The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship concluded the weekend at Sebring International Raceway in the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring. This race was held last November after the race was paused due to COVID-19.
Whelen Engineering Racing (DPi), WIN Autosport ORECA (LMP2), Performance Tech Motorsports Ligier (LMP3), Corvette Racing (GTLM), and GRT Grasser Racing Team (GTD) were all pole winners for this race.
It didn’t take long for the action to get started. Seventeen minutes into the race, Jimmie Johnson in the No. 48 Ally Cadillac Racing lost control at turn 17. He hit the No. 5 of Loic Duval, scattering debris on the track to bring out the first full-course caution. Johnson was able to get to pit road for repairs, including changing the hood of the car.
After the debris was picked up, the race resumed. In the 46th minute of the race, Pipo Derani and Renger van der Zande were battling for the lead. Heading into turn 17, the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin squeezed Zande, and he hit Derani, sending him against the wall. Derani would head to pit road, and by the time he went back out, he was three laps down.
In the GTLM category, Corvette Racing’s No. 3 car dominated the early going of the race. In the GTD class, the Vasser Sullivan Lexus cars were running one and two. There was a scary incident in the GTD field. The No. 19 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini wheel hopped over the curve and hit the No. 28 Alegra Motorsports Mercedes.
This sent both cars hard into the tire barrier, bringing out the third caution. The No. 28 was able to get going again, but the No. 19 Lamborghini was done for the day. It took crews 30 minutes to repair the wall.
Once repairs were done, the race resumed with eight hours left. As the race went on, more cars were doing some off-track racing. There were also multiple collisions as they beat and banged around the corners. With under three hours left, another major crash happened in the LMP2.
The No. 8 Tower Motorsport lost control of the car and smacked the tire barrier, flipping the car over before landing on all four tires. The car was destroyed, and the driver luckily walked away from the crash. It took crews a while to repair the damage before the race could resume.
As the sunset and the few lights around the track were on, the track conditions changed with only two hours and twenty-six minutes left. The action picked up in the last two hours in all classes. More cars either broke down, spun, or were in minor incidents as the race went on.
In the last hour of the race, the GTLM cars of the No. 4 Corvette Racing and the No. 25 BMW Team RLL battled for second place. The WeatherTech Racing Porsche was leading the race. In DPi, JDC-Miller MotorSports were trying to hold off the No. 55 Mazda Motorsports. The LMP2, LMP3, and GTD races were all but settled.
In the end, JDC-Miller MotorSports held off Mazda Motorsports to win its first race in three years. Meanwhile, WeatherTech Racing Porsche won for the second straight year in Sebring for GTLM, PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports took home the win in LMP2, Core Autosport won LMP3, and Pfaff Motorsports Porsche won in GTD.
The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will head to Mid-Ohio on Sunday, May 16th, at 2:30 pm on NBCSN and Track Pass.
