Sebring – Page 3 – Syndication Server

Giaffone, Brienza share Friday USF Juniors wins at Sebring

Nicolas Giaffone (DEForce Racing) and Joey Brienza (Exclusive Autosport) shared the victories Friday at a hot, sunny Sebring International Raceway as USF Juniors Presented by Cooper Tires produced two more all-green-flag races to continue an entertaining start to its 2023 season. Giaffone, from Sao Paulo, Brazil, narrowly headed Brienza, from Golden, Colo., in this morning’s 10-lap race, while the positions were reversed this afternoon which enabled Brienza, who also finished second yesterday, to claim an early lead in the point standings.

Jack Jeffers (Exclusive Autosport), from San Antonio, Texas, and Jimmie Lockhart (VRD Racing), from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., each earned a third-place finish.

An exciting first race Friday morning began with Brienza once again at the front, courtesy of his second Cooper Tires Pole Award by virtue of posting the best second-fastest lap among the USF Juniors field in qualifying on Thursday.

Brienza breezed to a comfortable lead of more than three seconds after the opening three laps as the field jostled for position in his wake. Max Taylor (VRD Racing), from Hoboken, N.J., muscled his way past front row starter Jeffers at Turn Three, whereupon Jeffers cost himself several more positions by sliding briefly off the road later in the lap.

Giaffone was on the move early, rising from sixth on the grid to third, despite sliding onto the grass in Turn Three on the second lap. Undeterred, Giaffone proceeded to overtake Taylor for second, then rapidly closed the gap to Brienza.

Both had elected to run a fresh set of Cooper tires, but Giaffone’s pace was relentless, and he grasped the lead from Brienza with a bold pass at Turn 3 on the seventh lap. Brienza fought back in the closing stages, but the Brazilian held him off to claim a fine victory.

Giaffone’s fine drive netted him the Tilton Hard Charger Award, as well as a second straight PFC Award for DEForce Racing’s David and Ernesto Martinez as the winning car owners.

Jeffers also mounted a fine recovery drive, finishing third after having slipped back to sixth following his early error. Ethan Ho (DC Autosport), from Los Angeles, Calif., inherited fourth after VRD teammates Taylor and Lockhart tangled in Turn 10 with four laps remaining.

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Brienza led throughout this afternoon’s final race of the Cooper Tires Grand Prix of Sebring triple-header after once again starting from the pole.

Giaffone lost a little ground to Brienza as he battled Lockhart for the first couple of laps, and even though the Brazilian soon made second place his own, he was unable to make any inroads into Brienza’s advantage.

Instead, all eyes were on a thrilling battle for third place which saw Lockhart, Taylor, Jeffers and DEForce Racing teammates Quinn Armstrong and Lucas Fecury all exchanging places on a regular basis. A mistake midway through the race by yesterday’s race winner, Armstrong, from Surfers Paradise, Australia, cost him any chance of defending his initial points lead. Lockhart faded from second to fifth after five laps, but then mounted a rousing challenge during which he made two bold passes and posted the fastest lap of the race before wrestling away the final podium position from teammate Taylor at Turn 17 on the last lap.

Brazil’s Erick Schotten (Exclusive Autosport) earned the Tilton Hard Charger Award, rising from 12th on the grid to eighth, while team owner Michael Duncalfe capped a fine day by securing his first USF Juniors PFC Award.

Next up for the USF Juniors is a double-header event at Barber Motorsports, in Leeds, Ala., in advance of the NTT IndyCar Series weekend on Thursday and Friday, April 27-28.

RACE TWO RESULTS

RACE THREE RESULTS

Rowe extends USF Pro 2000 points lead with Sebring win

Myles Rowe grasped an early lead in Friday’s Cooper Tires Grand Prix of Sebring, then romped away to claim his second USF Pro 2000 Presented by Cooper Tires victory of the season for Pabst Racing with Force Indy. With three of the season’s 18 races now in the books, Rowe, from Brooklyn, N.Y., already holds a handy 16-point lead in his quest to win a Discount Tires Driver Advancement Scholarship valued at $664,500 to graduate to Indy NXT in 2024.

Joel Granfors, from Eskilstuna, Sweden, drove a fine race for Exclusive Autosport, rising from sixth on the grid to take second ahead of TJ Speed Motorsports’ Francesco Pizzi, from Rome, Italy. For both Europeans it was their first podium finish since switching their sights on a career in North America.

Rowe and Pabst Racing teammate Jace Denmark, from Scottsdale, Ariz., continued their form from Spring Training by pacing the 19-car field during the lone official practice session Friday morning. A couple of hours later it was Denmark who shone brightest in qualifying, turning a best lap of 1m58.609s, an average speed of 113.711mph, to snag his first Cooper Tires Pole Award. Rowe completed the front row of the grid, less than a tenth of a second off the pole time, while Pizzi shared row two with a third Pabst Racing Tatuus IP-22 in the hands of Jordan Missig, from Channahon, Ill.

The majority of the first five laps were run behind the pace car due, firstly, to a mechanical problem which unfortunately sidelined St. Petersburg double podium finisher Kiko Porto (DEForce Racing), from Recife, Brazil, then an incident between Mexico’s Ricard Escotto (Jay Howard Driver Development) and Miami-based Brazilian Nicholas Monteiro (NeoTech Motorsport).

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At the initial wave of the green flag, Rowe had followed Denmark through Turn 1, then pounced decisively at Turn 3 to take the lead. The caution flags waved shortly thereafter. Then, soon after the restart, Denmark began to experience gearshift problems, costing him precious fractions of a second. For the majority of the 15-lap race, Denmark maintained a gap of around a second to Granfors, who had leapt from sixth to third at the initial attempt at a start. But the pressure continued to build on the young Arizonan, who eventually lost out to Granfors on the run toward Turn 1 with just a couple of laps remaining. Moments later, Pizzi also took advantage of Denmark’s loss of momentum to slip into third place and assume the final podium position.

Missig also finished right with the lead group in fifth, securing his best-ever finish, as Germany-based Albanian Lirim Zendeli (TJ Speed Motorsports) and Mexico’s Salvador de Alba (Exclusive Autosport) both found a way past Japanese-American Reece Ushijima (Jay Howard Driver Development) for sixth in the closing stages.

“That move on lap one was crucial because I didn’t know how the racing was going to be today,” Rowe said after the race. “In practice, the aero push was insane so I knew I had to make a move early. It was a good clean move and we got it done. We had a full-course caution so it was about focusing on the restart. We executed and it was just about keeping my head down and focusing on facing forward and it paid off.”

The Tilton Hard Charger Award went to Jack Miller William (Miller Vinatieri Motorsports), from Carmel, Ind., who made up five places from his starting position of 16th.

Augie Pabst picked up his third PFC Award of the young season as the winning car owner.

The USF Pro 2000 competitors will be back in action Saturday morning at 10 a.m. ET for a second qualifying session which will set the grid for race two at 3:30 p.m. As always, full coverage can be found on the free USF Pro Championships App, YouTube channel and usfpro2000.com website.

RESULTS

Catching up with: Scott McLaughlin

Team Penske IndyCar driver and new 12 Hours of Sebring LMP2 class winner Scott McLaughlin joins us for the latest episode of Catching Up With. https://www.podbean.com/player-v2/

Team Penske IndyCar driver and new 12 Hours of Sebring LMP2 class winner Scott McLaughlin joins us for the latest episode of Catching Up With.

VIDEO: IMSA Sebring paddock tour 2023

Take a long tour through IMSA’s expansive WeatherTech SportsCar Championship paddock at Sebring with RACER’s Marshall Pruett. Presented by At Piloti, it all starts with passion. We love cars and we love shoes – and we’re dedicated to bringing to …

Take a long tour through IMSA’s expansive WeatherTech SportsCar Championship paddock at Sebring with RACER’s Marshall Pruett.

Presented by

At Piloti, it all starts with passion. We love cars and we love shoes – and we’re dedicated to bringing to life one-of-a-kind designs that give us the best of both worlds.

Toyota finishes WEC Prologue on top once again

Toyota Gazoo Racing completed its 2023 FIA WEC Prologue running with a third 1-2 from four sessions over the two days of track action. The final session of the day, and event, was topped by Brendon Hartley in the No. 8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID. His …

Toyota Gazoo Racing completed its 2023 FIA WEC Prologue running with a third 1-2 from four sessions over the two days of track action.

The final session of the day, and event, was topped by Brendon Hartley in the No. 8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID. His 1m48.216s was just 0.008s off the fastest time of the Prologue test, which came from Jose Maria Lopez (No. 7) in the first session Saturday.

Notably, all six Toyota drivers featured in the top seven of the combined fastest lap by driver chart. There was just over 0.4s between Lopez and Kamui Kobayashi who bookended the Toyota times.

Cadillac Racing’s Earl Bamber spoiled a Toyota clean sweep with his session-topping time Saturday afternoon, just 0.1s off the fastest time in the test.

During the final session, Toyota completed 145 laps across its pair of GR010s — significantly more than the other manufacturers. Over the two days, Toyota completed 3,533 kilometers of running across 587 laps.

At the other end of the scale, it was a frustrating end to the Prologue for Peugeot Sport. Its 9X8s managed just 69 laps combined, with 65 of them coming from the No. 94.

The No. 93 car completed just four laps, spending most of the session in the garage for mechanical repairs. It wasn’t a clean session for the No. 94 either, as the car had an off at Turn 3, damaging the front end, and was forced into the pits for some replacement bodywork.

The fastest non-Toyota was Cadillac, with a 1m48.890s from Richard Westbrook, buoyed by the team’s performance in its first FIA WEC event.

“What a start we’ve made and there is so much more to come,” he said after the session.

The Briton was 0.4s clear of Nicklas Nielsen in the sole (No. 50) Ferrari that took part in the session — the Dane moving up the order after a late effort. The No. 51 sister car missed the entire session, the team spending all afternoon assessing the integrity of the chassis following James Calado’s hefty off at Turn 1 during the morning session on cold tires.

We await further information from AF Corse concerning the extent of the damage.

Elsewhere in class, the two Penske Porsches ended up fifth and sixth, 1.5s and 1.6s off the fastest Toyota time.

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The fastest car in LMP2, the No. 41 WRT ORECA, ended up with a 1m50.827s from Robert Kubica. The Pole ended up in amongst the Hypercars in eighth overall, his time faster than the best tours from the No. 94 Peugeot, Vanwall and Glickenhaus.

Completing the top three in class was the No. 48 JOTA ORECA, with the No. 22 United Autosports example that topped the first three sessions in third.

Further down the order, there was significant drama for JOTA’s other ORECA. The No. 28 of David Heinemeier Hansson had an off at Turn 14 just 10 minutes before the end of the session, damaging the front end of the car following a hit to the wall on driver’s right. This brought out the third and final red flag in the session, which ended prematurely as a result of the stoppage.

1.6s separated the entire field in LMP2.

GTE Am’s pace was set by GR Racing’s Ben Barker to conclude the test. He reeled off a 1m59.253s to go 0.01s faster than the impressive Lilou Wadoux in the Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari 488 which slotted in second.

The Project 1 Porsche completed the top three. Corvette’s single C8.R ended up seventh, and yet again the three Aston Martin Vantages occupied the bottom three positions in the times.

Corvette Racing may not have had the ultimate pace of the leading Porsche and Ferraris, but Nicky Catsburg says it was a successful test for the team, which is still getting up to speed with its new driver combination and competition.

“We’re all getting used to each other and getting up to speed,” he said. “Ben (Keating) definitely showed his performance today. That’s very good. Nico (Varrone) got a lot of laps today and showed what he could do. We are getting to grips with each other and where we want the car to be. It’s a good starting point for the race week. We still have some little things to learn, get used to some driver changes and some procedural things that are normally all automatic. We still need to get a rhythm. But it’s all OK. This was a nice test.”

There was a significant drama in Am too. Stefano Costantini had an off into the barriers at Turn 17 towards the end of the session, resulting in substantial rear-end damage for the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari.

With the FIA WEC Prologue now over, it’s time for a pair of rest days before the “Super Sebring” meeting gets fully underway on Wednesday. By then the full IMSA paddock will be set up and the first competitive sessions of the FIA WEC season will take place.

RESULTS

Toyota back to the top in third Prologue session at Sebring

Toyota Gazoo Racing’s pair of GR010 HYBRIDs returned to the top of the timing screens in the third session of the Prologue weekend at Sebring. The No. 7, which went quickest in the first session Saturday, was fastest once again; Mike Conway setting …

Toyota Gazoo Racing’s pair of GR010 HYBRIDs returned to the top of the timing screens in the third session of the Prologue weekend at Sebring.

The No. 7, which went quickest in the first session Saturday, was fastest once again; Mike Conway setting a 1m48.473s, just 0.008s quicker than the sister car of Sebastien Buemi in second. Once again Toyota managed to complete plenty of laps during the three-and-a-half hours of track time. Combined, its GR010 HYBRIDs toured the circuit 164 times.

For the first time this weekend, Porsche managed to claim the fastest non-Toyota time with its No. 5 963. The Penske-run car with Michael Christensen at the wheel took third late in the session with a 1m48.957s, though the time was eclipsed by the best laps of all six of Toyota’s drivers.

Cadillac’s sole car — third in session one, then topping session two Saturday — ended the Sunday morning session fourth, 0.7s off the best Toyota time, piloted by Alex Lynn.

Further back the two Peugeots had a more productive session. The team completed 122 total laps and emerged sixth and seventh behind the second Porsche, the No. 94 a full 0.8s slower than the top time and the No. 93 a fraction over a second off the pace.

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It wasn’t a good session for Ferrari, however. The No. 50 ended up eighth, while the No. 51 didn’t set a single competitive lap after James Calado had an off at Turn 1 on his out-lap, damaging the right-front corner.

Vanwall had a more encouraging session, the Vandervell finishing up the running ninth, quicker than the entire LMP2 field for the first time — Tom Dillmann setting the time but with Esteban Guerrieri in amongst the LMP2s and Jacques Villeneuve once again slower than all of the LMP2 drivers.

The Glickenhaus 007, meanwhile, was struggling for pace and was slower than the top five ORECA 07 LMP2 cars.

Yet again in LMP2, United’s No. 22 ORECA was fastest, Filipe Albuquerque setting the best time (1m50.577s). The top three was completed by the No. 63 Prema Oreca in the hands of Doriane Pin and the No. 48 JOTA of Yifei Ye.

Of the GT cars, in Am it was an all-Porsche top five with the Project 1 AO 911 setting the fastest time. The best lap was a 1m59.170s from Matteo Cairoli, a tenth up on the Iron Lynx and Iron Dames Porsches which have been quick all weekend.

The fastest Ferrari was the Kessel Racing 488 slotting in sixth before an off for Takeshi Kimura caused major damage to the left-front corner of the car. It was fully repaired before the end of the session, though, and the team expects to head out for the final run in the afternoon.

Aston Martin’s slow start to the season continued. Yet again the three Vantages made up the bottom three places in the 14-car class with at least two of the cars having off-track moments in the session. The BoP, at this stage, appears to be slightly off for the TF and Northwest AMR efforts.

The Corvette Racing C8.R ended up 10th.

Track action continues with the final session Sunday afternoon.

RESULTS

Garg gets a Sunday double in VP Challenge at Sebring

After leading every lap en route to victory in Sunday morning’s first race of a Sunday doubleheader at Sebring International Raceway, Bijoy Garg had a much tougher time in this afternoon’s second 45-minute IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge race. …

The end result was the same, though, as Garg drove the No. 3 Jr III Racing Ligier JS P320 back into Victory Lane. Despite starting the race from the pole position, Garg surrendered the lead to Dan Goldburg in the No. 73 JDC MotorSports Duqueine D08 on the opening lap.

Goldburg grabbed the advantage just before the full-course caution came out due to a first-lap incident in Turn 1 involving Adrian Kunzle in the No. 54 MLT Motorsports Ligier, Scott Neal in the No. 86 Kellymoss with Riley Ligier and Courtney Crone in the No. 99 Forty7 Motorsports Duqueine. When the green flag flew again 10 minutes into the race, a three-car battle ensued at the front of the LMP3 field that included Goldburg, Garg and Antonio Serravalle in the No. 18 Muehlner Motorsports America Ligier.

Though no positions changed hands, the battle remained close among the three cars through the halfway point of the race. It was particularly close between Goldburg and Garg, who made several runs at Goldburg in traffic before finally making the decisive pass in Sebring’s famed Hairpin (Turn 7) with 15 minutes left in the race.

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“I did a pretty big dive bomb, but it worked out and none of us got damage,” said Garg.

Garg then went from hunter to hunted for the next few laps as he navigated traffic with Goldburg in his mirrors, before catching a break when Goldburg spun in Turn 7 with under 10 minutes remaining. Garg went on to win by 4.949s over Serravalle, picking up a Sebring weekend sweep for himself and his Jr III Racing teammates.

“I lost the lead off the start, but I wasn’t too worried,” Garg said. “I knew it all came down to the traffic and just finding an opportunity there, so as long as I stayed with (Goldburg), I was fine. I used some lapped cars, set a pick for him and then got it.

“From there, it’s all about the traffic management, as usual. It’s not easy going to a multi-class. I’m just really happy to come out with the win today.”

Serravalle was one of a number of series newcomers in the 30-car field at Sebring. He had a double podium day with a third-place run in the morning before his runner-up performance in the afternoon for the Muehlner squad.

Goldburg recovered from the spin to finish third for his fourth consecutive podium result to open the VP Racing Challenge season. He will depart the weekend atop both the overall LMP3 championship standings, as well as the Bronze driver standings. He has been the highest-finishing Bronze-rated driver in every race so far.

The next event for the VP Racing Challenge is scheduled for July 7-9 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park as part of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Challenge Chevrolet Grand Prix weekend.

Gregory Liefooghe started from the GSX class pole in the No. 43 Stephen Cameron Racing BMW M4 GT4 and led every lap but the last one in Sunday morning’s first 45-minute race.

While he also started this afternoon’s race from the class pole, it appeared on the opening lap like he might come up empty on the day as he fell from first to fifth at the end of the first lap.

“The start was pretty sporty,” Liefooghe said. “There (were) two LMP3 cars that crashed right in front of me. I was on the outside, so I kind of got stuck, fell back and almost got collected, so I was really happy to survive.”

He did more than survive. Liefooghe went right to work when the race went back to green following a 10-minute full-course caution period, picking off the cars in front of him, including Luca Mars, who won this morning’s race in the No. 59 KOHR MOTORSPORTS Ford Mustang GT4 but had to make an unscheduled trip to pit lane early in race two.

“Unfortunately, Lucas broke down,” Liefooghe said. “I’m not sure what happened to him. We were looking forward to a battle with him and see how we improved our car compared to his since this morning.”

Liefooghe would not be denied in race two, especially with Mars out of the picture. He drove away from the field after taking the lead, and took the checkered flag 22.712s ahead of Sebastian Carazo, who finished second in the No. 27 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche 718 GT4 RS CS.

“It just seems like our car was really good on the high-speed stuff,” Liefooghe surmised. “(Turns) 17 and 1 (were our strong suits). It felt like we were able to brake a lot deeper than the other competitors and we kind of squeaked by in those two spots on track.”

While Liefooghe and Carazo, who also finished third this morning, had podium finishes in both of the day’s races, they were greeted by a new face on the podium at the end of race two — Patrick Wilmot came home third in the No. 88 Split Decision Motorsports BMW.

Bamber puts Cadillac on top of Prologue session two at Sebring

Cadillac Racing’s V-Series.R topped the times in the second test session of the 2023 FIA WEC Prologue. Earl Bamber was the fast man in the car, setting a 1m48.429s to better the two Toyota GR010 HYBRIDs that slotted in second and third. Bamber’s …

Bamber’s time wasn’t the quickest of the day, as Jose Maria Lopez’s Session 1-topping 1m48.208s still stands as the fastest so far.

The afternoon session was incredibly encouraging for the WEC side of the Cadillac Racing operation ahead of its world championship debut.

Bamber’s time in the session was 0.014s quicker than the No. 8 Toyota, with the No. 7 a further 0.1s back. The two GR010s did 74 and 70 laps respectively.

Behind, the two Ferrari 499Ps continued to build confidence during the session and ended up fourth and fifth. 90 total laps were completed by the two cars.

The Hypercar field remains tight on times so far at the top, as the first seven in the order all ended up with times under 1m50s.

It wasn’t a good session for Peugeot and its pair of 9X8s, however. The No. 94 finished up eighth, 2.6s off the slowest of the two Porsches.

The No. 93, meanwhile, only completed 12 laps in the three hours of track time, after Jean-Eric Vergne made an “ambitious” dive up the inside of the Vector Sport ORECA at Turn 1. He hit the left rear of the ORECA and ended up in the barriers, bringing out the red flag.

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Elsewhere in the field, Glickenhaus and Vanwall again struggled to find any outright pace at what, admittedly, is still a very early stage of the event. Trap speeds for both cars have been slower than many of the LMP2s in both sessions so far. Lots of work needs to be done by both to find speed ahead of race week.

Vanwall in particular is a long way off, ahead of only one LMP2 car in the times during the second session. Jacques Villeneuve again was the slowest driver in the class, 3.5s off the next-slowest time in the session by a Hypercar driver and almost 2s off the slowest LMP2 driver.

In LMP2, United’s No. 22 ORECA once again led the way, with Phil Hanson bettering his time from the morning, touring the airfield in 1m51.492s. Ex-F1 pilot Danil Kvyat came closest to the Briton, with a time 0.05s behind in the No. 63 Prema ORECA 07.

The No. 41 WRT ORECA managed to finish up third. The No. 31 sister car had a tougher time, though, stopping on track and causing a red flag due to a damper failure.

While the quickest Hypercar times came in the morning, all bar four drivers in the LMP2 field set their best times in the second session.

GTE Am, like LMP2, saw the fastest car from the morning session set the quickest time again in the afternoon. Michelle Gatting reeled off a 1m59.201s in the Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR 19, a time 0.25s up on the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari. The Dempsey Proton Porsche made for two Porsches in the top three. The sister No. 88 Proton 911, meanwhile, caused a red flag in the session after stopping on track.

The FIA WEC teams will continue to test in two further Prologue sessions Sunday.

RESULTS

Lopez, Toyota lead first WEC Prologue session at Sebring

Toyota Gazoo Racing’s GR010 HYBRIDs led the way in the first of four FIA WEC Prologue test sessions at a sunny and hot Sebring. The highly-experienced Japanese factory team, which has the most tried and tested car in the new-look Hypercar class, set …

Toyota Gazoo Racing’s GR010 HYBRIDs led the way in the first of four FIA WEC Prologue test sessions at a sunny and hot Sebring.

The highly-experienced Japanese factory team, which has the most tried and tested car in the new-look Hypercar class, set the pace as the WEC’s class of 2023 shared a track together for the first time.

Jose Maria Lopez was the quickest of the Toyotas, setting a 1m48.208s in the No. 7, marginally faster than the sister No. 8 which also ended up in the 1:48.2s. The cars completed 70 and 64 laps respectively.

The Cadillac Racing V-Series.R trailed the two Toyotas, piloted by Richard Westbrook, with a best time of 1m49.253s, having completed 44 laps.

Completing the top five in the running order was the No. 5 Porsche 963 at 1m49.650s and the No. 51 Ferrari 499P which toured the airfield circuit in 1m49.724s. Both cars completed an encouraging 60-plus laps.

Lower down the order, the pair of Peugeots both set times 2s off the ultimate pace, while the Glickenhaus and Vanwall were — perhaps unsurprisingly — the slowest in the category, mixed in amongst the LMP2s on ultimate pace.

The Vanwall Vandervell’s best time was a 1m52.410s, 4s off the pace. Notably, 1997 Formula 1 World Champion Jacques Villenueve — in his first WEC session with limited time spent in the Vanwall prior to this weekend — could only manage a 1m59.272s, making him the slowest driver in the class and only marginally quicker than the best GTE Am times.

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In LMP2, United Autosports’ No. 22 ORECA made a fast start to the season. Phil Hanson set the best time in the all-ORECA field — a 1m51.722s. Behind, the only other car setting a time under the 1m52s was the No. 41 WRT ORECA.

Hertz Team JOTA’s No. 48 completed the top three, with a time good enough to finish higher up the order than the Glickenhaus and Vanwall.

GTE Am, meanwhile, saw the Iron Dames Porsche lead the way. Michelle Gatting emerged fastest with a 1m59.913s; the top three all managing times under two minutes. The sister Iron Lynx Porsche ended up second, driven by Alessio Picariello. The fastest Ferrari completed the top three thanks to a quick time from former AF Corse GTE Pro regular Davide Rigon.

Of the other two brands in the class, Corvette’s C8.R ended up fifth with the three Aston Martin Vantage AMRs occupying the bottom three positions in the class.

Northwest AMR’s No. 98 Aston Martin — the only car in the field without a complete driver line-up — was driven by Axel Jeffries in the session. The Zimbabwean driver is testing for the team as they evaluate whether he or Thomas Merrill will take the third seat alongside Paul Dalla Lana and Nicki Thiim. Jeffries’ best time was just a tenth off Thiim’s quickest lap. Merrill is set to drive the car tomorrow.

Merrill wasn’t the only driver here for the Prologue who didn’t take part in the session. Five Hypercar drivers didn’t head out of the pit lane: Alex Lynn, Esteban Guerrieri, Michael Christensen, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor.

Stefano Costantini also didn’t get behind the wheel of the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari.

During the session, race control opted to trial a number of procedures including a safety car period and red flag stoppage. Beyond a handful of minor offs, there were no major dramas.

RESULTS

Porsche and Lamborghini get BoP help for Sebring

IMSA has enlarged the intake restrictors for both the 992 Porsche 911 GT3 R and the Lamborghini Huracán Evo2 for the upcoming Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, the second round of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Both cars suffered for lack of pace at the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January, the Porsche especially so. One Porsche team had already withdrawn from Sebring over the Balance of Performance issue, and others have said they would alter their participation in the series if something wasn’t done before Sebring.

The 911 GT3R is now allowed 38mm restrictors — the 4.0-liter flat six uses two of them. That’s an increase of 4mm from last month’s IMSA-sanctioned test at Sebring (although reports are that restrictors up to 36mm were fitted during the test), and an increase of 5mm from the Daytona specification.

According to one team running the Porsche, the 992-generation 911 GT3 R relies more on aero grip than mechanical grip compared to its predecessor, which means more drag. Sucking air through the smaller restrictors severely hurt the car’s power and thus top-end performance.

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The Lamborghini moves from a single 47mm restrictor to 49mm for Sebring, an increase of 1mm from the Sebring test. That car, along with the new Ferrari 296, also was off the pace at Daytona. The Ferrari received a slight bump in boost pressure for Sebring, but also 15kg more weight, while the Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 received similar adjustments.

Other changes include an increase of the Mercedes-AMG’s minimum weight by 15kg, and 15kg reductions for the Aston Martin Vantage, BMW M4, Corvette and Lexus RC F GT3s.