The wait for the second round of the 2019 IMSA WeatherTech season is over, and ‘Super Sebring’ race week is finally here.
This coming week may well be remembered for the goings on off track due to the addition of the WEC paddock. However, whilst there are two major races on, the 67th running of the 12 Hours of Sebring is, without a doubt, still the headliner here.
For this year’s 12 Hours, there are 38 cars on the grid across the four classes, and all but one of them are packed with both talent and variety.
Wide open in DPi
In DPi, there are 11 cars, the same total as at the Rolex 24 Hours, with all four DPi manufacturers, therefore, still represented.
After Daytona, the big question is whether or not a Cadillac will emerge victorious after Wayne Taylor Racing took an emphatic win back in January.
WTR, which won Sebring as recently as 2017 (with a Cadillac) will head into the week as the team to beat. It will, however, not race with its Daytona line-up; instead, full-season drivers Renger Van Der Zande and Jordan Taylor will be joined by team newcomer Matthieu Vaxiviere. On this occasion, Fernando Alonso and Kamui Kobayashi have not been released by Toyota, and will therefore only take part in the WEC race on Friday.
Vaxiviere should nevertheless prove to be a worthy sub for the 12 Hours, the rapid Frenchman heading to Florida with a mass of LMP2 experience under his belt from recent seasons. He’ll be keen to put a huge race win on his CV though. It’s also of note too, that he’ll be on double duty, racing for TDS in the WEC, and will, therefore, get plenty of track time during race week.
Elsewhere in the Cadillac ranks, Action Express will be as strong a prospect as ever, the American outfit welcoming former WEC champion and Le Mans winner Brendon Hartley to its #5 line-up. In what’s set to be a big return to sportscars with the Kiwi, Hartley will race with Joao Barbosa and Filipe Albuquerque for his first start in a Cadillac, in addition to racing with SMP in an LMP1 BR1 in the WEC race. He’s another one of the 11 drivers competing in both races this weekend.
In AXR’s other car, Pipo Derani will join Eric Curran and Felipe Nasr, the Brazillian the only driver in the DPi class with two overall Sebring wins to his name. As a side note, Mike Conway, who drove with Action Express in January, has also not been released by Toyota for the race.
Juncos Racing and JDC Miller meanwhile, are also back, and both teams look to take all the experience gained with their respective DPi V.Rs at Daytona and put it to good use in the 12 Hours. While it’s unlikely that the race will be one by any of the three Caddys from Juncos and JDC, expect to see some real progress from both outfits as they continue to get up to speed with their new kit.
That leaves us with the remaining three DPi chassis in the field.
Mazda Team Joest is arguably the team with the most interest surrounding it in the field heading into Round 2. The pace shown during Qualifying at Rolex (Oliver Jarvis breaking the all-time circuit lap record) should mean that if both RT24-Ps stay reliable then John Doonan can expect his cars to be in the mix.
It was a rollercoaster at Daytona, with so much buzz surrounding the programme during the build-up to the race, before a deflating performance in the 24 Hours itself left them disappointed and wondering what could have been.
A big result here is much needed, the team will be motivated to bounce back and as ever, score that all-elusive first IMSA overall win. For the race, Jonathan Bomarito (who is doing double duty, racing with Ford in the WEC race) will drive with new Ford WEC teammate Harry Tincknell and Olivier Pla in the #55, and Oliver Jarvis, Tristan Nunez and Timo Bernhard will pilot the sister #77.
On the BoP front, Mazda RT-24Ps will head to Sebring with an additional with 10 extra kilograms of ballast, and a fuel tank four litres smaller. Mazda was the class of the field in Daytona before their race came to a dramatic end seven hours into the event.
Penske’s Acuras also have a great deal to prove after coming close to winning at the Rolex 24, the #7 finishing third and on the lead lap in the treacherous conditions.
Roger Penske’s team, which does have an IMSA win to its name, is still lacking any sort of dominant form that’s expected from the longstanding American crew. Its pair of Acura ARX-05s are, as they were in January, stacked with talent, all with Rolex 24 experience bar Alex Rossi, who did impress mightily on pace in his debut with the team.
The last team is CORE autosport, with its single Nissan DPi. At Daytona, it had an unsurprisingly quiet build-up to the race, but had a reliable run to the finish, and crossed the line an impressive fourth overall. Jon Bennett’s team would welcome another strong, metronomic run here, and finish high up the order again.
Penske and CORE are the only other teams in DPi to receive a BoP change. The Nissan DPi gets a five-kilogram weight break, and the Acura ARX-05 gets one litre larger fuel tank.
In the LMP2 ranks, there are just two entries for this year’s race, down from four at Daytona. Gone are DragonSpeed’s pair of ORECAs, while the team shifts its focus on the WEC meeting and its IndyCar commitments. It’s a big loss to the class after Elton Julian’s team won the season opener in what was a real race of attrition.
Left on the list is Performance Tech and PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports. While it’s unlikely that LMP2 will be a class to follow closely because of the lack of entrants, both outfits will be hoping that it’s a tight-knit affair.
Performance Tech will race with Kyle Masson, Cameron Cassels and a yet-to-be-named third driver, while PR1’s line-up consists of Matt McMurry, Gabriel Aubry and as DSC understands, Anders Fjordbach, the Dane signing with the team to gain more track time ahead of his maiden campaign with an ORECA 07 in the ELMS with High Class Racing.
Another classic endurance battle to come in GTLM?
The GTLM race at Daytona was arguably one of the best the class has ever seen in IMSA, with all the marques entered in with a shout throughout the race.
It had door-to-door action, blistering lap times, and a dramatic ending with BMW Team RLL scoring a huge and somewhat poignant result in the wake of Charly Lamm’s passing.
BMW’s win came as somewhat of a surprise, in a freak finish which saw the #67 Ford run out of fuel just as the final red flag came out.
Can Team RLL repeat such an achievement here and go two-for-two to start the season? The M8 GTLM surely looks capable, especially when the BoP for the class puts all the cars on a relatively even keel.
Ford’s pair of GTs, Porsche’s 911 RSRs and Corvette’s C7.Rs though, are all capable of winning the class.
Ford Chip Ganassi Team USA will look to avenge its disastrous finish at Daytona, Porsche hopes to make it two wins in a row at the race and Corvette has a clear aim to give the C7.R one last hurrah at Sebring.
The only omission in the class is Risi Competizione, which finished second at Daytona after a performance so strong that even the team felt surprised. As it stands the Houston-based squad has no further plans in GTLM, which is a shame as its 488 GTE never fails to add both excitements as well as variety to the factory-dominated field.
For Sebring, the BoP change is minor, and that will cause few to comment, as Daytona saw the class balanced incredibly well.
The Porsche 911 RSRs will each get a 10-kilogram weight reduction, while the Ford GT will have to carry an extra 10 kilograms. The Fords also received an increase in their fuel tank size of one litre.
There’s also no notable driver changes in the class.
17 cars for GTD
Like GTLM, GTD was a lottery for much of the Rolex 24, with the slew of marques in the class all enjoying time in front-running positions during the race.
The class has, as expected, seen a hit in entry numbers, the total now 17 cars. It’s still strong though and features much of the quality entries that were on the grid for the season opener.
The most notable omission is the Black Swan Racing team, which was due to race at Sebring, will sit out the meeting after team owner Tim Pappas’ shunt at the Bathurst 12 Hour.
Grasser Racing, which will contest the full IMSA Endurance Cup schedule, heads to Sebring with the biggest target on its back after winning a second Rolex 24 on the bounce.
It will run with a single Huracan GT3 EVO in the race with Rolf Ineichen, Mirko Bortolotti and Rik Breukers behind the wheel.
They’ll likely receive stiff competition from the Land Motorsport crew (which finished second at Daytona before receiving a penalty post-race for a drive-time infringement), the Riley Motorsports Mercedes that for much of the opener looked like the the car to beat, and the AIM Vasser Sullivan (Lexus) crew that had a mighty IMSA GTD debut at the start of the year with a podium finish.
But really, there’s so much quality that a case can be made for all of the teams in the race. Teams like Paul Miller (which won GTD last year), Starworks, the MSR Acuras and Scuderia Corsa are all on the list, and capable of reaching the top step of the podium.
BoP will, therefore, play a big part. Back in January, it was pretty spot on, so expect it to be close once again, and provide spectacular action, as the BoP change pre-race is minor.
The biggest BoP change hits the Mercedes-AMG GT3s, that have been handed a 10-kilogram weight increase, and a two-litre slash to their fuel tank. The classes’ only weight break went the way of the Lexus RC-F GT3, which shakes off five kilograms.
