Features On The Road

12 Hours of Sebring, 2023!

This year at Sebring Florida, for the IMSA Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, brought great weather with temperatures in the mid 80’s only, making it a great day to race. Like Goldilocks, not too cold, not too warm, just right, this year.

With Sebring and its 17 turns and 3.74 mile concrete and asphalt track with some lighting, it makes for a very interesting race event. Turn 17 is noted as one of the bumpiest tracks in the world which makes this an ideal track for testing your race car. If it can make it here, it can last anywhere.

There was the #91 Porsche 911 GT3 R of Kelly-Moss with Riley spinning into the tires at Turn 17 during night practice. The car was quickly repaired by the crew and was out for warmup and qualifying.

Turn 1 has been causing many issues for the drivers this year. During the GTP qualifying, the #7 Porsche 963 driven by Matt Campbell, crashed.

It had the gearbox and rear suspension assembly replaced with a new one, along with some bodywork that had been damaged. Also, the #9 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) of Pfaff Motorsports, that was driven by Klaus Bachler, crashed into the tire barrier in Turn 1 during qualifying. Pfaff reported that they would have the car repaired for the race without a late night for the crew. I don’t know about that as it took them 11 hours to repair the Porsche.

Finally, on Saturday with all the Porsches repaired and ready for the 12 Hours of Sebring, the race started at 10:10 a.m.

I was at Turn 1, when at the start, a LMP car was hit and spun just at the entrance to Turn 1 while the next group of GTD cars got the green flag and were coming towards the car going the wrong direction. It must have been terrifying for the driver to see the swarm of GTD cars coming towards him head on. However, the group managed to get around the LMP car without incident. Thank goodness and this was not even one lap into the race.

The race continued with many yellow flags for incidents during the race this year. Many of the yellow flag events brought long yellow laps for the drivers. Some of the drivers said that it was the difference of speed between the classes that caused the incidents.

In GTD Pro, the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R driven by Patrick Pilet, Klaus Bachler and for endurance events, Laurens Vanthoor, had to start at the back of the pack, in 49th place, due to the incident during the night practice. They fought their way back to the front to win GTD Pro and also the first win for the new Porsche 911 GT3 R (992).

The biggest occurrence happened with 18 minutes left in the race when Felipe Albuguerque, in the Wayne Taylor Acura #10, was going into turn 5 and was fighting for position as the #6 Porsche 963 was looking to podium. Felipe lost control of his car in the grass and was sliding while the #6 Porsche of Mathieu Jaminet was turning in and Mathieu ended up being hit by the Acura and then, the #7 Porsche, driven by Felipe Nasr, went over the back left side of the #6 Porsche and all were out of the race.

At the end of the day, the #6 Porsche 963 was awarded 3rd place even though it did not receive the finish flag. The #7 Porsche 963 placed 5th. All of the drivers were not injured.

In the newest of the GTD class, Porsche customer teams, the #92 Kelly-Moss with Riley car claimed 3rd place with drivers Julien Andlauer, David Brule and Alec Udell.

Their sister team car #91 claimed 7th place while Wright Motorsports #16 finished 6th and their #77 finished 8th. The smiling #80 “rexy” car of AO Racing finished 16th.

The next race is April 15th on the streets of Long Beach, California, if it is still there, followed by the 6 Hours at the Glen, Watkins Glen, New York. Come out to the race and the Porscheplatz at the Glen on June 24th and 25th, 2023.

See you at a CVR meeting or CVR event. Be safe and drive safely!

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