2020 Cadillac Grand Prix of Sebring



The 2020 Cadillac Grand Prix of Sebring was a sports car race sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). The race was held at Sebring International Raceway in Sebring, Florida on July 18, 2020. This race was the third round of the 2020 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and the second round of the 2020 WeatherTech Sprint Cup.

The race was won by the #31 team of Pipo Derani and Felipe Nasr, while the LMP2 class victory was taken by Patrick Kelly and Spencer Pigot, who were awarded the win after the #81 entry was disqualified for failing to meet drive time limits. The GTLM class was won by the #4 entry for Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin, while Jack Hawksworth and Aaron Telitz secured their second consecutive class victory in GTD.

Background
The race was just the second for the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship after returning from the pandemic-induced hiatus. The race was added to the schedule in May due to said pandemic, becoming the second race of the season at Sebring alongside the rescheduled 12-hour race. Similarly to the previous round at Daytona, a limited number of fans were announced to be allowed into the track for the event. In late June, Cadillac was announced as the title sponsor of the event. The race marked the beginning of the LMP2 overall championship, as their only previous race (the 24 Hours of Daytona) counted for the Michelin Endurance Cup exclusively. Similarly, the GTD class only scored points towards the WeatherTech Sprint Cup in this race, not the overall GTD championship.

On July 10, 2020, IMSA released the latest technical bulletin regarding Balance of Performance for the race. However, no changes were made to any cars taking part in the event.

Before the race, Oliver Jarvis and Tristan Nunez led the DPi Drivers' Championship with 64 points, ahead of Ryan Briscoe and Renger van der Zande, and Jonathan Bomarito and Harry Tincknell with 60 points. Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor led the GTLM Drivers' Championship with 64 points, ahead of Antonio García and Jordan Taylor with 63 points. In GTD, Jack Hawksworth led the GTD Drivers' Championship with 57 points, ahead of Aaron Telitz with 54 points. Cadillac, BMW, and Lamborghini were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Mazda Motorsports, Porsche GT Team, and AIM Vasser Sullivan each led their own Teams' Championships. LMP2 drivers and teams would be scoring their first championship points of the season due to the 24 Hours of Daytona only counting towards the Michelin Endurance Cup championship.

Entries
A total of 29 cars took part in the event, up from 26 cars in the previous round, thanks in part to the inclusion of the LMP2 class which was absent from the Daytona race. There were 8 cars in the DPi class, 8 cars in the LMP2 class, 6 cars in the GTLM class, and 10 cars in the GTD class. The DPi field was unchanged in terms of entries from the previous event, although Felipe Nasr returned after missing the previous race due to testing positive for COVID-19. Stephen Simpson also replaced Chris Miller in the #85. Patrick Kelly replaced Simon Trummer in the #52 due to travel restrictions, and Gustavo Menezes was announced to run in the #81, making his first IMSA start since 2018. The two Meyer Shank Racing Acuras were absent from the event due to the round only scoring points towards the WeatherTech Sprint Cup.

Practice
There were two practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, one on Friday and one on Saturday morning. The first session on Friday night lasted one hour and the second on Saturday morning lasted 75 minutes.

Practice 1
The first practice session took place at 6:00 pm ET on Friday and ended with Renger van der Zande topping the charts for Konica Minolta Cadillac, with a lap time of 1:51.152. Gustavo Menezes set the fastest time in LMP2. The GTLM class was topped by the #912 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Laurens Vanthoor with a time of 1:59.501. Jordan Taylor in the #3 Corvette Racing entry was second and Oliver Gavin rounded out the top 3. The GTD class was topped by the #76 Compass Racing McLaren 720S GT3 of Paul Holton with a time of 2:06.012.

Practice 2
The second and final practice session took place at 10:00 am ET on Saturday and ended with Pipo Derani topping the charts for Whelen Engineering Racing, with a lap time of 1:46.940. Gustavo Menezes set the fastest time in LMP2. Frédéric Makowiecki set the fastest time in GTLM with a time of 1:56.754. The GTD class was topped by the #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 of Toni Vilander with a time of 2:02.358.

Qualifying
Saturday's afternoon qualifying was broken into three sessions, with one session for the DPi and LMP2, GTLM, and GTD classes, which lasted for 15 minutes each, and a ten minute interval between the sessions. The rules dictated that all teams nominated a driver to qualify their cars, with the Pro-Am (LMP2/GTD) classes requiring a Bronze/Silver Rated Driver to qualify the car. The competitors' fastest lap times determined the starting order. IMSA then arranged the grid to put DPis ahead of the LMP2, GTLM, and GTD cars.

The first was for cars in GTD class. Frankie Montecalvo qualified on pole for the class driving the #12 car for AIM Vasser Sullivan.

The second session was for cars in the GTLM class. Jordan Taylor qualified on pole driving the #3 car for Corvette Racing, beating Oliver Gavin the sister #4 Corvette Racing entry by over three tenths of a second.

The final session of qualifying was for cars in the LMP2 and DPi classes. Pipo Derani qualified on pole driving the #31 car for Whelen Engineering Racing, beating Juan Pablo Montoya in the #6 Acura Team Penske by over two tenths of a second. Patrick Kelly set the fastest time in LMP2 driving the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports car.

Qualifying results
Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by ‡.


 * The No. 8 Tower Motorsport by Starworks entry was moved to the back of the LMP2 field as per Article 40.1.4 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).

Post-race
In DPi, Briscoe and van der Zande moved to first after being second coming into Sebring. Jarvis and Nunez dropped from first to second while Derani advanced from seventh to fifth. Since it was the season's first points paying race, Kelly and Pigot led the LMP2 Drivers' Championship with 35 points. As a result of winning the race, Gavin and Milner advanced from sixth to fourth in the GTLM Drivers' Championship. Jordan Taylor and Antonio García moved to first after being second coming into Sebring while Bamber and Vanthoor dropped from first to second. GTD drivers, teams, and manufactures did not score full season points due to the event only counting towards the WeatherTech Sprint Cup. Cadillac kept their advantage in the DPi Manufactures' Championship while Chevrolet took the lead of the GTLM Manufactures' Championship. Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R and Corvette Racing took the lead of their respective Teams' Championships while PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports became the leaders of the LMP2 Teams' Championship with eight rounds remaining.

Results
Class winners are denoted in bold and ‡.

Notes

Standings after the race

 * ‡: Points count towards WeatherTech Sprint Cup championship only.
 * Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.


 * ‡: Points count towards WeatherTech Sprint Cup championship only.
 * Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.


 * ‡: Points count towards WeatherTech Sprint Cup championship only.
 * Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.