All Corvettes moved to the back All four Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs in the field for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Cadillac – the two GTD PRO entries from Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports and the GTD cars entered by …
All Corvettes moved to the back
All four Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs in the field for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Cadillac — the two GTD PRO entries from Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports and the GTD cars entered by AWA — have been moved to the back of their respective fields. The particular rule cited in the penalties was, “The original, As-Homologated Configuration of the Car Model must not be modified unless permitted by these Technical Regulations.”
Corvette Racing accepted the penalty and provided an explanation:
“The four Corvettes that qualified Friday at Sebring were equipped with additional diffuser reinforcement. The purpose of the modification was to solely increase reliability. As the sanctioning body was not informed before qualifying, Corvette Racing accepts IMSA’s decision and has worked with the series’ technical staff on an approved solution for the race.”
No. 6 963 expected to be ready to race
The No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 that Mathieu Jaminet crashed in qualifying is expected to be ready to take the green for today’s race. The team reports that it was only bodywork damaged in the incident.
Record numbers
For the past few days, there have been more than 220 cars in the Sebring International Raceway paddock, a record for an IMSA weekend, including those combined with the FIA WEC. That includes not only the 58 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams, but Michelin Pilot Challenge cars, Lamborghini Super Trofeo, Porsche Carrera Cup North America and Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup. That means more than 240 transporters lined up between’s Sebring’s Turns 16 and 17 along the back straight — enough to almost circle the 3.74-mile, 17-turn raceway if placed end-to-end.
Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images
Nighttime is the right time
It’s generally acknowledged that to win the 12 Hours of Sebring, the car has to be good as the temperatures cool down after sunset. But it’s equally important that the finishing driver is ready as well.
“One of the most important things is kind of backlogging to the end for your driver time,” explained Bryan Sellers, who won GTD last year with Madison Snow and Corey Lewis. “I’m personally a big believer that you do not, under any circumstance, want to have to put a driver in with just one hour remaining in the race, because they aren’t familiar with track conditions. A lot of times with tire temp, when you’re just getting in the car and leaving, it’s very difficult with the vision and adapting to the cars behind you. So I think one of the key elements to having a successful finish is to time that appropriately.”
This year Sellers, Snow and Neil Verhagen are going for the GTD PRO victory in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M.4 GT3.
Tire allocation
GTP has 11 sets of Michelin medium compound tires to use for qualifying and race. Double stinting will be required in the heat of the day in order to have fresh sets ready for the finish. LMP2 has 12 sets, and GTD PRO and GTD teams were allocated 15 sets total for the event.
Drive time
Minimum drive time for GTP and GTD PRO is one hour. Minimum drive time for LMP2 and GTD is three hours. The maximum drive time for all classes is seven hours, and four hours in any six-hour period.
Weather
Hot. While Sunday’s temperatures are expected to set records for March in central Florida, it’s expected to not be as warm on Saturday, staying much as it was for Friday. Highs are expected to be about 87 degrees Fahrenheit, while it will be low 70s for the start of the race, and mid-70s for the end. Chance of rain is almost non-existent.
How to watch/listen
The race will be streamed in its entirety on Peacock, with the USA Network carrying the second half beginning at 4pm ET. The IMSA Radio team will be commenting, and the feed can be found on IMSA.com and RadioLeMans.com; SiriusXM live race coverage begins at 9:30am ET (Sirius channel 211, XM 207, Web/App 996, at track 100.9 FM, Sebring local 99.1 FM).
Despite an Acura posting the fastest time in an abbreviated qualifying session, it will be an all-Cadillac front row for the start of the 72nd Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Cadillac. Pipo Derani had the second-best time for Whelen …
Despite an Acura posting the fastest time in an abbreviated qualifying session, it will be an all-Cadillac front row for the start of the 72nd Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Cadillac. Pipo Derani had the second-best time for Whelen Cadillac Racing in the No. 31 V-Series.R, but when Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti lost all the times for the No. 10 Acura ARX-06 — including Ricky Taylor’s best of 1m48.038s — for working on the car during qualifying, Derani’s 1m48.152s lap stood for pole. It’s Derani’s second pole of 2024, and his second consecutive Sebring pole.
Mathieu Jaminet crashed the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 with six minutes run in the 15-minute session, bringing out a red flag. Jaminet put the right-side wheels off at the exit of Turn 1, causing the car to snap left and hit the wall, leaving the PPM crew a bit of work to do before tomorrow’s 9:40am race start.
The red flag left drivers little time — less than four minutes — to bring the tires up to temperature and put in a flyer. Normally they would allow several laps to bring the tires in, but they had only an out lap before they had to put a lap on the board.
“It was a difficult qualifying session,” said Derani. “It’s never easy when you have a red-flag situation where you have to put the lap in. I was told over the radio that I could potentially grab a second flying lap if I pushed, so I obviously I pushed, but I was way too close for comfort to the No. 40 Acura [driven by Louis Deletraz]. He made a few mistakes in front of me so I lost a little bit of time having to control that distance to try and make sure I guaranteed a lap in case I didn’t have a second one.”
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Derani attempted a second flyer, on which he was ahead on the predictive timing, but got too close to Deletraz and had to abort it.
“For sure there is more from the lap time, but nevertheless it looks like it was enough to be on pole,” he said. “It’s never the nicest way to get a pole, for everybody, that no one was able to achieve the full potential of their cars. But nevertheless, it’s still the same for everyone. You still have to put a lap in and make sure that you you make no mistakes in such a pressured situation.”
Sebastien Bourdais will start alongside in the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R to repeat the Cadillac front-row lockout not only from the season-opening race at Daytona, but last year’s Sebring as well. Bourdais’s best was 0.147s off Derani.
The interrupted session produced an unusual and jumbled grid beyond the front row. Philipp Eng qualified the No. 24 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 third with a 1m48.829s, and the No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 will start outside the second row courtesy of Phil Hanson, who posted the fastest lap of yesterday’s practice sessions and had the fastest lap when qualifying was red flagged. The other privateer Porsche, the No. 5 Proton Competition 963, will start inside the third row thanks to Julien Andlauer, and Deletraz put the No. 40 Acura ARX-06 on the outside. Row four will be the No. 7 PPM 963 (Felipe Nasr) and the No. 63 Lamborghini Iron Lynx SC63 (Matteo Cairoli).
PJ Hyett shocked the LMP2 field by scoring his first pole position for only his second race in the category. His 1m52.142s in the No. 99 AO Racing ORECA nicknamed “Spike” was 0.171s better than Dan Goldburg in the No. 22 United Autosports ORECA that will start on the outside of the second row in a session that ended under a red flag with just over 30 seconds left.
“There’s a lot of emotions going through me right now, just because of how special this feels,” said Hyett. “Yeah, the dragon was definitely breathing fire today, I’ll say that.
“The really cool thing about what’s happened this season between [The No. 77 GTD PRO Porsche 911 GT3 R] ‘Rexy’ on pole at Daytona and ‘Spike’ now at Sebring, is that we tried to build his team in a new, fun way to attract a whole new generation of fans and get people excited about these fun-loving characters racing around the racetrack. To be able to back that up with really strong performances in qualifying to show we’re not just screwing around — we’re out here trying to win, get poles and we’ve been able to do that this year. So it’s it’s been a lot of work, a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes, but I love that we’ve been able to now marry our fun new approach to sports car racing with actual results.”
Goldburg’s United teammate Ben Keating had a 1m52.673s to qualify the No. 2 ORECA third, 0.092s ahead of Nick Boulle in the No. 52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports entry. Gar Robinson (No. 74 Riley Motorsports) and George Kurtz (No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR) completed the top six.
Hawksworth was good as gold with the Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 as he rocketed to GTD PRO pole. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images
GTD PRO quick lapper Jack Hawksworth set a new lap record of 1m58.714s in his No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3. The old GTD PRO record of 1m59.315s was set last year by Antonio Garcia for Corvette Racing. Hawksworth held the three-year-old GTD record, a 1m58.217s.
“It’s really hot today, so how you bring your tires in, and the peak of the tire, that window is smaller than it would be if it was 60 or 70 Fahrenheit,” related Hawksworth. “The team did a really good job kind of dropping me into a nice gap, so I had a completely clear track and could kind of bring my tires in the way I wanted to and then could put a nice lap in, so that was good.
“The whole weekend has been really good so far. We actually struggled a little bit with setup early on, not feeling super-comfy. And then last night, we found a couple of things and ever since then we’ve felt pretty good. So I’m excited for the race tomorrow and looking forward to it.”
The GTD-class No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG was to start alongside after Philip Ellis set a 1m58.778s, but the car’s times were subsequently disallowed when the post-qualifying technical inspection revealed that it was carrying non-permitted sensors.
In its place will be another GTD car, Antonio Fuoco producing a 1m59.014s in the No. 47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari 296 to better Parker Thompson in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F by 0.129s.
Mario Farnbacher was the next GTD PRO driver on the time sheet, posting a 1m59.264s in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage Evo. Mikael Grenier was next in No. 32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes AMG; the last GTD car before a string of six GTD PRO cars.
The No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (Seb Priaulx) and No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R (Alexander Sims) led that group, with No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 (Madison Snow) and the No. 04 Corvette Z06 GT3.R (Tommy Milner) behind.
This story has been updated since it was first published to include the No. 57 entry having its times disallowed.
UP NEXT: The Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring starts at 9:40am ET.
A walk through the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring paddock revealed a number of remarkable sights during IMSA’s biggest weekend of the year. The change in the event’s format, which no longer includes the FIA World Endurance Championship, has opened …
A walk through the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring paddock revealed a number of remarkable sights during IMSA’s biggest weekend of the year.
The change in the event’s format, which no longer includes the FIA World Endurance Championship, has opened up a vast amount of space to host all levels of IMSA’s training categories and its premier class which headlines the event.
Among the record 245 transporters that fill the long run from Turn 16 to Turn 17 for teams and key support partners, and the 190 cars that comprise the Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by Michelin, Porsche Carrera Cup North America, Lamborghini Super Trofeo Series, Michelin Pilot Challenge and the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, an interesting array of team owners — those who are not currently involved with IMSA — from the NTT IndyCar Series, Indy NXT, NASCAR Cup Series, FIA WEC, and SRO Americas could all be spotted.
Representatives from the Roush Fenway Keselowski Cup team were among those seen or spoken to in the paddock across Wednesday and Thursday, and although he wouldn’t be drawn on the list of visitors, IMSA President John Doonan did confirm the series’ executive leadership has been busy meeting with those who’ve come to Sebring to explore joining IMSA in 2025.
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“Since arriving back in Sebring after being at HSR’s season-opening event last weekend, my leadership colleagues and I have been in constant meetings with teams,” Doonan told RACER.
“It’s current teams looking to expand into different classes, potential new teams interested in joining the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and joining the Michelin Pilot Challenge series. The paddock here is almost as full as we can make it, but we welcome anyone who wants to be a part of IMSA’s unprecedented growth.”
IMSA President John Doonan likes what he’s seeing. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images
Doonan is feeling bullish about the state of motor racing as a whole. With 18 manufacturers investing in IMSA and competing with their various machines across its categories, and a packed schedule of events at Sebring being witnessed by tens of thousands of fans, the series finds itself in a place filled with positives and strength.
“Motorsports is at a very special moment,” he said. “With what appears to be an incredible growth mode, both from a fan attendance standpoint, from a participation standpoint by teams and drivers, and certainly from an auto manufacturer and partnership standpoint. Obviously, I’m a bit biased, but all of this is no more evident than it is here.
“We’re proud and so excited to have the grid sizes, the fan reaction we’re experiencing right now, the partners using IMSA to tell their story and promote their brands. and we’re going to do everything that we can to take really good care of this moment, and help it grow for years and years to come. And we’re super proud of the interests that we’re seeing with teams from here in North America as well as from around the world who have come to Sebring to sit down with us.”
One more surprising outcome of the dramatic three-car accident that eliminated the top-three running GTP cars with only 19 minutes remaining in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring was that anger was largely absent in the reactions afterward from the …
One more surprising outcome of the dramatic three-car accident that eliminated the top-three running GTP cars with only 19 minutes remaining in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring was that anger was largely absent in the reactions afterward from the drivers involved. Instead, the prevailing emotion was of sadness at how fate had conspired to shuffle the deck and enable the No. 31 Action Express Cadillac to navigate through the wreck and go on to win…tinged, in the case of Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport’s Filipe Albuquerque, with an insistence that, faced with the same situation, he’d do the same thing again.
The race-defining accident involved the three front-running cars. Albuquerque in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06, pulled up alongside Mathieu Jaminet in the leading No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 hoping to overtake at Turn 3 as they came upon slower GT cars. Instead, Albuquerque went wide to avoid the Porsche that was also trying to avoid another car and the No. 10 ran off course. When Albuquerque’s Acura came back across the track, it hit Jaminet’s race-leading Porsche. They also collected the third-place No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 driven by Felipe Nasr in the melee.
While labeling the outcome “sad,” Albuquerque says that given the same circumstances, he would make the same move again.
“What a sad ending,” said Albuquerque. “Unfortunately, in the last pit stop, the Porsche managed to pass us. We were P3. It was kind of crazy that all my laps were in the lead and the last 20 minutes, I was behind somebody, which was weird. We knew the No. 31 had no chance because he had old tires and the fight was with the Porsche ahead of me. I think we had a little bit of an edge on them, but staying behind it was super hard to follow, so it needed to be done in traffic.
“The traffic came and I saw a hole — tight, but I saw it. I think he (Jaminet) moved, but I need to see the replay again because I don’t want to place blame on anybody. I think I was there and then there was contact with the two of us, and the second touch threw me completely in the grass and I couldn’t stop the car then I was a bowling ball, just knocking cars down.
“It was pretty brutal where I got hit once and then somebody hit me. I just felt like I was getting thrown from one side to another, but these cars are safe and I’m good, that’s what’s most important. It’s sad to not get the win when we had such a strong car and for the WTR Andretti team, they put a lot of energy into this. I’m not a guy to finish P2, I give it my all and I would do the same again.”
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Jaminet had a similar viewpoint, describing the incident as a lamentable inevitability of close-quarters racing. “I didn’t know he was there. And then I realized he’s there, so I tried to move to the right,” he related. “But he’s in the grass, and then he lost control, and then that caused the accident. So that’s really unfortunate.”
“It’s kind of standard Sebring at the end of the race,” said Jaminet’s co-driver, Dane Cameron. “It gets pretty rowdy in the night, the restarts in the dark and you come up on GTs. Obviously, it’s disappointing to end this way, but I must say I’m very, very proud of Mathieu. He was flying and doing a fantastic job and put us in position to win. It’s unfortunate it ended the way that it did but I’m very proud of all the boys and girls on the team. It’s been very difficult and many, many, many hours preparing. It’s a shame but I understand what Mathieu was doing there and it’s just unfortunate.”
A rash of yellows late in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring allowed many 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 …
A rash of yellows late in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring allowed many 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.
Pfaff Motorsports claimed the GTD PRO victory with Patrick Pilet, Klaus Bachler and Laurens Vanthoor in the No. 9 Porsche 911 GT3 R. It was a bit of redemption after a crash in qualifying that left the team with a host of repairs in order to make the race. While the No. 9 Porsche didn’t seem to have the pace to fight for the overall win against the No. 3 Corvette and the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG, the fuel strategy paid off in the end.
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“It’s just amazing. The whole group of people in the team just repaired the car until 1 a.m., I think, yesterday,” said Pilet.“ And they rock so much in the race with the strategy, with all the pitstops. Sometimes we get bad luck with yellows but we never give up, we always stay focused. We were not the quickest, but we have such such a good group of people. These two guys are amazing also. Klaus, it’s his first time here so we know how difficult it is to drive on this track and Laurens did an amazing job to bring back the car in front.
“They call me the expert of fuel saving. I have a lot of challenge with Laurens in the past in different cars and I was pretty good at that. They chose me to finish the race because we know it can be a big advantage and today it paid off. We were clearly not the quickest but we just we just gambled on the yellows and we won.”
The Corvette and Meercedes-AMG battle for GTD PRO honors raged for much of the race, and the pair usually separated themselves from the rest of the field. The No. 79 WeatherTech squad of Daniel Juncadella, Jules Gounon and Maro Engel ended up third, behind Jack Hawksworth, Ben Barnicoat and Kyle Kirkwood in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F. The polesitting Corvette had its own issues late, repairs for a broken spring putting them a lap down, then getting caught up in two separate incidents, including the final one that took out the top three cars in GTP, as well as the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296.
As the sun set over Sebring, Paul Miller Racing was setting up to lead home a GTD BMW one-two. Jake Galstad/Lumen
The No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW squad of Madison Snow, Bryan Sellers and Corey Lewis claimed GTD with a similar strategy for the trio’s second victory in the Twelve Hours.
“It was tricky for us because you know, we made that final stop, then a bit more than an hour and 36 or something it went yellow,” explained Sellers. “And we debated whether we would come in or not because a couple of cars behind us had stopped a little bit sooner and we were worried that they would fill faster than us at the end. We made a call to pit with the leaders and the No. 27 (Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage) stayed out; when he stayed out, we stayed out. Once that happened our fate was kind of sealed once that yellow came again because now we were just over an hour left and those cars had only stopped two laps ago. So we had no option. For us if the only thing was to run as long as we could and hope for another yellow. A couple of the other cars stopped, and I’m not sure I understand why they stopped because everyone else was making it to the end, and so then you were basically kind of relegated to fifth or back. For us, we backed ourselves into a corner and got super fortunate with how it came out.”
The Heart of Racing squad would have their own difficulties in the closing stages, breaking steering and going off when Marco Sorensen caught caught in the middle of a GTD PRO battle between the No. 63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracán and the No. 3 Corvette.
It was a BMW one-two, as Robby Foley, Patrick Gallagher and Michael Dinan finished second in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport M4. New-for-2023 team Kellymoss with Riley pulled of a third place finish with David Brule, Alec Udell and Julien Andlauer in the No. 92 Porsche 911.
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.
Marshall Pruett and Graham Goodwin break down the wild finish to the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring that opened the door for the Action Express Racing Cadillac to take the win. Presented by At Piloti, it all starts with passion. We love cars and we …
Marshall Pruett and Graham Goodwin break down the wild finish to the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring that opened the door for the Action Express Racing Cadillac to take the win.
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.
Scott Dixon in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac is in command of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring as the race reached one-third on the clock. All four manufacturers were represented in the top four before the most recent round of pit …
Scott Dixon in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac is in command of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring as the race reached one-third on the clock. All four manufacturers were represented in the top four before the most recent round of pit stops, but the order at the end of the hour behind Dixon sees Louis Deletraz in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-06 ahead Felipe Nasr in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 in third.
If the first four hours of the race have taught the racers anything, it’s that a GTP car is going to a handful halfway through a second tire stint in the Sebring heat. Polesitter Pipo Derani, double-stinting the tires he qualified on, was the first to find out just how bad it was. The No. 31 Action Express Cadillac V-Series.R began falling back through the field after most cars took tires in the first round of stops, likely putting Derani into position for the next bit of misfortune — contact with a spinning LMP3 car immediately in front of him, breaking the nose of the Cadillac and leaving him stationary for a moment.
Derani tried to stay out, waiting for the pits to open during the ensuing full-course caution, but eventually had to come in for emergency service as the nose rubbed the left-front tire before it started shedding bits of carbon. It would take several trips to the pits to get the car back into shape, and then a stop plus 10s penalty for emergency service, but the car remained on the lead lap and seems fine, now in the hands of Alexander Sims who was bringing the car up through the field.
“We were struggling late there with the qualifying tires like a lot of teams,” said Derani. “Unfortunately, a P3 car spun right in front of me and I had no time to react. The car should be OK. The tire didn’t damage a lot, perhaps only the front wing that we were able to change. We changed the things we had to change – the tires and nose – and it’s still early on. We have time to recover whatever we lost.”
Ricky Taylor was the next to make the slick discovery when he was running second in the No. 10 Acura. Taylor not only couldn’t leave Philip Eng in the No. 24 BMW M Team RLL, but was backing up everyone behind him as Dixon pulled out a big gap on fresh tires. Helio Castroneves in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura also appeared to be struggling with the tires in their second stint.
Both BMWs have been running well and hanging onto the leaders, a very different situation from the Rolex 24 at Daytona where the BMWs were not only off the pace but both experienced significant mechanical issues before the four-hour mark in that race. For a long time in the last hour, they were running second and third and holding off the two Porsche Penske Motorsports cars.
The Porsches were running well together until Nick Tandy experienced an unknown issue when he slowed due to a “weird gas” in the cockpit and then limped around the track with the door open. The crew tightened a hose, closed the door and sent Tandy back out. Deletraz in the No. 10 was behind him when he slowed, and the Acura made light contact with the Porsche.
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GTD PRO is developing into a battle between the No. 3 Corvette and the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG, which has come through the field after starting last due to a ride-height infraction in qualifying. Jordan Taylor took the lead in the No. 3 from Maro Engel just before the hour. Engel had been leading, but light contact with the No. 60 MSR Acura as Castroneves came through slowed him enough for Taylor to get through. Laurens Vanthoor in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 is running third in pursuit, but has the GTD leader in between him and the leading pair.
That GTD leader is Mike Skeen in the No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG. Kenton Koch put the car into the lead in his first stint before handing over to Skeen, and Skeen has a couple of other GTD PRO cars between him and second-place runner Corey Lewis in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3. Lewis also has a GTD PRO buffer between him and Zacharie Robichon running third in the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911.
Fourth in GTD is the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG that, like the No. 79, had to start in the back due to a ride-height infraction, currently in the hands of Indy Dontje, followed by Jaxon Evans in the No. 91 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche 911.
The No. 11 TDS Racing team has had to serve several penalties for not meeting minimum refuel time, yet Mikkel Jensen currently has the car in the lead of LMP2, followed by George Kurtz in the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing ORECA. Alex Quinn is running second in the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA, polesitter Ben Keating having exited the car after driving the first 2h40m of the race.
The polesitting No. 36 Andretti Autosport has a commanding lead in LMP3, despite a spin for current driver Jarett Andretti after contact while lapping the GTD No. 80 AO Racing Porsche. Garret Grist is second in the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier, followed by Orey Fidani in the No. 13 AWA Duqueine.
