Nick Boulle has come to the pit lane. So that is all well and good. No point in prolonging the agony. For three straight years, the PR1/Mathiasen #52 team won in the LMP2 class until last year in 2023 when the #8 Tower Motorsports entry took them off of the top podium step. The GTD Pro and GTD classes are both being led by the two Lexus cars. In GTD Pro we have a Captain Cook at the top three places. Jack Hawksworth leads by 9/10ths of a second in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3. Second is Mario Farnbacher aboard the #23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo in the hands of British Aston Martin racer Ross Gunn. In third place, the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 with Madison Snow behind the wheel.
Jordan Pepper is in fourth place aboard the #19 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2. The South African is within striking distance of the top three in GTD Pro. A little further back is the #77 AO Racing Porsche, "Rexy" the dinosaur, with Seb Priaulx driving. Seb Priaulx stopped with everyone else and then discovered a right front tire puncture under Full Course Yellow and so "Rexy" is playing catch up. Seb Priaulx sharing with Michael Christensen and Laurin Heinrich. Oh man! A lead change between the Cadillac's as Sebastien Bourdais passes by Pipo Derani getting the power down trying to get a run. Louis Deletraz is also in the fight in the #40 Acura.
What will the tire degradation be? Many GTP teams are probably going to be double stinting their tires. Bourdais sends it on the inside of turn one past Pipo Derani. It is like a cat pouncing on a mouse. A cut and paste of the pass he made a wee while ago on Louis Deletraz. Bourdais rolled speed into the corner. Sebastien Bourdais has found the settings he needs, and the drivers of the GTP cars have all been able to learn and adjust to the fly by wire braking on these GTP cars particular on a dirty part of the racetrack or on stone cold tires.
It is trust in the electronics and it is hard to feel the tail of the car for the drivers. Meanwhile, we watch P.J. Hyett, the LMP2 pole sitter in the #99 AO Racing Oreca, "Spike". He spun on the pace lap but is back up to third in class. They want to show people they are serious about racing. AO was the name of his company and they stuck the racing name on the back. He designed the livery for his kids and it went from his helmet to the cars. We'll see how Paul Loup Chatin and Matthew Brabhm do, driving "Spike". Matt Brabham's dad Geoff Brabham had great success here at Sebring.
Yikes! Ben Keating locks the brakes and spins, backing it into turn seven and nearly gets mugged by the #81 Flex Box car from DragonSpeed! That is the all-Scandinavian driven car for Malthe Jakobsen of Denmark, and Swedes Henrik Hedman and Rasmus Lindh. Keating off the road once again. Hedman at the wheel for DragonSpeed currently. Stepping on the brakes hard loads up the aerodynamics at the front of the car and dissipates the weight off the rear tires. The car goes light and you rotate. Those moments will make or break your day.
Nick Boulle in the yellow and green Inter Europol with PR1/Mathiasen car, he is just 37 seconds down and still on the lead lap even after his penalty. Keep it clean and keep marching back to the front. Nick Boulle is a Rolex watches dealer from Texas. In LMP2, with all the action we have been seeing, Dan Goldburg resumes in the race lead in class at the wheel of the #22 United Autosport Oreca 07. The #14 Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth will be penalized from the GTD Pro lead, after making contact with his pit crew member on pit lane exit. He ran into his mechanic leaving the pit lane.
All the crew members have radios and there was a miscommunication about the pit stop being done. The mechanic was being waved to move out of the way and Jack Hawksworth thought it was time for him to go. Maybe Hawksworth stopped, and maybe the crewman stumbled over the air line for the rattle gun. Not sure. The damage is done, nonetheless. Meanwhile, this battle between the Porsche's and the BMW is still hot and heavy as we see Connor De Philippi once again poking his nose in on Julien Andlauer going into the hairpin turn with the #6 Penske Porsche 963 ahead.
Andlauer makes the #5 Porsche very wide, and De Philippi is forced to go the long way, but he makes the pass! That is Matthieu Jaminet in the #6. Here is the Winward Racing Mercedes going after the Magnus Racing Aston Martin. This is a battle for third in GT Daytona between John Potter in the #44 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 being driven by Russell Ward. Ward sharing with British domiciled German Philip Ellis and with Dutchman Indy Dontje. Ellis started the car, and these two teams are both having good races. Sean Heckman is the strategist for Magnus Racing. Sean Heckman does the Dinner with Racers podcast with Ryan Eversley.
Magnus Racing has a phenomenal sense of humor. Magnus Racing did a parody on the disco dance movie "Saturday Night Fever" with "Sebring Night Fever" recently on a social media post on X. That is a good one! We will hear soon from Brian Till and Dave Burns as a part of the coverage of the 12 Hours of Sebring on Peacock. Tommy Milner is running well in the #4 Chevrolet Corvette C8 GT3.R. We also see the two Ford Mustang GT3 factory cars running right together. A big greenhouse on both of those cars. One of them is the #65 of Joey Hand and the other, the #64, I am not sure who is driving.
It is either Mike Rockenfeller, Harry Tincknell, or Christopher Mies. Joey Hand is sharing the #65 car with Dirk Mueller and Frederic Vervisch. In qualifying, Hand's car would not turn. As the Mustang's go down these long straightaways, it punches a massive hole in the air and the appearance is menacing. This is a multi-year program for the Ford Mustang team and the Multimatic people in Canada. All six drivers say the cars get better and better in race conditions. Racing is the best way to learn a new car and it's diosyncracies. Testing does a lot but testing is nothing like racing/
P.J. Hyett in the purple Spike the Dragon Oreca has taken the class lead away from Dan Goldburg. Hyett and AO Racing are at the top of the shop. Hyett raced in GT cars in 2023 and he loves racing the LMP2 car now. Goldburg gets stymied in traffic, "Spike" the dragon, breathes fire, and then, he shoots past Goldburg like poor old Goldburg had nothing in the locker. That was wild. Sebastien Bourdais in the #01 Chip Ganasi Racing Cadillac leads overall and in the GTP class. Deep in the GTP field there is a good battle for fourth spot between BMW and Acura.
Phillip Eng has fourth place in the #24 BMW Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 and Ricky Taylor wants it, aboard the #10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 for Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Global. 11 cars in total in the premier class. Pipo Derani led the opening 28 laps of this race before Sebastien Bourdais took the lead away. Ricky Taylor had the fastest lap in qualifying here yesterday. But the rules stipulate you cannot touch the car during qualifying, but you are allowed to change tires. A couple of teams elected to throw an extra set of tires at their car, including the pole sitting Action Express Cadillac of Pipo Derani.
Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Global, what they did, was put the tires on the car and then made a tire pressure adjustment. That is forbidden according to the rules. They could have done it behind pit wall but not out in the pit lane and hence why they lost pole position. The car does have good pace and we'll see how things shake out in the GTP class as the race continues throughout the day. The #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus has made a pit stop. Kyle Kirkwood has taken over the driving duties from Jack Hawksworth. We ride aboard the #64 Ford Mustang GT3 factory car with Mike Rockenfeller and he is being monstered by Tommy Milner!
Ford vs. Chevrolet. This rivalry, which is seemingly as old as time, is rekindled again here at Sebring. Milner makes the move on the outside. The next car he is targeting is the sister #65 Ford Mustang with Joey Hand at the wheel of it and the next car in line is the sister Lexus RC F GT3 from Vasser Sullivan. This is their GT Daytona ranked car, car #12 with Frankie Montecalvo at the wheel of it. Montecalvo sharing with Parker Thompson and Aaron Telitz. GTD Pro and GTD cars are identical specs, but the difference is in the driver lineup ratings. Eng and Taylor battle side by side now for fourth in GTP! This is into turn one. Acura vs. BMW.
Taylor goes wide trying to make an outside pass on Phillip Eng. Eng slams the door in his face. Too early in the race to do that. Be smart, savvy, and patient early doors. But Taylor is lining up a move and Eng closes the door again. The qualifying setup is not the same as the race setup. No dice this time. Louis Deletraz is complaining that Pipo Derani in the #31 Whelen Action Express Cadillac is getting in the way. Ricky Taylor is sharing the #10 Acura ARX-06 with Filipe Albuquerque, the Portuguese driver, and with Kiwi Brendon Hartley, who is the star winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Toyota in the FIA World Endurance Championship and also a former Formula 1 competitor.
Hartley will race with WTR Andretti in the endurance races in IMSA this year. You cannot afford having any compromises on pace with the GTP cars because of the speed capabilities these cars have. Bourdais is leading Derani in this fight between the Cadillac's and of course, there was massive news recently about Chip Ganassi Racing and the fact that they will part ways with Cadillac at the end of the year. No details have come out about Chip Ganassi Racing having another program. Could we see Action Express with a possible two-car effort like they had in DPi in the 2021 and 2022 seasons? Could we see a team like United Autosports with team bosses Zak Brown and Richard Dean field a GTP program?
Zak Brown has a relationship with Chevrolet in IndyCar. Meyer Shank Racing could also come back into IMSA and Porsche have more customer interest. We have 11 GTP cars in the field here at Sebring. I predict the grid will blossom in the coming years and the competition will get even more and more intense. More Porsche's, Lamborghini in the endurance races in 2024. That said, we could perhaps see Lamborghini back next year in 2025 for a full-time campaign and perhaps with two cars. Kyle Kirkwood in the #14 Lexus RC F GT3 is now on the comeback trail. Jack Hawksworth says his pit crew member jumped off the wall and lost his earplugs and he could not see that the car was released.
Their plan is to keep their noses clean for the next seven or eight hours and then, they will begin to turn it on towards the end of the race in the final two hours. Drivers are looking after their equipment and saving fuel. There is a long, long way to go. There could have been another car coming into the pits or down the transition lane. It is black and white per the rulebook. The penalty is the same. Sebastien Bourdais leads and now in LMP2, P.J. Hyett has a five and a half second gap over Dan Goldburg. But, Ben Keating is also still a contender.
Keating is ahead of Gar Robinson and Dwight Merriman. In GTD Pro right now, Alexander Sims leads over Madison Snow, Mario Farnbacher, Jordan Pepper, and Joey Hand. A variety of cars are in contention. Corvette, BMW M4 GT3, Aston Martin, Lamborghini, and Ford Mustang GT3, the top five. GT Daytona also sees a blend of cars and drivers in the top five. Frankie Montecalvo in the second Vasser Sullivan Lexus is leading the division ahead of Misha Goikhberg in the Lamborghini, Russell Ward in the Mercedes, Jake Walker in the BMW, the Turner Motorsports car, and John Potter in the Magnus Racing Aston Martin.
Sebastien Bourdais and Chip Ganassi Racing are playing catch up from the Rolex 24. What is very strange is that we had more issues with the GTP cars at the Rolex 24 in year two than we did in the first year last year. That was very surprising to see. The #01 Cadillac are on the back foot. This is only a nine race championship in GTP so you just cannot have any dud races. This season might mean teams must execute even more to come out on top. Last year. the #31 Whelen Engineering Action Express Cadillac had everything right, everything in place, in order to earn their championship. This year, teams must execute even more.
Frankie Montecalvo leads Misha Goikhberg and Russell Ward by two seconds. Top speeds for the GT Daytona cars, at Daytona, are around 175 miles an hour. At Sebring, the straights are shorter. GTD cars are hitting 157 miles an hour here at Sebring. Into the hairpin, the action is bonkers as we watch Manny Franco in the Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3. There is also the #80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3. They led laps at the Rolex 24 and went from the back to the front and contending for a podium before incurring a penalty. This #80 is the car of Scott Andrews, Rui Andrade, and Salih Yoluc.
Meanwhile, the fight resumes between the Porsche's. Penske vs. Proton Competition. Julien Andlauer making a bold move into Sunset Bend on the Penske cars. That is the Le Mans corner before Sunset Bend and Phil Hanson in the JDC Miller car is in the fight. In traffic, Pipo Derani is inching closer to Sebastien Bourdais. The battle at the front is getting spicy, and we have a big crash! Oh my heavens! This is an LMP2 car plowing into the barriers! The #88 Luis Perez Companc driven LMP2 car for AF Corse has smashed into the wall!
Now, he might be able to keep moving. He is back on track with most of the rear wing gone. In GTD Pro Tommy Milner is applying the blowtorch to Joey Hand. The Corvette vs. Mustang battle is well renewed as they get split by our leader in the gold Cadillac, Sebastien Bourdais. Luis Perez Companc is able to drive the Richard Mille sponsored car back to the pit lane. This accident, as we watch it in replay, is the same thing that happened in qualifying to Matthieu Jaminet in the #6 Penske Porsche 963. He hooked a rut and oversteers to the inside of the track, slamming the tire barriers. Hello, tires. It helps to dissipate energy. The access road created a launchpad but thankfully it was not any worse.
No Full Course Yellow. Meanwhile, it is mano e mano between the two Cadillac's. Bourdais and Derani scrapping for the lead of this motor race. Separate teams both running under the Cadillac Racing banner. But they are two different teams. Keep that in mind. Derani taking a wider arc into Tower corner than Bourdais. the Tower Turn is so named because I think there used to be a water tower there. I don't think it exists any longer. Get comfortable where you are running. Peripheral vision will help through those s curves. Over in turn ten in the Collier curves, we can see Julien Andlauer going off and on. That is the #5 Proton Competition Porsche 963.
He has been losing positions hand over fist. In replay, we see a different incident where he wriggles through the corner. Andlauer ran extremely well in the opening FIA World Endurance Championship event in Qatar that we covered on the blog at the beginning of the month and so, the team decided to bring him in as a late addition to their IMSA entry. In WEC, they run a totally different number and a totally different paint scheme of course. Andlauer still has fastest lap of the race. Just like everyone else in GTP, in the back half of the stint, the Frenchman is beginning to lose pace, losing the balance on the car, and adjustments will be necessary on their next pit stop.
There is an age disparity between these two top drivers for Cadillac. Pipo Derani is now 30 and Sebastien Bourdais is in his mid 40s. Both drivers are extremely experienced. Bourdais won four straight IndyCar championships in his early career. Pipo Derani being able to race mano e mano with the Ganassi drivers is pretty amazing. Derani is willing to put it all on the line for victory. In recent years, he has become a more methodical driver rather than just going all out and charging. Now, we see the new Lamborghini SC63 in the pit lane. What is the scoop with car #63?
Matteo Cairoli has finished his stint and now we could be seeing Romain Grosjean getting into the car. This is the debut of the Lamborghini in GTP and they are doing development and dialing the car in. There is no bigger disparity between the smooth pavement of the Losail track in Qatar where we brought you coverage of the FIA WEC opener, to the bumpiness and character here at Sebring. You need to give the Lamborghini folks a mulligan. But believe me, there are zero mulligans when it comes to this tried and tested Cadillac and the rivalry between these two teams with Action Express and Chip Ganassi Racing.
This is a wrestling match for the overall lead. They are giving each other space. Don't hurt either one of their chances. Ease through this phase of the race. The tires are not the best right now. Monitor the tire wear. We race here at Sebring from day into night. Uh oh. Felipe Nasr in the #7 Porsche 963 for Porsche Penske Motorsports is off the road in the hairpin at turn seven. Let's see what happened to Felipe Nasr, the experienced Brazilian. Ah. He just locked up the rear brakes and missed his braking point. No chance to arrest the speed before going off the road. Remember, the GT3 cars have antilock brakes. The GTP cars have brake by wire but they are not equipped with antilock brakes.
If Nasr would have tried turning the car with a locked brake, he would have gotten into a tank slapper and spun off. The sister #6 Penske Porsche 963 has just pitted and are trying hard to stay on the lead lap as we watch the lead battle between the Cadillac's. Bourdais leads Derani by 7/10ths of a second and now, Derani is working his way through lapped traffic. It is Fred Makowiecki, the Frenchman, driving the #6 Penske Porsche and staying on the lead lap. We have not seen much of the #18 Era Motorsports LMP2 Oreca. Ryan Dalziel, the Scotsman is driving.
This is the team that won the LMP2 class at the Rolex 24. Ryan Dalziel met his wife Jessica here at Sebring several years ago and he has family in the Sebring, Florida area. So, this race is a special one for the Scotsman. Dalziel is 41 years old and loving life. He has had great success with Era Motorsports. The Rolex 24 this year counted for the LMP2 points. Dalziel used to race open wheel cars. He is a mentor now for younger drivers on the team like Christian Rasmussen and Connor Zilisch. We are rotating through the driver lineups in LMP2. Now it is Matt Brabham at the controls of "Spike", the #99 AO Racing purple dragon Oreca 07.
Pit stop time now for the #40 WTR Andretti Acura. Louis Deletraz is getting out and Colton Herta will take his first stint. They are in a different spot because they had to undergo an engine change before night practice on Thursday night. We expect Louis Deletraz to take the #40 car to the finish of the race. Wayne Taylor says his team having two cars is a definite benefit. Wayne Taylor was finally invited to race the historic Formula 1 Grand Prix at Monaco with the ex-Jody Scheckter Wolf Formula 1 car. Jenson Button called Wayne Taylor and said, "don't do it! That car is priceless!" He then called Mario Andretti and Mario said, "you must race that car at Monaco!" Talk about a confliction!
Wayne Taylor staying fit before the historic F1 races. Colton Herta now driving the #40 as Madison Snow now leads GTD Pro over Alexander Sims. Snow in the BMW into turn one out drags Alexander Sims into the turn and both of them are being passed into the first turn by one of the Penske Porsche's. We are seeing driver rotations and the dynamic of sports car racing is that you can see the same car you saw before, but a different driver in the car will behave entirely differently compared to one of the other drivers you have seen before. Meanwhile, Mario Farnbacher has his hands full with Jordan Pepper as well. Our pals Leigh Diffey and Calvin Fish will be taking a quick break from the commentary box and we will welcome Dave Burns and Brian Till to tell the rest of the story here, in a wee while.
Pit stop time for the #31 Whelen Action Express Cadillac, from the lead. We will have Calvin in the booth with Dave and Brian for a wee while longer. OK. Sounds good. Pipo Derani, the pole man, looking for his fifth win at Sebring. Now the team will do a driver change as well as tires and fuel. Jack Aitken will get into the car. One of the BMW's for Rahal Letterman Lanigan is also in the pit lane. Tom Blomqvist is the third driver at Action Express for the enduros. A great driver lineup at AXR. Blomqvist knows the competition, especially the Acura which he drove before. So, the Cadillac battle resumes and now it is Jack Aitken at Action Express vs. Scott Dixon at Ganassi Racing.
Both of them have all these GT Daytona cars to work through in traffic. Aitken working on generating tire pressure and temperature. Scott Dixon has the tires in the sweet spot. Dixon is reeling Aitken in. Double stinting tires, if you are on a two-car team, you can do different things with the tires. However, you should not compromise your strategies by sending one of the cars out to work as a guinea pig. That is such a catch 22. Dixon fighting Aitken. Aitken hanging on , on the outside and they touch! This is not necessary for either CGR or AXR to be scrapping that hard!
You have to wonder if the team managers aren't getting on the radio to their drivers saying, "gently, boys. We have a long, long way to go yet. Take it easy. Don't do anything silly." So, Dixon retakes the lead over Aitken. Jack Aitken wants to hold the spot but he also has to wonder why Dixon wanted to fight. Side by side and Dixon has more acceleration. But Aitken sends it awkwardly and then, discrtion must be the better part of valor. We have a car off the road, one of the LMP2's, and this will necessitate a Full Course Yellow.
Ugh. This is the Tower Motorsports entry, car #8, ironically off the road at the Tower Turn. They are the defending LMP2 champions here at Sebring from a year ago. We do have a Full Course Yellow. They finished fifth in class at the Rolex 24. Michael Dinan is at the wheel of the #8 car and in this replay, side by side with the Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 and he slides sideways and spears right off the road to driver's left and clonks it into the tires. The marshals have now come to Dinan's rescue. I don't think Charlie Scardina expected Dinan to make a move. Scardina the driver of the #023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari.
We are set to hear from Pipo Derani and the thoughts he has after his stint at AXR. The car is OK according to Pipo in the battle with the #01 and he saw Sebastien Bourdais' driving as aggressive. There is a long way to go and the car is running well. Will the pace they have translate to the night? You never know as the temperatures begin to drop. They need to make sure the car is intact to the end. They had floor damage after contact with an LMP3 car last year on the way to a victory. Now, we get the other side of the story as there are always two sides. Sebastien Bourdais says that it is a tire saving game.
Bourdais thinks Pipo Derani was overly careful about saving tires but there was no risk in making a move. Once he got ahead, he also had some bad breaks before pit stops but the car is racy and the battling was enjoyable. A long way to go. Drivers are always busy double stinting tires and sometimes the balance between two sides, you can adjust the anti-rollbars and the differential of the car. Michael Dinan out of the #8 Tower Motorsports car after contact with the wall. He is fine. But it appears the defending LMP2 champions here at Sebring, the team, Tower Motorsports, are done for the day. Game over. Michael Dinan, John Farano, and Charlie Eastwood, it could be they are out of the race.
In the opening of this race, I quoted the great Sam Posey's words and as I said, they ring true still to this day. A man who has inspired me not only as a racing fan but as someone who enjoys writing about these races and telling the stories in each chapter as they unfold. An endurance race is much like either a long trip or reading a great novel that unfolds with each chapter and becomes more and more suspense filled. Posey is a racer, a historian, and a storyteller. This is a great crowd for Sebring this year and could be one of the largest in the events' history.
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