2023 12 Hours of Sebring

The 2023 12 Hours of Sebring (formally known as the 71st Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts) was an endurance sports car race held at Sebring International Raceway near Sebring, Florida from 15 to 18 March 2023. It was the second round of both the 2023 IMSA SportsCar Championship and the Michelin Endurance Cup. Cadillac Racing entered as the defending overall winners of the 12-hour event, albeit in the new-for-2023 GTP class rather than DPi.

The race was won by the #31 Whelen Engineering Racing entry, driven by Pipo Derani, Jack Aitken, and Alexander Sims, after a late accident eliminated the top three GTP-class cars.

Background
International Motor Sports Association's (IMSA) president John Doonan confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2023 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in August 2022. It was the tenth consecutive year it was part of the IMSA SCC, and 71st 12 Hours of Sebring. The 12 Hours of Sebring was the second of eleven scheduled sports car  endurance races of 2023 by IMSA, and the second of four races of the Michelin Endurance Cup (MEC). It was held at the 17-turn, 3.741 mi Sebring International Raceway in Sebring, Florida on March 18, 2023.

2023 saw the introduction of LMDh machinery into the IMSA SportsCar Championship and FIA World Endurance Championship, allowing teams in the top classes to compete in both marquee series on the same weekend. The Acura ARX-06 of Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian claimed victory in the first race in class history, the 2023 24 Hours of Daytona, and the car continued its early success by topping IMSA's sanctioned test that took place at Sebring approximately a month before the 12-hour event, albeit this time in the hands of Wayne Taylor Racing. Former racing driver and Sebring Hall of Fame inductee Lyn St. James served as the race's grand marshal.

The "Super Sebring" weekend also presented the opportunity for a number of drivers in other classes to compete in both endurance events in the same weekend. The Iron Dames trio of Michelle Gatting, Rahel Frey, and Sarah Bovy, for instance, competed in both the GTE Am category of the 1000 Miles of Sebring as well as the GTD class in the 12-hour. A total of 27 drivers pulled double duty across the two races, with only Dane Cameron and Michael Christensen running in the top class for both.

After the 24 Hours of Daytona 5 weeks earlier, Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun, Hélio Castroneves, and Simon Pagenaud were leading the GTP Drivers' Championship with 385 points. However, on March 8, 2023, Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian were penalized for manipulating tire pressure data during the Daytona race. As a result, the team lost its lead in the GTP championship standings, received a 200-point penalty, lost all team and driver Michelin Endurance Cup points, and forfeited race prize money. After the penalty was applied, Filipe Albuquerque, Ricky Taylor, Louis Delétraz, and Brendon Hartley took the lead in the GTP Drivers' Championship with 350 points while WTR with Andretti Autosport took the lead in the GTP Teams' Championship. Jules Gounon, Daniel Juncadella, Maro Engel, and Cooper MacNeil led the GTD Pro Drivers' Championship. In GTD, Roman De Angelis, Marco Sørensen, Ian James, and Darren Turner led the Drivers' Championship with 375 points. Acura, Mercedes-AMG, and Aston Martin were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while WeatherTech Racing, and Heart of Racing Team each led their own Teams' Championships. LMP2 drivers and teams as well as LMP3 drivers and teams would be scoring their first championship points of the season due to Daytona only counting towards the Michelin Endurance Cup championship.

On March 8, 2023, IMSA released the latest technical bulletin outlining Balance of Performance for the GTP and LMP2 classes. Wholesale changes were introduced to the top class following the 24 Hours of Daytona, where all cars ran on equal metrics. All cars ran on a 1030 kilogram base weight at Daytona, whereas at Sebring the Cadillac ran at the lowest weight (1038 kg), with the BMW at 1040 kg, the Porsche at 1048 kg, and the Acura at 1054 kg. As a result, the Cadillac and BMW both ran at 513 kilowatts of power, while the Porsche ran with 517 kW and the Acura with 520 kW – up from 500 kW across the board at Daytona. Maximum stint energy figures were also adjusted. No performance changes were announced for the LMP2 class. On March 9, IMSA released the balance of performance metrics for the GTD class. The Porsche received a five millimeter increase to its air restrictor after suffering from a lack of straight-line speed at Daytona. This change marked a four millimeter increase from the Sebring test, after which several Porsche teams threatened to withdraw their entries from the series if BoP concerns were not addressed. The new-for-2023 Lamborghini also received an air restrictor size increase from 47 to 49 millimeters after suffering from a similar lack of pace in the opening round. The Ferrari received an increase in turbo boost pressure as well as a 15 kg weight increase, while the Acura also received similar changes in boost pressure but instead lost 15 kg. Other cars that received a weight break included the Aston Martin, BMW, Corvette, and Lexus, while the Mercedes received an equivalent increase.

Aside from the WEC support race, the Michelin Pilot Challenge and Porsche Carrera Cup North America made up the support bill. The former race was won by Robby Foley and Vin Barletta of Turner Motorsport, while Riley Dickinson swept the pair of Carrera Cup events.

Entries
A total of 53 cars took part in the event, split across five classes. 8 were entered in GTP, 8 in LMP2, 9 in LMP3, 8 in GTD Pro, and 20 in GTD.

In GTP, the field was reduced by one entry following the season-opening round. Cadillac Racing's second car, in accordance with the team's plan for the entry to conduct the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship season, was removed. Wayne Taylor Racing, BMW M Team RLL, and Meyer Shank Racing also removed the fourth driver from their entries, being Brendon Hartley, Colton Herta, and Simon Pagenaud respectively. In LMP2, entries from Proton Competition and AF Corse did not return following Daytona, reducing the entry to eight cars. Nolan Siegel was also added to CrowdStrike Racing's entry.

In LMP3, Ave Motorsports made their season debut, competing with Seth Lucas, Trenton Estep, and Tõnis Kasemets. Jr III Racing, also making their season debut at Sebring, added Dakota Dickerson to their driver lineup of Ari Balogh and Garett Grist just weeks before the event, ensuring that the class runners-up from 2022 returned. Dickerson's place in the Andretti Autosport lineup was filled by Dutch driver Glenn van Berlo. Dan Goldburg joined the JDC-Miller MotorSports lineup, while Robert Mau was an addition to the Performance Tech Motorsports entry. Performance Tech finalized their entry with the addition of Tristan Nunez. FastMD Racing also did not continue their entry past Daytona. Late in the weekend, MRS-GT Racing removed their entry.

In GTD Pro, Risi Competizione added Stock Car Pro Series driver Gabriel Casagrande to their lineup, with the Brazilian making his first IMSA start since 2014, where he drove in the PC class for Performance Tech. Both Team TGM and MDK Motorsports also did not continue to field an entry at Sebring, with MDK scaling back their planned Endurance Cup campaign due to BoP concerns. Kyle Kirkwood and Franck Perera were added to the Vasser Sullivan Racing and Iron Lynx lineups, respectively. After initially committing to the Michelin Endurance Cup, SunEnergy1 Racing were also absent from the Sebring entry list, as were NTE Sport and the Iron Lynx #19. NTE Sport cited financial difficulties following their Daytona crash as the primary reason for their absence. Julien Andlauer was also added to the #92 Kelly-Moss lineup. Inception Racing, which competed with the McLaren 720S GT3 base model at Daytona, upgraded to the Evo specification for Sebring, giving the package its global race debut.

Practice
There were four practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, three on Thursday and one on Friday. The first two 90 minute sessions were on Thursday morning and afternoon. The third held later that evening ran for 90 minutes; the fourth on Friday morning lasted 10 minutes.

In the first session, Filipe Albuquerque's No. 10 Acura lapped quickest at 1:48.303, 0.133 seconds ahead of CGR's Renger van der Zande. Jack Aitken was third in WER's No. 31 car. Connor De Phillippi and his teammate Augusto Farfus were fourth and fifth for BMW. The quickest LMP2 lap was set by Christian Rasmussen in Era Motorsport's Oreca. Dakota Dickerson led LMP3 in Jr III Racing's No. 30 Ligier. The GTD Pro class was topped by the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth while Trent Hindman set the fastest time amongst all GTD cars.

In the second session, Blomqvist's No. 60 MSR Acura lapped quickest at 1;47.049, 0.026 seconds ahead of Bourdais and WTR's Delétraz was third. Derani in the No. 31 Cadillac was fourth and Nasr's No. 7 Porsche was fifth. Rasmussen led LMP2 with a 1:50.506 lap in Era Motorsport's car, 0.767 seconds ahead of Nolan Siegel in CrowdStrike's No. 04 car. LMP3 was led by Jr III Racing's No. 30 Ligier, driven by Dickerson, with a 1:56.382 lap. Tommy Milner was fastest in GTD Pro while Russell Ward set the fastest time amongst all GTD cars.

The third session ran at night and saw Sims' No. 31 Cadillac set the fastest overall lap of 1 minute, 48.820 seconds. Tandy was 0.152 seconds behind in second, with the No. 10 WTR Acura of Louis Delétraz in third. Philipp Eng in the No. 24 BMW was fourth and Bourdais' No. 01 Cadillac was fifth. Pierson led LMP2 in TDS Racing's No. 35 car, 0.299 seconds ahead of Rasmussen in Era Motorsport's second-placed No. 18 entry. Garett Grist set the fastest time in LMP3. The GTD Pro class was topped by the No. 3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD of Jordan Taylor while Indy Dontje was fastest in GTD.

Mathieu Jaminet led the final session in the No. 6 Penske Porsche with a lap of 1 minute, 47.086 seconds. Ricky Taylor's No. 10 Acura was second-fastest. The No. 31 Cadillac of Derani set the third-quickest lap. Blomqvist's No. 60 Acura, along with De Phillippi's No. 25 BMW were fourth and fifth. Fjordbach's No. 20 High Class Oreca led LMP2. LMP3 was led by Goldburg's No. 85 JDC Duqueine. The GTD Pro class was topped by the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 of Daniel Serra while Mikaël Grenier was fastest in GTD.

Qualifying
Friday's morning qualifying was broken into three sessions, with one session for the GTP, LMP2 and LMP3, GTD Pro and GTD classes, which lasted for 20 minutes for the GTP session, and 15 minutes for the LMP2 and LMP3, and GTD Pro/GTD sessions. The rules dictated that all teams nominated a driver to qualify their cars, with the Pro-Am LMP2 class requiring a Bronze rated driver to qualify the car while the LMP3 class required 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 GTPs ahead of the LMP2, LMP3, GTD Pro, and GTD cars.

The first was cars in the GTD Pro and GTD classes. Antonio García qualified on pole in GTD Pro driving the #3 Corvette Racing entry. Kyle Marcelli qualified on pole in GTD driving the #93 Racers Edge Motorsports with WTR entry, besting Philip Ellis in the #57 Winward Racing entry. The session saw one incident when Klaus Bachler, #9 Pfaff Motorsports entry, crashed at turn one. Bachler had his best two laps from the session deleted for causing a red flag, effectively leaving him with no time set.

The second session was for cars in the LMP2 and LMP3 classes. Ben Keating qualified on pole in LMP2 driving the No. 52 car for PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports, beating François Heriau driving the No. 35 TDS Racing entry by just over one tenth of a second. Glenn van Berlo qualified on pole in LMP3 driving the No. 36 car for Andretti Autosport.

The final session of qualifying was for the GTP class. Pipo Derani qualified on pole driving the No. 31 car for Whelen Engineering Racing, beating Sébastien Bourdais in the #01 Cadillac Racing entry by less than one tenth of a second. The session saw one incident when Matt Campbell, driving the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry, crashed at turn one. Campbell had his best two laps from the session deleted for causing a red flag.

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

Warm-Up
A 20-minute warm-up session was held on the morning on March 18. Jaminet lapped fastest with a time of 1 minute, 48.398 seconds. Mikkel Jensen led LMP2 while Goldburg led LMP3. The fastest GTD Pro lap set by Jordan Taylor in the No. 3 Corvette, and Antonio Fuoco's No. 47 Ferrari set the fastest time amongst all GTD cars.

Start and early hours
Weather conditions at the start were dry and clear. The air temperature throughout the race was between 78.2 and 88.3 F and the track temperature ranged from 75.0 to 87.0 F. A chance of rain was in the forecast in the evening of March 18. The race began at 10:10 am Eastern Standard Time (UTC-5:00). Ricky Taylor got a great start and passed Bourdais for second on the first lap. Lance Willsey's No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier crashed at turn one and suffered front end damage. Debris from the car necessitated the first full course caution for eight minutes. When racing resumed, Brendan Iribe spun at turn five after making contact with Michelle Gatting's No. 83 Lamborghini while Dwight Merriman spun at turn seven after making contact with Eric Lux's No. 51 LMP2 car. Merriman would be given a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility. Willsey received a stop plus 60 for pitting for emergency service while the pits were closing during the full course caution period. Dennis Andersen spun at turn thirteen while lapping the GTD field. Heriau passed Keating at turn seventeen for the lead in LMP2 on lap 24.

Bourdais jumped Derani to take the lead overall after the first pit stop cycle. Keating retook the lead of LMP2 after Heriau picked up a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pits. The second full course caution was issued when Kurtz's No. 04 LMP2 car spun at turn seven and got stuck on the curbs. Anthony Mantella's No. 17 AWA Duqueine ran out of fuel. After 25 minutes of caution, racing resumed.

Post-race
As a result of winning the race, Derani, Sims, and Aitken advanced from fourth to first in the GTP Drivers' Championship while De Phillippi, Yelloly, and van der Linde jumped from eighth to fourth. Since it was the season's first points paying race, Farano, McLaughlin, and Simpson led the LMP2 Drivers' Championship with 375 points. Since it was the season's first points paying race, Burdon, Fraga, and Robinson led the LMP3 Drivers' Championship with 380 points. The result kept Gounon, Juncadella, and Engel atop the GTD Pro Drivers' Championship. In GTD, Iribe, Millroy, and Schandorff advanced from third to first in the Drivers' Championship. Lewis, Sellers, and Snow jumped from eighth to second while De Angelis, Sørensen, and James dropped from first to fifth. Cadillac and McLaren took the lead in their respective Manufacturers' Championships while Mercedes-AMG continued to top the GTD Pro Manufacturers' Championship. WeatherTech Racing continued to top the GTD Pro Teams' Championship while Whelen Engineering Racing, and Inception Racing took the lead in their respective Teams' Championships with nine races remaining in the season. Tower Motorsports and Riley Motorsports became the leaders of their respective class Teams' Championships.

Race Results
Class winners are denoted in bold and with ‡.

Standings after the race

 * Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.


 * Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.


 * Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.