12 Things to Watch for at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring IMSA Race

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12 Things to Watch for at the Sebring 12-Hour IMSA RaceHearst Owned

Hosting racing’s version of Spring Break, the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring is known for a distinguished history, surprise endings in front of big crowds, and a Green Park full of scaffolding and rowdy fans. Here’s what to watch for in the 74th version of America’s oldest sports car race, the second round of IMSA’s WeatherTech Championship.

WTR Cadillac Ready to Win?​

After a winless inaugural season last year with Cadillac, can Wayne Taylor Racing get its first GTP win in the V-Series.R at the always unpredictable Sebring International Raceway? The driving line-up features five previous winners at Sebring, including Colton Herta, the longtime IndyCar shoe who will rejoin Louis Deletraz and Jordan Taylor for this year’s race. The trio won in WRT’s Acura ARX-06 in 2024.

Taylor likes his chances of a second GTP win over the notorious bumps and concrete runways of the World War II training base for B-17 crews. Although the team finished seventh and 11th last year, both cars were contenders at different stages. “The Cadillac seems to be one of the cars that has a big operating window which makes it suit endurance racing so well,” he said. “Looking at Sebring, the conditions change so much throughout the race that you need to have a car that can suit many different conditions.”

A Cadillac has won two of the last three endurance events. Action Express Racing, the runner-up in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, won the six-hour at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the 10-hour Petit Le Mans. But both Cadillac teams will have to beat the two Porsche Penske Motorsport 963s that dominated the season-opening Rolex 24 with newly revised aerodynamics.

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Nasr Looks to Start Another Streak​

Having taken a third-straight Rolex 24 victory with new teammates Laurin Heinrich and Julien Andlauer, Felipe Nasr is looking for his second-straight Sebring victory in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963. He likes his chances after a recent successful test, but experience tells him that racing on hot days and in cool nights can be too fickle to forecast. “It’s one thing when you test and it’s another thing for the race week and the track gripping up (with rubber). And the transition from day to night. That’s always a bit of an unknown.”

Asked what may be on his bucket list, the Brazilian said he wants to keep winning races for Roger Penske, including at Le Mans, which is not on this year’s schedule after Porsche’s withdrawal from the World Endurance Championship. Having transitioned from the Formula 1 ranks, Nasr is not looking beyond IMSA. “It’s such a prime time to be involved in sports car racing, I feel. Every driver is having a blast. The racing is great.”

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Beware of Cautions​

Last year’s seven cautions included two mistakes when it came to opening the pit road by IMSA officials. One was early, which cost three GTP teams track position, and one was late, which cost three LMP2 teams track position and a shot at victory. Also, Cadillac driver Ricky Taylor was penalized for phantom contact with at GTD Ferrari, which cost the WRT team a lap.

In 2024, cautions meant all the classes were decided by scant seconds and by a lot of argy-bargy after successive re-starts at the end. Then there was the first GTP race in 2023, where two Porsches and one Acura piled up in Turn 3 with 20 minutes remaining following a restart, enabling the Cadillac of Action Express, which was a distant fourth at the time of the melee, to claim the victory.

Otherwise, watch out for sunset, when the flat-out racing begins as the boiling sun melts into the horizon. This year, the forecast is for a high in the 80s and nighttime temperatures in the 50s, one of the biggest swings in endurance racing.

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New Lambo in Town​

Sporting the plaid colors of Toronto-based Pfaff Motorsports, the Lamborghini Temerario GT3 will make its worldwide debut in the 12-hour. It’s a tough place to launch a new race car, but the US is the Italian brand’s largest market and the company did not want to begin with Daytona’ 24-hour.

The race precedes the opening of the GT3 season in Europe, where a long list of privateers will race the Temerario. Unlike the preceding Huracán GT3, based on the Audi R8 LMS, the Temerario was conceived parallel to its road-going counterpart and was built in Sant’Agata Bolognese. Featuring classic Lambo lines, it’s powered by a bespoke 4.0-liter V8 turbo listed at 585 horsepower, pending Balance of Performance.

“With Temerario GT3, we have reached full technical maturity in motorsport,” said Rouven Mohr, who served as the chief technical officer before a planned move back to Audi. “For the first time, the car was designed, developed, and engineered entirely in-house from day one. The integration between road car R&D and racing engineering allowed us to create a highly sophisticated and efficient platform that represents the third generation of Lamborghini GT3 cars.”

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Lamborghini

Who Can Maintain Lap Times on Double Stints?​

For the GTP competitors, Michelin’s new Pilot Sport Endurance tire with the Vision tread pattern fared well at Daytona, but will undergo another strenuous test at Sebring.

For all competitors, the rear tires take a beating on the 3.74-mile, 17-turn circuit because of the uneven asphalt and concrete surfaces taken at high speed and, in the case of the Hairpin, low speed followed by rapid acceleration. According to team managers, the driver is the biggest variable when it comes to tire management and the drivers feel that pressure.

“At Sebring you see a lot of tire deg, and especially on double stints,” said Cadillac driver Deletraz. “The fact that we have hybrid and so many tools in the car, we can adapt the balance. We can really take it from one lap where it’s very good on your tires to where it goes to oversteering on the same lap. We’re driving a car and doing what we’re told. But there’s still a driving factor and a lot more we can do.”

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Hawksworth Hits 100​

Jack Hawksworth is rapidly becoming one of motor racing’s iron men. After 49 career races in an IndyCar, the British driver will start his 100th race on board a Lexus RC F GT3 at the 12-hour.

“I guess my reaction initially was just shock, really, that I had done that many IMSA races with Lexus,” he said. “It’s gone very, very quickly. It’s just a number, right? You tend to hold on to the win stats and the podium stats. But to have started 100 races with the same manufacturer, that’s cool.”

In those starts, Hawksworth, 35, has won 11 races (two at Sebring), stood on 32 podiums, and put a Lexus on the class pole 13 times. Perhaps more amazing is the fact the RC F GT3, to be replaced by the GR GT3 next season, was launched in 2017. That’s when Hawksworth came on board with 3GT Racing before Vasser Sullivan took over the Lexus program in 2019.

In another milestone, Corvette Racing’s Antonio Garcia (four wins) and Tommy Milner (two wins) are starting their 20th 12-hour. Milner might have had a one-race edge, but he missed the IMSA race in 2022, racing on the Florida track instead with Corvette’s WEC team in the 1,000-mile race.

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Valkyrie Starts a Second Round​

The Aston Martin Valkyrie is finally returning to a track where it has competed in IMSA previously. Following an impressive runner-up finish at the Petit Le Mans, The Heart of Racing’s first prototype race at Daytona was hampered by an engine problem midway in the 24-hour and a steering issue in the final hour. With its high-pitched V12, the Valkyrie remains the only non-hybrid, traditionally ICE-powered car in GTP.

“Sebring offers a chance to really kickstart our season after Daytona didn’t bring us the result we’d hoped for,” said team principal Ian James. “Going back to a circuit the team and the drivers already know with this car allows us to hit the ground running and I’m pretty confident the Aston Martin Valkyrie will perform strongly if we do our homework and execute our objectives. It’s a tough circuit that challenges the car to the maximum, but Valkyrie ran smoothly for 12 hours this time last year so we know it can cope with the bumps.”

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Sebring Remains the Attendance Leader​

The sellout at the Petit Le Mans and the announced attendance at the Rolex 24 have put a new perspective on the growth of IMSA.

A veteran observer with good sources (this writer) can confirm that capacity at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta currently tops out at 35,000 fans, because of tight infield space and limited parking around the track. The Daytona International Speedway this year announced its attendance for the Rolex for the first time. Although it counts the same people several times, the four-day announced crowd of 180,000 is consistent with an estimated attendance over the course of the 24-hour of about 45,000 unique fans, including “day trippers” and a well-organized infield, where sold out parking is pay-per-space.

Due to its long tradition, concurrence with Spring Break and excellent access to both trackside viewing and parking in the huge infield as well as parking outside the track, Sebring remains the attendance leader for U.S. sports car racing.

This year, fans and TV viewers will notice the new TireRack.com/Michelin pedestrian bridge on the Ulmann back straight as well as a new viewing mound outside Turn 16. The bridge runs between the vast free parking area outside Turns 16 and 17 and the paddock, leveraging parking opportunities near the facility, which can only help attendance growth. Our estimate for race day is 65,000.

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Lively Liveries at Sebring​

In addition to the plaid Lamborghini Temerario of Pfaff Motorsports and the pink Porsche 911 GT3 R of AO Racing known as Roxy, two new liveries will stand out at this year’s 24-hour.

The Porsche Penske Motorsports 963s are switching to white with blue (No. 6) and red (No. 7) highlights. The scheme celebrates Porsche’s long-running relationship with Mobil 1, a lubricant supplier for its production line vehicles as well as racing projects, which now includes cooling for the batteries in EV racers. The relationship goes back to the brace of Porsche GT1s that raced at Le Mans in 1996 with Mobil 1 colors. The scheme is also designed to help highlight Porsche’s 75th year of racing.

Corvette Racing is introducing a red, white and blue scheme for its Z06 GT3.R entries in honor of the 250th celebration of American independence as well as its long-running relationship with Mobil 1.

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Team Penske

The Return of NBC Sports a Bit Confusing​

For those looking for linear TV to watch the race and avoid streaming or pay-per-view, the return of NBC Sports for the closing hours of this year’s 12-hour is likely not the answer.

Reconfigured as a digital linear streaming service, the latest version of NBC Sports was announced last November. It is basically the same feed as the Peacock channel. It is available as a channel on cable systems such as Xfinity, which of course are paid for monthly as part of a package. Thus far, Xfinity seems to be the only major cable network to be carrying it.

A listing for a digital feed from NBC Sports, thus, is way different from NBC’s broadcast channel. IMSA will have more than 17 hours of NBC’s broadcast coverage this year, including the entire Long Beach Grand Prix. But there’s not any broadcast coverage by the network from Sebring, only Peacock and NBCSports.

YouTube’s IMSA channel is geo-blocked for U.S. viewers. The YouTube Channel itself requires an add-on payment to watch Peacock or, ahem, NBCSports.

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Rahal/McLaren Have an Old and New Approach at Sebring​

Bruce McLaren won the first time he ever raced at Sebring, scoring his first Formula 1 victory in a Cooper T51-Climax in the inaugural US Grand Prix in 1959.

Fast forward to this year’s 12-hour, and the RLL Team McLaren will have a bumper crop of newcomers in the cockpit of its McLaren 720S GT3 EVO. Max Esterson has raced once in a Formula Ford at the track six years ago. Nikita Johnson has raced an F4 open-wheeler on the short course. Dean MacDonald will be seeing Sebring’s 3.74 miles of asphalt and concrete for the first time.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan, of course, has a wealth of experience at the track. The team’s experience with Porsche, Aston Martin and BMW goes back to 2007.

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IndyCar Drivers Have Another Bumpy Ride​

The four IndyCar drivers temporarily joining the WeatherTech series at Sebring should feel right at home. Last week’s NTT IndyCar Series race in Arlington, Texas, introduced a street course with a nice layout that was considered extraordinarily bumpy. Sounds like Sebring!

Arlington winner Kyle Kirkwood hopes to make it two in a row in the GTD Pro Lexus of Vasser Sullivan. Four-time IndyCar champ and Indy 500 winner Alex Palou is looking for his first IMSA win in the Acura of Meyer Shank Racing. Teammate Scott Dixon, believe it or not, has yet to win at Sebring after great success at Daytona and the Petit Le Mans.

Likely most comfortable will be Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac driver Colton Herta, this year transitioning to Formula 1 with Cadillac via a season in Formula 2. He won the 12-hour in 2024 co-driving an Acura ARX-06 for WTR.

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