After a lengthier break than planned endurance racing is back for the 12 Hours of Sebring, America’s original endurance race! It’s the same deal as with the Rolex 24, but can Porsche do the double once again? And how will Lamborghini’s new Temerario GT3 fare in the hands of Pfaff among others? It’s sure to be a thriller in Florida.

GTP

Jack Aitken led the early running from pole in the #31 Cadillac from Tom Blomqvist’s #60 Acura, with Kevin Estre running as high as second and challenging Aitken’s lead before long in what was a clean start for the top class.

A debris FCY saw the first chance to pit, with almost entire GTP field coming in, which saw the #7 crew fix damage sustained earlier dropping them to the rear of the class.

The #24 BMW of Sheldon Van Der Linde jumped both the #10 Acura and JDC Miller’s #85 Porsche to move up to fifth, with the #93 also moving up to 2nd on track. Aitken led the field back to green just before the end of the first hour.

There was drama between the Acura teammates, as Renger Van Der Zande’s #93 spun round his car in a similar fashion to John Farano and dropped far down the order. Kaylen Frederick then spun his #5 JDC Miller Porsche, dropping it to 13th overall and behind the LMP2 leader.

Kevin Estre eventually took the lead for his #6 Porsche for the first time after 85 minutes of running, opening up a 2 second gap within a couple of laps.

Leading overall at the end of the first two hours are Cadillac, who hold a 1-2-3 at the present moment with #40 Wayne Taylor Acura of Louis Deletraz having opted for an alternate strategy, ahead of Ricky Taylor’s sister #10 machine with the #31 Cadillac of Earl Bamber in third.

LMP2

As with the rest of the field it was a thankfully clean start for the LMP2 runners, save for Naveen Rao’s #18 Era Motorsport machine, that suffered a spin on the opening lap, dropping it to the rear of the field with slight damage before mirroring just past the 30 minute mark.

This year’s Bathurst 12 Hour winner Misha Goikhberg led in his #52 Bryan Herta machine, with Jeremy Clarke’s #43 of Inter Europol and Dan Goldburg’s #22 United machine in tow. Crowdstrike APR #04 missed their pitstop amid the hubbub of action, forcing the team to return the following lap and carry out their stop, briefly leading overall as a result.

Just after the field went back to green, John Farano spun the #8 Tower Motorsports machine and dropped to the rear, and on cold tyres repeated his mistake moments later. The #99 of AO Racing then recieved a 1 lap penalty for causing an earlier collision.

There was also contact between the #22 of Dan Goldburg and #43 of Jeremy Clarke at Sunset Bend, dropping both down the field.

Inter Europol’s #43 then pitted after being tagged by the #64 at Sunset bend, forcing it to repair the sustained damage.

At the end of the first two hours it’s still PJ Hyett’s #99 of AO Racing ahead of Parker Thompson’s #52 with the TDS Racing #11 of David Heinemeir Hansson.

GTD PRO

Jack Hawksworth was the star of the opening hour, storming away from the field in his ageing #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RCF. During the FCY strategy was split, with the leading #14 replacing Jack Hawksworth with Kyle Kirkwood.

When the race went back to green Kirkwood fell back to third, with the #911 of Manthey inheriting the lead ahead of Dean MacDonald’s #59 RLL McLaren 720s.

At the end of the first two hours the order of play is Ricardo Feller’s #911 Manthey Porsche leading from the #2 RLL McLaren of Dean MacDonald, with the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus of Kyle Kirkwood in third.

GTD

Antonio Fuoco drove to the front early on in his #21 AF Corse Ferrari 296, snatching the lead in the opening 20 minutes from Eduardo Barichello’s #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin. Phillip Ellis’s #57 Winward Racing Mercedes was close behind in third.

The #96 Turner Motorsport BMW also suffered damage early on, which forced them to make an unscheduled stop on lap 6. Elsewhere, as a result of the FCY the #57 dropped to the rear of the field having missed their pit box.

The #12 was the next car to suffer, with damage forcing it behind the wall with 15 minutes left in the 2nd hour.

Bigger drama was to befall Henrik Hedman’s #81 DragonSpeed Corvette, after contact with Parker Thompson’s Era Motorsport LMP2 causing it to hit the barriers hard and bringing out the FCY with right rear suspension damage also being sustained a result.

Heading into the next couple of hours the top three are Eduardo Barichello’s #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin, Simon Mann’s #2 AF Corse USA Ferrari and the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes of Indy Dontje.

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