The #31 Whelen Engineering Racing (Action Express) Cadillac V-Series.R of Pipo Derani, Alexander Sims, and Jack Aitken has won the 71st annual Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring, but it was far from a straightforward journey for the pole-sitting Cadillac that took the marque’s third overall victory in a row around the legendary, bumpy, and brutal Sebring International Raceway.
Two hours into the race, Derani struck an LMP3 backmarker which had spun right in front of him, at the time, Action Express’ chances of winning appeared over. But in the chaos of the final two hours, with multiple incidents and Full Course Yellows – building up to a spectacular three-car pileup which eliminated all three GTP class front runners – the #31 Cadillac somehow escaped and drove on to the overall win, having spent much of the race clawing its way back onto the lead lap via FCY wave-arounds.
And even then, when the car returned to the lead with four hours remaining, Action Express would fall away from the top spot, when Derani got dropped by two cars in one lap on a subsequent restart.
But, as the race descended into madness after nightfall, the Whelen-liveried Cadillac never strayed far from the podium places. Aitken – in the line of fire all throughout his closing stint – avoided a massive collision with 20 minutes to go which collected both Porsche Penske Motorsports 963s (#6, Mathieu Jaminet/Nick Tandy/Dane Cameron and #7, Matt Campbell/Felipe Nasr/Michael Christensen), and the #10 Konica Minolta (Wayne Taylor) Acura ARX-06 (Ricky Taylor/Filipe Albuquerque/Louis Delétraz).
“I was trying to do some quick counting when I drove past the incident,” Aitken recalls. “Those moments, so late in the race, you’re in the moment, it’s strange. I saw the crash, debris, there were cars everywhere and I was just trying to survive. I saw there were a lot of cars, and a lot of GTP cars.”
This allowed Action Express Racing to win the race – and with it, give Derani his fourth career Sebring 12 Hours overall victory, his first since 2019, to cap off a string of three in four years. “It was a little lucky this time. But I have been on the unlucky side a few times,” said Derani.
“I’ve been close to a fourth win many times and couldn’t take it. The most important thing is that we were there at the end with a car that was still running. I want to say thank you to the whole group. We’ve had an amazing week.”
Jaminet in the #6 Penske Porsche 963, who was leading at the time, was boxed in on the exit of turn one by the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari and #3 Corvette. The Frenchman attempted to find a way through and make a dive up the inside of the two GTDs into turn three. As he did, he made contact with the front of the #10 Acura which was also looking for a way through after getting a better run through turn one.
Albuquerque, who was trying to make an opportunistic move in the #10 Acura, was sent onto the grass up the inside after the brief contact, and back across the track out of control. He collected Jaminet, who was then hit by Felipe Nasr in the sister #7 Porsche, the Brazilian ending up driving over the top of the #6.
#Sebring12 We went from a great show… to a 🫣show…. The fans didn’t deserve this kind of racing
This was the third time I was turned around or used as a “braking device” in the last 30min.
Well done to all survivors 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 pic.twitter.com/Rl0nyx1kw8
— Antonio García (@AntonioGarcia_3) March 19, 2023
Also off the track in the melee were the #62 Ferrari, #3 Corvette and #77 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R that took evasive action. The three GTPs involved were on-the-spot retirements. The stewards took a look at the incident and decided that no further action was needed to penalise anyone for the contact.
Jaminet, Albuquerque, and Nasr were sent to the care centre for precautionary checks and released with no injuries. A shocked-looking Jaminet didn’t want to discuss the incident after the race but was greeted by his teammates. He offered his apologies, which were immediately rejected, with expressions of relief that he was okay.
It was a shocking way to end what had been a phenomenal battle between Jaminet and Albuquerque for the overall victory. Jaminet had taken the lead with just over half an hour to go, getting past Aitken who’d taken the penultimate FCY restart in first place with a well-timed move around Tower Turn (Turn 13). It would have been the defining moment of the race – especially since the car had to pit unexpectedly in the late afternoon when Tandy smelled smoke in the cockpit.
Or maybe it would have been a three-wide sequence between Aitken, Albuquerque, and Nasr down the start/finish straight which sent Derani from second to fourth and Albuquerque ahead with Nasr in tow.
These should have been the moments that defined the closing hours of this brutal race.
Instead, once the race restarted for the last time with five minutes to go, Aitken was left to pull away easily from another car and a team which had pulled off an incredible heist of its own to finish second: The #25 BMW M Team RLL Hybrid V8 of Connor de Philippi, Nick Yelloly, and Sheldon van der Linde.
There had been flashes of promise from the BMW prototype this time out. The #25 crew even led a few laps while off-sequence in the pits – but with under two hours left, they had to change out both rear brake rotors and callipers and fell off the lead lap. Surely, with the #24 BMW (Philipp Eng/Augusto Farfus/Marco Wittmann) already out of the race with a cooling system failure after halfway, there should have been no way to the podium for the most troubled LMDh car of the bunch in these early days of the category.
But with all the FCYs came several wave-bys that sent the #25 BMW back to the lead lap and right on the back of Derani before the leaders wrecked. Yelloly ultimately couldn’t catch Derani streaking off into the distance, but all three drivers will gladly take the first podium for the new prototype.
“I tried to go with him and almost lost it in the final corner,” Yelloly recounted over the final restart. “Jack struggled at the previous restart, so I thought I had a chance. I made a mistake, and Jack nailed it. It is clear we need to work on switching on our tyres, other teams have done a better job of that. I think if we had half an hour I could have reeled him in, but we ran out of time. This shows we have lots to come. We took a step forward and were in amongst it, we weren’t at Daytona. Great work by the team.
“We’ve done a lot of work on the simulator, trying to get our software working. We hadn’t run a hybrid prototype before, we wanted to get it working. But there is still a lot to improve. We didn’t show outright speed at Daytona, but we got a lot of data. So the RLL boys and girls trawled through the data and took another step forward. We think this is promising moving forward.”
A race of attrition within the top class also dealt a cruel blow to the #01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R (Sebastien Bourdais/Renger van der Zande/Scott Dixon), which had been the dominant car for much of the race. They led by as much as a minute before an ill-timed FCY shuffled them out of the lead.
With four hours left, the #01 Cadillac had played it conservatively in the middle stages, and that set Bourdais up to take the lead on a restart with three hours and 48 minutes left. But before the three-quarter mark, Bourdais drove back with fire coming out of the rear of his Cadillac.
The cause of what proved to be a terminal failure for the car that led 120 laps was described, officially, as a “fuel distribution system issue” – which is appropriate, since fuel tends to be distributed unevenly when there’s a fire burning inside the car.
And as for the #60 Meyer Shank Racin Acura ARX-06 (Tom Blomqvist/Colin Braun/Helio Castroneves)? The team was humbled here, just days after the cheating scandal that unfolded following its Daytona 24 Hours victory. The team was up for the fight, but its race ended when the left rear wheel came off as Blomqvist was rounding Turn 16. The Acura was running ahead of the #31 Cadillac with two hours to go and probably could have picked up the pieces if not for this misfortune.
IMSA’s new hybridized, premier-class prototypes havs now undergone its two toughest tests – the two longest and most mechanically demanding races of the season. From there, Cadillac, Acura, Porsche, and BMW will take the lessons learned and apply them towards their future endeavours.
That also includes the “extra credit” that Cadillac and Porsche accrued 24 hours earlier when their cars made their FIA World Endurance Championship debuts in the 1000 Miles of Sebring.
All the GTP carnage left the door open for an overall podium finish from the LMP2 leaders. And what a surprise the LMP2 class had in store. After crashing just after half-distance, the #8 Tower Motorsports Oreca LMP2 07 of John Farano, Kyffin Simpson, and Scott McLaughlin drove on to the class victory and third overall!
“It’s a journey,” said a bewildered Farano after the race.
Once Farano cleared his compulsory three hours of drive time, Simpson and McLaughlin were entrusted for the final three-quarters of the race. A spin and crash for Simpson exiting Turn 1 left the black and orange Oreca with bodywork damage, most of it thankfully cosmetic. “Credit to the team. Everyone knows what this place is. It was a great victory for us, and our first victory for the team,” commented Farano.
McLaughlin was entrusted to take the final restart and held on for dear life to keep the #11 TDS Racing Oreca of Mikkel Jensen behind him. McLaughlin, the IndyCar Series star, held off Jensen by 0.834 seconds to give the defending LMP2 series champions the victory.
Jensen and co-driver Scott Huffaker, previously members of the PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports team that had won the last two years in a row, were denied their own individual hat tricks. But given that the Steven Thomas-fronted TDS Racing team had to overcome multiple penalties for pit work violations, second in class and fourth overall felt like a miracle.
It also salvaged dignity after François Heriau crashed out in the #35 car – which could have been a contender in its own right.
The #18 Era Motorsports Oreca (Dwight Merriman/Ryan Dalziel/Christian Rasmussen) finished third in class and fifth overall, pulling away from the #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsport Oreca (Ben Keating/Paul-Loup Chatin/Alex Quinn) and the #04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR (George Kurtz/Ben Hanley/Nolan Siegel) which rounded out the top five in LMP2.
The #52 and #04 Orecas looked like the cars to beat at stages in this race and in fact no team led more laps than the 171 from the CrowdStrike/APR trio. But the way the Safety Car interventions shook out for them, Kurtz, Hanley, and Siegel ran out of luck. Keating was denied a chance at a Sebring Double, which is still yet to be accomplished.
In LMP3, the #74 Riley Ligier JS P320 (Gar Robinson/Felipe Fraga/Josh Burdon) scored a runaway victory after disaster befell the #30 Jr III Racing Ligier (Ari Balogh/Garett Grist/Dakota Dickerson with 75 minutes left in the race.
Grist was struck in the left front quarter panel by a tyre which flew off Pietro Fittipaldi’s crashed #51 Rick Ware Racing Oreca LMP2. Fittipaldi walked away from his frightening spin and crash at Turn 1, and thankfully, the wayward wheel didn’t hit the #30 Ligier in the windshield. It can’t be stressed that a tragedy was avoided narrowly. But the damage they sustained was too great for the #30 to continue on.
Duquiene D08s locked out the rest of the LMP3 podium: The #13 AWA Duquiene (Orey Fidani/Matthew Bell/Lars Kern) finished second followed by the #85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Duquiene (Till Bechtolsheimer/Tijmen van der Helm/Dan Goldburg) in third.
“I pushed like crazy for the win, I had new tyres, and I feel so sorry for Garret, he was amazing and the fastest on track. I am feeling so sorry for him, but this is very special for us to win this race,” said Fraga.
“I saw the wheel, I saw there was a car in the wall at Turn 1. I saw the wheel was coming onto the track so I went to the right and the wheel stopped, I was waiting for it to hit me, but it bounced and I saw Garrett, and he hit the wheel. It was very lucky for us, to not hit that wheel.”
With just over three hours to go, the #36 Andretti Autosport Ligier (Jarett Andretti/Rasmus Lindh/Glenn van Berlo) retired from the race after contact with another car damaged the radiator and hoses. As in the other prototype classes, the car that led more laps than any other but its drivers wouldn’t collect the winners’ trophies for their efforts. The #36 Ligier led 136 laps, almost twice as many as any other car.
In the GTD classes, after a frantic 12 hours, it was Porsche and BMW that would take the class wins in GTD Pro and GTD respectively.
After a Rolex 24 Hours to forget for Porsche back in January, Sebring saw a complete change in fortunes for the brand’s new 992-spec chassis. Patrick Pilet brought the #9 Pfaff Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R 992 home to win the GTD Pro class – the first win for the newest customer racing Porsche GT car in competition.
“It’s amazing,” Laurens Vanthoor said to IMSA Radio at the end of a breakthrough race. “I didn’t expect us to fight here but the car came alive at night. I need a burger after doing this and WEC the other night.”
Vanthoor followed up in the press conference, saying: “The 12 Hours is always mad in the last two hours. When I first came here I was shocked by it, it took years to get used to. We needed those yellows, we were on a different strategy and at the end, we needed that final yellow as we were low on fuel.”
Somehow, Pilet held on for over an hour and 50 minutes since the #9 Porsche’s last pit stop and took the win with Vanthoor and Klaus Bachler alongside. Bachler surely was relieved to take the victory, a day after he crashed the car during Qualifying on Friday morning.
But finally, after weeks of agitation from Porsche’s customer teams, speculation over whether or not the 992 was simply hamstrung by their massive Balance of Performance disadvantage, or if somehow the Stuttgart brand had produced a lemon of a car not fit for purpose – a first win has made it all feel better.
3.3 seconds behind them was the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexas RC F GT3 (Jack Hawksworth/Ben Barnicoat/Kyle Kirkwood). Hawksworth couldn’t find a way to snatch a victory in the final dash after the late restart.
Completing the podium was the #79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 (Daniel Juncadella/Jules Gounon/Maro Engel) which started from the very back of the grid after failing post-race inspection, and fought against the #3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GT3 (Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor/Tommy Milner) for the class lead throughout the day with some great on-track moments.
Ultimately, Corvette Racing’s chances of another GTD Pro victory fell to the wayside after a broken right rear suspension spring forced its C8.R into the pits and dropped it from the class lead to a lap down with four hours remaining. Taylor and Garcia gave it their all, put on a show, and drove back to the lead lap.
But as a result of the suspension issues and the final crash among the GTD leaders, they’d have to settle for fifth behind the #63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracán GT3 (Franck Perera/Jordan Pepper/Romain Grosjean) which had taken a quietly solid fourth place, with the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari (Daniel Serra/Davide Rigon/Gabriel Casagrande) coming home sixth after running within the podium places throughout the day.
In GTD, Paul Miller Racing’s #1 BMW M4 GT3 (Madison Snow/Bryan Sellers/Corey Lewis) took the victory, aided by the FCY periods in the final hour which allowed the team to save enough fuel and avoid taking a splash.
“We had luck on our side for sure. We weren’t going to be good on fuel, those yellows got us to the end. I am so proud,” Sellers said after the race.
And they were oh so fortunate to hold on after Sellers reported a possible problem with the brakes – one that had been a pain point for other BMW customer teams with the new M4 – that could have required a full change in the middle of the race.
This was a much-needed win for BMW, who had a lacklustre outing at Daytona in its own right on the GT side – overshadowed by the woes of other GT makes.
Completing the top three was the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT3 (Patrick Gallagher/Robby Foley/Michael Dinan), which made it a 1-2 for the German make. Foley did his best to snatch the victory in the final minutes for Will Turner’s fan-favourite squad, but he’d have to settle for runner-up.
And the #92 KellyMoss with Riley Porsche 911 GT3 R 992 (David Brule/Alec Udell/Julien Andlauer) finished a close third, having seldom been a factor for much of the day.
A Full Course Yellow at the start of the second order jumbled up much of the GTD running order early on, but carnage whittled down several contenders.
There was the incident between the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes (Russell Ward/Philip Ellis/Indy Dontje) and #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche (Ryan Hardwick/Jan Heylen/Zacharie Robichon) that dropped the Porsche down the order and eliminated the Mercedes on the spot with a busted suspension, eight hours in while Ellis and Robichon were battling for first place.
Prior to that, #93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 (Ashton Harrison/Kyle Marcelli/Daniel Formal) crashed out and suffered terminal damage at the front.
In the final hour, the #32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes (Mike Skeen/Mikael Grenier/Kenton Koch) had to serve a penalty for avoidable contact with the #44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 (John Potter/Andy Lally/Spencer Pumpelly) which damaged the right rear of the #44 Aston.
And the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin (Roman de Angelis/Marco Sørensen/Ian James) was denied its chance of back-to-back wins in 2023 when a sideswipe from another car pushed them into the guardrails and out of contention.
Amidst the carnage, the #70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 EVO (Brendan Iribe/Frederik Schandorff/Ollie Millroy) plugged away to a strong fourth-place result in class – a great run in the first race with their upgraded car. The #12 VasserSullivan Lexus (Frankie Montecalvo/Aaron Telitz/Parker Thompson) was fifth, followed by the #16 Wright Porsche.
The Sebring 12 Hours, for all the right and wrong reasons, lived up to its brutal nature.
