For twelve hours each March, the IMSA field soaks up the punishment of the rough Sebring surface. The 2023 edition of the endurance classic lived up to the billing. The race had it all – compelling story lines before the green flag flew, tight dicing, mechanical hurdles, clever strategy, and race-deciding contact that ended the day for some and opened opportunities for others. Twelve cautions played a big part in the outcome. Forecasted evening rain did not materialize, but the thunder came from the track rather than the sky.
Late Crash for the Leaders Gives Cadillac a Surprise Win
The overall result was in question until the last 20 minutes of the race. The pair of Porsche 963 entries spent most of the race watching the tail lights of the Acura and Cadillac prototypes. However, the Porsches bubbled up to the front in the final laps. Mathieu Jaminet and Felipe Nasr ran in first and third in their Porsches, with Filipe Albuquerque in the Wayne Taylor Acura sandwiched between.
Running full speed into turn one, Jaminet in the #6 and Albuquerque in the #10 encountered slower GT traffic. Jaminet reached them first and found little room to pass. Just behind, Albuquerque looked outside and then juked to the inside. The pair went for the same real estate. Albuquerque got into the grass at speed and slid across turn three into Jaminet pushing both off course. Nasr arrived a split second later in his #7 Porsche 963 and got pushed into the pile from behind. After all the months of preparation, the race for the trio ended in seconds in a pile of dust and broken race cars.
Seizing opportunity, Jack Aitken went from fourth to the race lead in his #31 Cadillac. After starting on the pole, Aitken and co-drivers Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims were in the right place at the right time at the end and took the overall win. The win was the first IMSA victory for Aiken but the fourth overall Sebring victory for Derani. Nick Yelloly, Connor De Phillippi and Sheldon van der Linde finished second in their BMW, a testament to the team’s development after encountering trouble at Daytona. Third overall went to the LMP2 class winner, the Tower Motorsports ORECA of John Farano, Kyffin Simpson and Scott McLaughlin.
The 2023 12 Hours of Sebring was only the second race for the new-era of GTP class prototypes. Thousands of design hours and testing miles led to the race debut for Cadillac, Acura, BMW and Porsche at the 24 Hours of Daytona. Sebring is a different animal than the high-speed high-banks of Daytona.
A limited tire allocation meant a long day for the GTP field. Most teams double stinted tires early in hopes of saving tires for the late stage of the race. The trade-off, however, meant struggling with used tires in hot weather on a dusty and dirty track surface.
The winning Cadillac did not have a smooth path to the win. Early contact with an LMP3 car damaged front bodywork. Repairs and penalties cost put them down a lap with ten hours to go. Five hours later, Derani regained the lead but the Cadillac was a fraction off the pace in the final hours.
Sebring seems to always laugh in the face of preparation and predictability. Dane Cameron was at the wheel of his #6 Porsche 963 under yellow flag conditions when an LMP3 car hit him in the right rear. Cameron pitted to repair the broken bodywork but appeared to suffer no other ill-effects. Nick Tandy flattened his Porsche’s left rear tire after contact with an Acura three hours into the race and then slowed an hour later with smoke in the cockpit. He returned to the pits, holding the driver’s side door open for visibility and ventilation. The crew serviced the car and got it back out into the fray, losing only a lap.
Mechanical gremlins also struck the #60 Meyer Shank Acura and the #01 Cadillac. The Acura lost a left rear wheel with less than two hours to go with Helio Castroneves aboard and required a flatbed recovery. After repairs, the Acura resumed its race and crossed the finish line 21 laps behind the lead. The #01 Cadillac was the strongest in the early and middle stages. Renger van der Zande, Sebastien Bourdais and Scott Dixon stayed at or near the front of the field for the first two thirds of the race. Their race ended when Bourdais arrived on pit lane with fire blazing beneath the rear bodywork. The culprit was a fuel issue that never arose in testing.
Sebring took its toll on the GTP field. Out of the eight entries, only three were running at the end and only two factored into the result.
Porsche Takes GTD Pro with Late Fuel Milage Strategy Call
While the field of eight GTP cars battled for survival, the GT classes waged battles of their own. In the end, fuel milage made the difference. Several yellow flags enabled teams to stretch pit stops longer than would have otherwise been possible. The #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche claimed honors in GTD Pro with the combination of Patrick Pilet’s gentle touch at the controls and slow-speed laps under yellow. Remarkably, Pilet’s final stint ran well beyond usual stint lengths at just over an hour and 52 minutes.
1 in Class
The Pfaff Porsche was not the fastest on outright pace but ran a clean race. Pilet joined with Klaus Bachler and Laurens Vanthoor to keep the Porsche near the #3 Corvette and #79 Mercedes-AMG. The Porsche’s victory rewarded the Pfaff crew’s effort to repair heavy damage suffered in qualifying when Bachler went off in turn one. The class victory was the first for the 992-spec GT3 911 GT3 R and the 101st class victory for Porsche at Sebring.
Jack Hawksworth, Ben Barnicoat and Kyle Kirkwood in the #14 Lexus took second in GTD Pro with a similar fuel saving strategy. Daniel Juncadella, Jules Gounon and Maro Engel settled for third in their #79 Mercedes-AMG. If not for the yellow flag laps that enabled the winning fuel strategy, the Mercedes-AMG would have stood on the top step of the class podium.
The #3 Corvette sat on the pole and showed speed in the hands of Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor and Tommy Milner. A left rear shock repair delayed the Corvette but the team worked their way back to the lead. Unfortunately, contact from behind on a late restart hurt the Corvette and pushed it down the order. The #3 Corvette and the #62 Risi Ferrari were amongst the traffic that caught up the GTP leaders in the final minutes of the race. The crash not only took out the GTP leaders, the Corvette and Ferrari both spun which took them both out of contention for class honors.
BMW Finishes 1-2 in GTD
GTD honors were decided with a similar fuel strategy. Madison Snow, Bryan Sellers and Corey Lewis crossed the line in a BMW 1-2 finish ahead of the Turner BMW driven by Robby Foley, Patrick Gallagher, and Michael Dinan. Snow logged a final stint of an hour and 48 minutes for the win. Julien Andlauer, David Brule, and Alec Udell took third, the highest placed Porsche of the five in the GTD field.
The turning point in the race for GTD occurred just shy of eight hours into the race. Zacharie Robichon in the #16 Wright Motorsports and Philip Eng in the #57 Winward Merecedes-AMG tried to go into turn one side by side as they battled for the lead. Neither emerged unscathed. The Porsche spun into the outside barriers but recovered and continued. The Mercedes retired with front right suspension damage. The incident took two contenders out of the mix for the win.
Tower Motorsport Wins LMP2 with a Recovery Drive
LMP2 results remained in question until the very end. Tower Motorsports won the class and claimed third place overall in the hands of John Farano, Kyffin Simpson and Scott McLaughlin. The #8 Tower entry found itself in the barriers outside turn one just past half-way when Simpson went wide. He slowly brought his damaged mount back to pit lane where the crew made repairs and returned the #8 to the fight with only a modest track position loss.
A late call in the closing hours to pit earlier than others just before a yellow flag put the #8 in the lead with Supercar and Indycar ace McLaughlin at the controls. The move gained track position but McLaughlin needed to hold off a charging Mikke Mikkel in the #11 TDS Racing ORECA. The margin at the flag was less than a second. Mikkel teamed up with Steven Thomas and Scott Huffaker.
Riley Survives an Eventful Race for LMP3
Lance Willsey in the #33 LMP3 Sean Creech Motorsport spun in turn one at the start, just ahead of the full GT field. Despite some broken bodywork, he was able to drive away and return to the pits for service. The spin was the first of several LMP3 incidents throughout the race. The oddest was a stray wheel from the #51 Rick Ware LMP2 that came loose after a re-start, bounced down the track, and smashed into the left front of Garett Grist’s #30 Jr III entry. The #30 had been the strongest horse of the race to that point, but their day was done. In the end, the #74 Riley driven by Gar Robinson, Josh Burdon and Felipe Fraga took the LMP3 class victory.
Long Beach Next
After surviving two brutal endurance tests at Daytona and Sebring, the IMSA schedule switches next for a sprint around the tight streets of Long Beach. LMP2 and LMP3 classes get a rest while the GTP, GTD Pro and GTD classes take the spotlight.
