It is the annual spring ritual. Fans convene on one of the most legendary race tracks. A former B17 and B25 bomber base, recently rededicated as Hendricks Field, but also known as Sebring. Sebring International Raceway. The scent of orange blossoms mixes with racing oil and fuel. The day is grueling. The sunburn horrid. But the atmosphere, absolutely intoxicating. On spring break? Come to Sebring. It is motor racing, endurance racing, but mixed too, with the arcane art of the weird. We are ready to race. Yours truly is particularly happy about this one. On the pole, my pals at Action Express Racing with the Cadillac V Series R. Pipo Derani, Alexander Sims, and Jack Aitken, start from P1 today. AXR has won Sebring twice before, looking for a third win. Pipo Derani going for number four which would put him in company with some of the greats like Audi legends Frank Biela and Allan McNish. You can bet, the other Cadillac from Ganassi Racing, the Acura's from Meyer Shank Racing and Wayne Taylor Racing, the RLL BMW's and the Porsche Penske Motorsports Porsche's also want a bite of the cherry when the money is on the line later tonight.
A field of 54 cars will start the race today. We will have plenty to talk about over the course of the next dozen hours as the race rolls on. So, we look again at the class polesitters. In GTP, it is indeed the Action Express #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V Series R. That is the newly revised name of the car since Daytona. Rolls off the tongue easier. In LMP2, the fastest of the lot is, while LMP3 sees . In the GTD Pro class, top of the shop there is, and in GT Daytona regular, it is
Heads up. This is serious. The annual tradition is back again for the 71st year in a row. It is bumpy, hot, intense, you are banged up, it is challenging as heck, but the drivers love this place! How can you not love Sebring? We love this place as racing fans, sports car racing fans. Round two of the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship. We are in the 70s and 80s. Will we see weather moving in from the gulf coast? We'll find out. This is an old WW. II. airfield. It is a honeypot for the sports car faithful. For the teams and drivers, this is going to be a difficult, rigorous day. But the lure draws everyone back. We welcome Leigh Diffey, Calvin Fish, and Townsend Bell to the broadcast booth.
Scott Dixon is in his tenth Sebring and has not won. Helio Castroneves has never won. Scott McLaughlin and Romain Grosjean from IndyCar are here. Sebring is the most punishing raceway on this planet. In free practice, BMW went off the road, and the GT3 and GTP Porsche's both had massive offs in qualifying yesterday. The cars are on the warmup lap. Let's do this. How fun this motor race is going to be! Pipo Derani, again, on the pole for the motor race sharing with Alexander Sims and Jack Aitken. In LMP2, there was a drag race to the end. Crowdstrike Racing with APR and PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports are going to scrap for the LMP2 win.
In GTD, a year ago, it was the #93 Racer's Edge Acura NSX GT3 earning pole with Ashton Harrison, Kyle Marcelli, and Danny Formal. Antonio Garcia, breaking the track record, with Jordan Taylor and Tommy Milner, they are ready. The camping is full and the ticket packages ran out. Amazing. Performance, people, and a party with your pals. This is going to be mega! This is going to be an extremely challenging motor race today. Qualifying was affected by multiple crashes and red flags. Here are the keys to winning this race.
Survive the notorious bumps. Keep it cool because of the heat. Find your night owl. Find the driver for your team who is comfortable in the darkness to take it to the finish. Who has the best eyesight in the darkness? It is really dark at night at Sebring and keep an eye on the weather. We could have a storm later before this race ends, coming in across the gulf coast. The field forms up. Split start between the prototypes and the GTD entries. Seven decades of racing continues with these new Grand Touring Prototypes. Let's go. Green flag! Pipo Derani vs. Sebastien Bourdais! Derani gets the jump and here comes Ricky Taylor already! Sebastien Bourdais wants a look to get by and we have a spinning car in turn one!
Who was it? All the GTD Pro and GTD cars miss the #33 Sean Creech Motorsports LMP3 car of Lance Willsey! He has left hand damage on that car already. Good grief! So, no yellow. Derani leads the motor race for now. Taylor in the Acura, followed by Bourdais in the #01 Ganassi Racing Cadillac sharing with Scott Dixon and Renger van der Zande. Derani eking out a gap. The Porsche is next up, one of them. We have a Full Course Yellow for bodywork in the first turn. Sean Creech Motorsports in the #33 car almost won in class in LMP3 at the Rolex 24. Dr. Lance Willsey, Joao Barbosa, and Nico Pino.
The #79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 got through unscathed. That's Daniel Juncadella, Jules Gounon, and Maro Engel. No cherrypickers for the spotters this year. So, their vision is more limited. Those cherrypickers are dangerous but it would be better with them. If a cherrypicker is banned, can we get an apple grabber? An orange grabber? The marshals are cleaning the track up. Watch for the tire marbles too. Pfaff Motorsports had a bad day yesterday as Klaus Bachler had a massive wreck in qualifying, backing the car into the fence, repairing the car overnight. Bachler was perfectly fine, sharing with Patrick Pilet and Laurens Vanthoor.
As for the #33 car there is a new nose on it and they had a truly lucky escape and four green Michelin tires. Patience, patience, patience. That is what you have to have in a race like this. Glad to see that drivers made it through that shemozzle unscathed. Take your hands off the wheel, and pray. The Pfaff Motorsports team, Klaus Bachler almost clonked the Volt Racing Porsche 911 GT3R! Yikes! Everyone focusing on the restart. Tom Blomqvist starts the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura which has had electronics and MGU issues lately.
Green flag! Ricky Taylor and Matthieu Jaminet are pressing hard and so is Connor De Philippi. Matt Campbell in recovery mode in the #7 Porsche 963. GTP cars are heavier than the DPi cars and on cold tires, they are a bear. Bourdais defending and around goes the Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 of Brendon Iribe! That #70 is stranded at the ahirpin and the #18 Era Motorsports Oreca LMP2 of Dwight Merriman is off the road and back on again. Ker-runch! I think Iribe was on cold tires and just lost it. Did he get spun around? The right side went to the dirt and the traction control went bananas and spun the car.
We are still under green. Two penalties. One for the #92 Kelly Moss with Riley Motorsports Porsche of David Brule and the #17 AWA LMP3 car of Anthony Mantella. Bourdais and Taylor both ganging up on Pipo Derani. Some of the Cadillac drivers want more speed, but they are indeed the lightest cars but are down seven kilowatts of horsepower on the Acura's. This new category is amazing. The Cadillac teams are in a straight up fight with the Acura's. The Acura's missed a lot of practice time including practice time in night practice on Thursday night. The Porsch'es and the BMW's are getting into the fight as well.
The BMW M Hybrids are going to have to protect their tires. #24 shared by Phillip Eng, Augusto Farfus, and Marco Wittman, and in #25, the drivers are Connor de Philippi, Nick Yelloly, and Sheldon van der Linde. Ben Keating had a fabulous result in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring yesterday and now he is trying to bring PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports to victory. He is transitioning from a GTE Corvette C8.R to an LMP2 Oreca, sharing the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports car with Paul-Loup Chatin and Alex Quinn. Francois Heriau is in the #35 TDS Racing Oreca, sharing with Josh Pierson and Giedo van der Garde.
Watch the LMP2 cars later tonight when we come towards the money laps. The braking points and lap times are similar for the GTE and LMP2 cars. More downforce in the prototype. At TDS, Steven Thomas currently is driving sharing the car with Scott Huffaker and Mikkel Jensen. He had no interest in racing. He was a baseball, basketball, football player, was a lawyer, and five years ago he started driving. He got into autocross and won Le Mans last year and has become a very fast Bronze rated driver. Turner Motorsports won the Michelin Pilot Challenge race here on Thursday. Patrick Gallagher currently driving their #96 BMW M4 GT3 sharing with Michael Dinan and Robby Foley. The sister car, the Pro entry #95 has Bill Auberlen, Chandler Hull, and John Edwards.
Pipo Derani is still being chasded down by everyone. Ricky Taylor, Sebastien Bourdais, Matty Jaminet, ajd Tom Blomqvist! Bourdais right on Taylor's six! Bourdais is being patient but knows he has to go for it if the leaders are struggling. We have eight GTP cars from four brands separated by mere tenths of a second. Dan Goldburg leading Glenn van Berlo and Gar Robinson in LMP3. Antonio Garcia leads GTD Pro and Kyle Marcelli in GTD. Jaminet is pushing hard, trying to pass the Acura and the Cadillac's. Bourdais slams past the GTD cars.
Traffic ahead. Taylor wants it. Derani slams the door in his face! Sebring is so tough. No rest anywhere. Traffic everywhere. Concentrate everywhere and rest nowhere. As a GTD driver you are a pawn in the GTP chess game. Pipo Derani's margin is growing over Ricky Taylor and Sebastien Bourdais. Wowzers! This is only the time when drivers are being told to be patient. The pitch darkness later tonight is going to be bonkers. Matt Campbell the meat in a BMW sandwich as Jan Heylen gets out of the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R. Tire trouble. Ryan Hardwick getting into the car.
Pfaff Motorsports bring in their #9 Porsche 911 GT3R as well. Klaus Bachler into the car. At Wright Motorsports their third driver is Canadian Zachary Robichon. Immediate panic in this race is not what you want. Pipo Derani leads Ricky Taylor now by 1.1 seconds. Taylor closing in. Chip Ganassi Racing and Penske Motorsport ran WEC cars here yesterday, the same cars, GTP/Hypercars for Porsche and Cadillac. Tire knowledge and damper adjustments are what they will know well. Maybe the deflating tire at Wright Motorsports was residual from the carbon fiber debris on the road. Heylen says he saw it on the dashboard, the warning light, and felt the tire going down.
Dennis Andersen has spun off the road in the #20 High Class Motorsports Oreca LMP2 car. That was a wild ride! Holy smokes! This car had a massive accident at the Rolex 24 in the Le Mans chicane. In replay, he is coming up on the McLaren and drops the left side wheels right off the road in the sand, and he hops over the curb! Wowzers! That was ugly! The car is fine. Taylor continues to hound Pipo Derani. Taylor getting impatient. Derani sliding on the tires. Taylor has to try and slingshot. Derani wide, missing the apex. Taylor goes for it. Derani slams the door in his face. Bourdais wants the lead. Taylor still trying as they pass the JDC Miller Motorsports LMP3 car.
A driver has to be patient but also has to be a grizzly bear behind the wheel. But not too much of a grizzly bear. Now then, Cadillac, Acura, Cadillac, Porsche, Acura. Derani, Taylor, Bourdais, Jaminet, Blomqvist. Porsche had the most reliability issues at the Rolex 24. Battery issues and gearbox failure. Campbell had that massive shunt yesterday of course. Almost an hour on the board. It is too early to get into a wrestling match yet. You have to grab this race by the scruff of the neck and wrestle it. There is the AO Racing Porsche, with it's great looking tyrannosaurus Rex livery as Pipo Derani and my pals at Action Express continue to lead.
Derani, Taylor, Bourdais, Jaminet, Blomqvist, Farfus, De Philippi. All this racing is setting up for the centenary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, an old school track, the Circuit de la Sarthe. It is going to be great! Cannot wait to bring that one to you! 21 laps now on the board. 78 and a half miles. The lapped traffic really bothering the GTP car as Blomqvist passes Jaminet. Eric Lux dives for pit lane and so does the WeatherTech Mercedes. Lux sharing the #51 Rick Ware Racing Oreca 07 of Eric Lux, Devlin DeFrancesco, and Pietro Fittipaldi. Short fueling the WeatherTech Mercedes? It can't be. Maybe something was amiss. Bourdais is pushing Ricky Taylor, hard. Bourdais almost hits Ricky Taylor! Yikes!
Here comes Bourdais to the inside and makes the pass. Bourdais has taken 23 laps to pass. It is an all Cadillac lead battle as we watch the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 of Philip Ellis, Russell Ward, and Indy Dontje. Lexus and Ferrari also pressing hard early doors. We are getting close to the end of the opening hour as we watch Aaron Telitz three seconds down on Kyle Marcelli. Telitz sharing the 5 liter V8 Lexus RC F GT3 with Frankie Montecalvo and Parker Thompson. Mechanical grip is a big deal on a GT3 car. Feel the car through Sunset Bend. That car is bouncing around like crazy. It is a lower revving motor but has low end torque in spades. Kyle Marcelli is leading the class along with Ashton Harrison and Danny Formal in the #93 Racer's Edge Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing entry.
Steven Thomas in #11 is penalized. Taylor is being harried by the other Acura ARX-06 of Tom Blomqvist. Maybe Taylor is getting too much tire degradation. These tires will indeed be double stinted. You have to run three double stints to get through the tire allocation you have. That is a big deal in GTP. Meyer Shank Racing could pounce. GTP cars could hit the pit lane within two to four laps. All other classes have to start on the tires they qualified on save for GTP. GTP teams can choose. Ben Keating is being passed by Francois Heriau in LMP2. Heriau is the new class leader. George Kurtz in the #04 Crowdstrike car is third and John Farano in sixth place in class.
Tom Blpmqvist still fighting with Ricky Taylor. There was a two day open test here at Sebring in February. MSR struggled at the test. Blomqvist is the stronger of the two Acura's currently especially under braking with the new brake by wire system. Antonio Garcia leads GTD Pro in the #3 Corvette C8.R and Ari Balogh spins in the hairpin in the #30 LMP3 car for Jr III Racing. For Corvette it is Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor, and Tommy Milner. The Jr III entry has Ari Balogh, Garrett Grist, and Dakota Dickerson driving on their team. Last year, Corvette only won at Sebring last year in the GT3 specification before they get a full GT3 car for 2024.
The sister Corvette ran in WEC in GTE Am last night. The WEC car is still a GT Le Mans spec car from years past. Derani to the pit lane. What's the strategy? 27 laps on a tank of fuel. Fuel mileage not too different between GTP and GTD. Action Express is near pit out going for refueling first as the #24 BMW M Hybrid also comes in. Fuel only. Double stinting tires for Action Express. No tires yet. BMW takes sticker Michelin tires. The power has been upped. Acura has 520 kilowatts, 720 horsepower. The two Acura's scrapping with Bourdais leading.
Ricky Taylor to the lane. Meyer Shank Racing might go deeper. Maybe they are running less downforce. Bourdais in the lane in the #01 as well. They are changing tires at Ganassi and here too is the #6 Penske Porsche 963. Scrubbed tires for the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing/Andretti Autosport Acura. What do hot tires do for the #31? #01 down and away. Where is Derani? Blomqvist the erstwhile leader. In LMP2, currently, Francois Heriau and George Kurtz, both need a drive through penalty for too fast a fuel flow rate. #35 taking the penalty now. Ben Keating and PR1/Mathiasen go to the top of the shop in LMP2.
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