Michelin Pilot Challenge races to air live on YouTube in United States
IMSA has announced an expansion of live coverage on its official YouTube channel during the 12 Hours of Sebring weekend.
Friday’s two-hour Michelin Pilot Challenge event, the Alan Jay Automotive Network 120, will stream ad-free on YouTube for the first time in the United States, having previously been available only to viewers outside the US. The race will also be available on NBC’s Peacock streaming service.
The 12 Hours of Sebring, will stream fully and exclusively in the US on Peacock. It will also air on IMSA’s official YouTube channel and on IMSA.TV to viewers in most countries outside the US – celebrating one year of IMSA airing WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races on YouTube to international audiences.
All remaining Mustang Challenge, Porsche Carrera Cup North America, and Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America events will also stream on the IMSA YouTube channel.
The two-hour Michelin Pilot Challenge race at Sebring starts tomorrow at 2:10 PM ET.
Holton grabs Pilot Challenge pole for reigning champion team
Speaking of the Sebring Pilot Challenge race, it’ll be Paul Holton and reigning GS Drivers’ Champion Matt Plumb on pole position after Holton took pole position aboard the #46 Team TGM Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 Evo.
Holton denied Sean McAlister the pole by just 0.073 seconds. McAlister in the #39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO was second, followed by Luca Mars’ #28 RS1 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 in third.
Panam Motorsport, making its first appearance of the year with a previous-spec Toyota GR Supra GT4 Evo, was an impressive fourth thanks to Werner Neugebauer, who out-qualified the #59 KOHR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4 of Robert Michaelian in fifth.
Bryan Herta Autosport qualified 1-2 in TCR, as Bryson Morris in the #33 Hyundai Elantra N TCR led stablemate Mason Filippi’s #98 Hyundai by three-tenths to take the class pole position.
Two SCCC alumni also featured in the top five with Louis-Philippe Montour (#93 MMG Honda) in third and Sam Baker (#52 Baker Racing Audi) in fifth, and IMSA Diverse Driver Development Scholarship winner Celso Neto (#7 Precision Racing LA Audi) in fourth.
39 WEC drivers make the trip from Qatar to Sebring
The FIA World Endurance Championship will have many of its regular and semi-regular competitors in action at Sebring – 39 in total, 25 from the Hypercar Class and 14 from LMGT3.
That includes Ferrari’s Antonio Fuoco who will return to the cockpit of the #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 in GTD, after his win at Qatar – alongside Nicklas Nielsen, driving the #88 AF Corse ORECA 07 at Sebring.
TF Sport’s Jonny Edgar and Daniel Juncadella, off the team’s first win with Corvette, are also in action – Edgar in the #99 AO Racing ORECA LMP2 07, and Juncadella in the #3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R.
The list of WEC Hypercar Drivers at Sebring also includes: Ross Gunn, Tom Gamble, Alex Riberas, Roman de Angelis, Mathieu Jaminet, Laurens Vanthoor, Kevin Estre, Matt Campbell, Brendon Hartley, Will Stevens, Dries Vanthoor, Kevin Magnussen, Robin Frijns, Sheldon van der Linde, Earl Bamber, Sebastien Bourdais, Nicklas Nielsen, Alessandro Pier Guidi, Paul di Resta, Mikkel Jensen, Malthe Jakobsen, Neel Jani, Nico Pino, and Nico Varrone.
From LMGT3: Valentin Hasse-Clot, Simon Mann, Alessio Rovera, Davide Rigon, Claudio Schiavoni, Matteo Cressoni, Jose Maria Lopez, Charlie Eastwood, Rahel Frey, Michelle Gatting, Dennis Olsen, and Richard Lietz.
Brembo analysis of Sebring
Brembo has Sebring as a “5/5 Difficulty” in its pre-race Brembo Brake Facts and laid out some of the challenges ahead for the drivers and engineers.
Drivers will use the brakes nine times per lap (excluding pit stops). Depending on class, the brakes will be used 2800-3000 times per race. Notably, this is only 800-1000 less than the total brake usage at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, despite the 12-hour run time.
At Sebring’s Turn 7, drivers will rely on the braking system’s power, feel, responsiveness and predictability to gain position. GTP cars will enter the Turn 7 braking zone at 170 mph and decelerate by 120 mph to 50 mph as they enter the right-hand hairpin. In the braking zone, GTP cars will generate 2.7G while GTD cars will generate 2.3G, causing brake temps to spike to 1600F. Furthermore, drivers must deal with direct sunlight at sunset in the Turn 7 braking zone, limiting visibility.
Sebring’s varying pavement conditions, constant bumps and trail braking zones make pedal feel especially important. Turn 17 is the final overtaking opportunity in the lap, and while the corner does not require as much braking power as Turn 7, drivers must have outstanding pedal feel to effectively trail brake into the high-speed and bumpy right-hand corner.
Catsburg appreciates GT class split, but wants stricter officiating across all classes
Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Nicky Catsburg offered his thoughts on 2025’s new race procedures that have split the GTD PRO and GTD classes in qualifying, starts, and restarts – but feels that tougher officiating would go much further in reducing the amount of carnage on track.
“There are two sides to it. In the past, you would have GTD cars between you and the last thing you want is a GTD car touch you or you touch a GTD car and that affects your race,” said the Dutchman. “So I would take a little more care with a GTD car than someone in GTD PRO because that wasn’t for position.
“So now with GTD PROs all together, I predict mayhem. If IMSA keeps officiating like they do now, I predict that people may just ram each other off. That’s something that I really hope does not happen. Because you’ve survived for 11 hours and then, in the end, you are just waiting to get smashed. That shouldn’t be.
“I hope they officiate this a bit stronger or they try and set the tone in the drivers’ briefing to put more emphasis on it. You want a nice show – but I also want fair racing, so let’s see. But I don’t think the splitting of the field will necessarily help.”
GTDX addition to VPRSC “important for OEMs”
IMSA president John Doonan commented on the importance of the new-for-2025 GTDX category for the VP SportsCar Challenge series, which sees older GT3 models join the LMP3 and GT4 cars in the field.
So far the uptake has been solid for the new category, with nine cars taking part in the first meeting at Daytona and 10 cars competing at CoTA earlier this month.
“We’re super excited about it,” he said. “For anyone who knows my past, growing the next generation of drivers is really important. I feel like the VP Racing SportsCar Challenge is exactly that.
“The LMP3 cars, I love ’em. You could call that series, even though they’re 45-minute sprint races, a mini WeatherTech where you got multi-class racing, gives drivers and teams the opportunity to compete who may aspire to be on the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship grid.
“We’re working with the LMP3 manufacturers to continue to try to find ways to grow that grid. Injecting GT3 in there is think is really important. All the manufacturers that have GT3 cars have a business model now. As we bring EVOs to that category, what an awesome way to allow the previous season’s GT3 cars to continue to be relevant.
“I think that’s important for the OEMs, it’s important for the teams. Now multi-class racing like that I think creates some exciting opportunities for us.”
The series isn’t present here in Sebring, instead, it ran on the NASCAR support bill in Texas this month. The season continues at Mid-Ohio in June.
Vanthoor relishing first Sebring experience
It’s hard to believe that BMW M Team RLL driver Dries Vanthoor is a Sebring rookie, but he is!
The Belgian hot shoe is relishing his chance to race in the 12 Hours this weekend, where he and his teammates Philipp Eng and Kevin Magnussen in the #24 M Hybrid V8 hope to deliver BMW its first overall win on the Floridian airfield since 1999.
“It was good for me to go to the test and get some laps in a few weeks ago, because any mileage is positive,” he said when asked to give his first impressions of the track.
“It’s cool, I must say. It’s not as bumpy as I expected on a single lap, however, when you do a long run you feel you’ve been properly shaken. It’s a tough place to do a race stint. But I like that it has a bit of everything. There’s not a track I know that’s like this.”
As for his expectations, Vanthoor feels the M Hybrid V8 should be closer on pace to the other cars in GTP than it was last year.
“I think the bumps are tough for us, and for every brand. We have to improve our damping I think, but the car feels so much better than last year with the steps we’ve taken on the car. We have shown at Daytona and Qatar we can be strong, so why can’t we be up the front here?”
