have expectations. I went into the qualifying really neutral to just see how it turned out. I knew we had a good car. So at the end, it’s all about putting it together and then see where you end up.”
Another feather in Antonio Garcia’s cap at a track he loves. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images
Corvette Racing began its Twelve Hours of Sebring title defense in good style, Antonio Garcia putting the No. 3 on top of GTD PRO, and GTD overall, with a time some two seconds better than seen so far, a 1m59.315s (112.84mph) lap. The GT qualifying session was cut short when Klaus Bachler spun the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche in Turn 1 and made heavy impact with the tire wall with a bit over 4m left, leaving some drivers wanting for a fast lap.
“We just committed to what we had,” said Garcia. “In the little warmup we had before qualifying, everything ran smooth and I knew everything was good. The car is decent — it doesn’t look like we might be doing a lot of changes after how it felt.”
GTD PRO cars took the top three positions, Jack Hawksworth putting the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 on the outside of the front row, 0.267s shy of Garcia’s best. Daniel Juncadella will start third in the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG after posting a 1m59.635s time.
Kyle Marcelli put the No. 93 Racers Edge with WTR Acura NSX alongside Juncadella on the grid, claiming the GTD pole with a 1m59.714s (112.47mph) lap. The Michelin Endurance Cup-only team of Marcelli, Ashton Harrison and Danny Formal will be looking for Acura’s first Sebring GTD victory tomorrow.
“I went into qualifying confident that we had a shot. Throughout the practice sessions yesterday, we’ve kind of been in in the top four all day and I don’t feel like I ever put the perfect lap together and sort of let it all hang out there. I felt they had a couple of tenths in me still and that that would be good enough for pole. Sleeping on it last night was a good thing and sometimes it’s nice to just run the laps through your head and I was able to make it happen. But it’s tight field — IMSA did a really good job with the BoP coming into Sebring. There’s four or five manufacturers within a tenth of a second, so I don’t expect the race to be easy.”
Phillip Ellis qualified the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG second in GTD, 0.120s off of Marcelli’s time, ahead of fourth (Alex Riberas, No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage) and fifth (Daniel Serra, No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3) in GTD PRO. The No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes AMG will line up on the outside of the fourth row of GT cars, third in GTD. Aaron Telitz in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 and Jan Heylen in the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R completed the top five in GTD.
UP NEXT: A 20-minute warmup at 8 a.m. ET prior to the 10:10 a.m. race start.
