WeatherTech SportsCar Championship

By Holly Cain, IMSA Wire Service SEBRING, Fla. – A night of fond memories and legendary efforts highlighted the 2018 Sebring Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Grand Marshal Dinner Friday night at the Chateau Elan hotel located alongside Sebring International Raceway’s famous hairpin turn. The great A.J. Foyt, the late Paul Newman, drivers Rinaldo “Dino” Capello, the Joest Racing team and the local Sebring Firemen civic organization were bestowed Hall of Fame honors in a packed dining hall that included other racing greats from Roger Penske to Bobby Rahal,Read More

By IMSA Wire Service SEBRING, Fla. – For the second consecutive year, Tristan Vautier will start the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts on the pole. This season, however, when he takes the green flag Saturday, there won’t be any cars in front of him. That’s because his Motul Pole Award in 2017 came in the GT Daytona (GTD) class driving a Mercedes-AMG – the first in history for the German manufacturer. This time around, it’s in the top Prototype class driving the No. 90Read More

By IMSA Wire Service SEBRING, Fla. – Connor De Phillippi delivered BMW Team RLL its first pole position of the season and the first pole in history for the new BMW M8 GTLM race car, bettering the No. 62 Ferrari driven by James Calado by only .058-seconds to earn the top starting spot for the GTLM class for Saturday’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts. Fellow BMW Team RLL driver Jesse Krohn will start third. The Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GTs driven by RichardRead More

In perhaps the most dramatic qualifying session of Friday afternoon’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts time trials, Daniel Serra put the No. 51 Spirit of Race Ferrari on pole position for the 18-car IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT Daytona (GTD) class. The Ferrari will start alongside the Audi R8 LMS GT3 driven by Christopher Mies – the difference between them only a half second. Jack Hawksworth was third fastest in the session in the No. 15 3GT Racing Lexus RC F GT3. Leadership changedRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer For the 2018 Mobil One 12 Hours of Sebring, the GTD class is the largest but loses only three cars from the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Let’s take a look at the GT3-based class. The GRT Grasser Racing Team will not be racing both of their Lamborghini Huracan GT3 machines as well as Manthey Racing’s Porsche 911 GT3 R and Risi Competizione’s Ferrari 488 GT3. However, CJ Wilson Racing will be competing with their Acura NSX GT3 machine. Now let’s look at the class by manufacturer.Read More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer The Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring concludes 36 hours of endurance racing for the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship and the class with the fewest changes is the GTLM class. Let’s take a look at the nine car class. Corvette Racing has two C7.R machines ready to tackle Sebring and with it there are no driver lineup changes to ether car. The No. 3 C7.R of Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Mike Rockenfeller are looking to repeat their class win from 2017 while OliverRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer The final 12 hours of endurance racing in Florida this year for the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship takes place this weekend at the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring and this is the first of three class previews for the once around the clock classic. In the Prototype class, the field shrank by four entries from Daytona to Sebring. The BAR1 Multimatic/Riley, one of the United Autosports Ligiers and both Jackie Chan ORECAs will not participate at Sebring but the rest of the prototype fieldRead More

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts always will have a special place in the hearts of No. 33 Mercedes-AMG GT3 co-drivers Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen. It was at this race last year when those two drivers and then-co-driver Mario Farnbacher broke through to win the GT Daytona (GTD) class, the first victory for Mercedes-AMG in just its second IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship start. It was an especially sweet victory for Keating, as it was hisRead More

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The last time a team operated by Joest Racing appeared at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts, it came away with a 1-2. The year was 2013, the final season for the American Le Mans Series, and the Joest-operated Audi factory LM P1 team dominated the proceedings. The driver lineup in the winning car consisted of Benoit Treluyer, Marcel Fassler and Oliver Jarvis. While Treluyer isn’t entered in this year’s race, and Fassler has since returnedRead More