America’s oldest endurance race returns for the 76th edition in 2025, with the most competitive GTP field ever and over 50 cars involved, it’s going to be a hectic battle to the finish, and I’m here to take you through the rest of the action!

As the hour ticked over, the GTD leading #21 Ferrari had an excursion at turn one, going wide and bouncing across the runoff and kerbs, slashing its lead down to less than a second over the Heart of Racing’s #27 Aston. That was now the closest gap between any class leaders in the race, and it was an intense fight for the GTD lead that ensued. Pfaff Motorsports were already struggling and down the order, but then the plaid Lamborghini was hit with a drive through penalty thanks to exceeding powertrain parameters. Meanwhile, Sebastian Bourdais spun his #8 Tower Motorsports LMP2 at sunset bend while chasing Josh Burdon’s #74 Riley for 5th position in class.

At the front of the race, pitstops commenced and as Fred Vesti boarded the #31 Cadillac he came out right with Laurens Vanthoor who’d pitted a lap earlier and the two battled for the next lap. Drama then came in GTD yet again, as having already experienced a roller coaster of a race the #21 Ferrari then had the most heartbreaking twist of their tale. Lilou Wadoux pulled over to the side of the track with damage, the team’s hard work now rendered pointless as they became the latest retirements. Up ahead, GTD now had a lead battle emerging, with the #120 of Elliot Skeer facing off against the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes, coming back to the front after significant delays earlier in the race.

The race lead was once again fought between Cadillac and Porsche, with Fred Vesti back in the car he hovered around three seconds behind Laurens Vanthoor after losing out to the Porsche driver in the pitstops. Behind them was still the #6 Porsche and the two BMWs, #24 and #25 lurking in the background and ready to pounce should some 2023 style drama occur.

As long as the green flag run was, it would never last. 4 hours and 10 minutes of green flag running came to an end after Casper Stevenson spun his #27 Heart of Racing Aston at sunset bend in the middle of the track, in a true code brown moment if I’ve ever seen one. Cars streamed past at over 100mph having to swerve dramatically to avoid the stationary GTD leader, and honestly it’s a testament to the drivers they all did. Stevenson did get going, but not before the FCY was understandably thrown. Lamborghini’s #63 GTP car went behind the wall in the meantime. On debut, Aston Martin’s Valkyrie GTP was in 10th, ahead of both WTR Cadillacs and the Lamborghini and not too far behind the privateer Porsches.

In the pitstops, the #60 Acura suffered some inexplicable damage. Having been released, it tore away from its pit box and tagged the #24 BMW, wrecking the front bodywork and forcing it to be taken back to its box, and have the front bodywork replaced, while the BMW suffered a rear puncture. The incident cost two already delayed cars more valuable time they couldn’t really afford to lose, and made it far more difficult for both even despite the FCY procedure. For the 60, it was worse. They’d broken a steering arm on the front left side, and lost lap after lap trying to fix the issue, even going so far as to borrow equipment from another team to help the repairs as the field went back to green. Acura’s hopes now rested with the #93 car down in 4th place overall.

The #60 was given a little help courtesy of AF Corse’s #88 LMP2. Mathias Perez Companc crashed the father-son car for the second time in the race, this time at Sunset Bend as the field tore away. He ran out of road after taking a wider line and in a similar fashion to Tobias Lutke earlier, demolished the front of the LMP2 machine. The field went back to a FCY before it had even completed a corner, and thanks to the #60’s antics in the pits the #23 Aston Martin Valkyrie was now up to ninth on debut, and back on the lead lap.

Following a decision by race control on the restart, the #4 Corvette then had to pit to repair mandatory parts while the #60 had yet more insult added to injury as they were given a drive through penalty for the incident on pit lane though they were 4 laps down already by this point. Dan Harper took the lead of GTD Pro from Dennis Olsen as Fred Vesti defended hard against the chasing GTP pack, as for the first time in four hours the #04 Crowdstrike LMP2 was within overtaking distance, its long held race lead now under threat.

Three more cars were then added to the official retirement list: Lamborghini’s #63 GTP yet again failed to see a chequered flag, alongside the former GTD leaders #21 and the AF Corse LMP2 #88 of father-son duo Mathias and Luis Perez-Companc. More drive through penalties were doled out to the #23 Aston Martin Valkyrie, and the #11 TDS Racing LMP2 for contact with the #22 of United Autosports.

Going into the final 2 hours of this thrilling race, it’s Porsche and Nick Tandy that hold a slender lead overall ahead of Fred Vesti’s #31 Cadillac with the sister #6 car in third. LMP2 saw drama as the race leading #22 United Autosports pitted for replacement rear bodywork, which handed the lead to Inter Europol’s #43 car just before the hour was up. GTD Pro has been a ding dong battle all day, but currently its Dan Harper’s #48 BMW ahead of Dennis Olsen in the #65 Ford while GTD is now Parker Thompson in the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus.

This one’s going down to the wire, but who will be crowned victors of the 76th 12 Hours of Sebring?

thumbnail image credit – Rick Flores from USA, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons