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

Before the field went back to green drama was already unfolding, with the former race leading #31 pulling into the pits with bodywork damage necessitating a full on rear bodywork change, dropping it to the back of the class, with Louis Deletraz’s #40 Cadillac leading the field through sunset ahead of the sister #6 of Laurens Vathoor leaping into second immediately ahead of Ricky Taylor’s #10. Before long though it would be the #7 of Laurin Heinrich who took control of the race, running ahead of Vanthoor’s #6 Porsche as Stuttgart held a 1-2 with Heinrich holding a commanding lead of over 12 seconds. But with the FCY eliminating that opened up the opportunity for Jordan Taylor to leapfrog both Porsches on the restart. Taylor would stay in front until an FCY was brought out for debris, and during the pitstops he was overtaken by both Porsche’s, #6 running ahead of #7

LMP2

With the FCY cleared, it was P.J Hyett who led Parker Thompson’s #52 and David Heinemier Hansson’s #11 while further back Chris Cummning’s #73 Pratt Miller spun around. Parker Thompson’s earlier incident was awarded a five minute stop and go, forcing it multiple laps down. Another spinner was the #11 on the opening lap. Sebastian Alvarez aboard the #8 of Tower Motorsports ascended up to second behind the #22 of Rasmus Lindh who led with 9 and a half hours to go. On the restart Tristan Vautier held the lead from Seth Lucas’s #37 Intersport machine, with Dan Goldburg’s #22 holding third and that’s how things would remain until the debris caution. After the pitstops while Vautier still led it was the #99 of Johnny Edgar that was now second ahead of Dan Goldburg, still running in third.

GTD PRO

The top GT class was led back to green by Klaus Bachler’s #911 Manthey ahead of the #14 Lexus of Kyle Kirkwood and Alessio Picariello’s #77 Roxy Porsche. The class ran pretty much line astern until the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi collided with the #57 Winward Mercedes at Sunset bend brought out the FCY with debris littering the front straight. The #65 Ford Mustang was also involved, with a lengthy delay. Two cars that hadn’t shown a huge account of themselves thus far were Ricardo Agostini’s #033 Triarsi Competition and the #77 of Harry King, but both now found themselves in the top five. By the end of the fourth hour, Bachler’s #911 Porsche was back in the lead, that had been slimmed thanks to the debris caution ahead of Harry King’s #77 and the #12 Lexus of Ben Barnicoat.

GTD

With everything back under green it was Zacharie Robichon now installed aboard the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin who led the field away ahead of Russel Ward’s #57 Winward Mercedes and Lilou Wadoux’s #21 AF Corse Ferrari. Russel Ward’s #57 Mercedes was involved in the wreck with the Risi Ferrari, taking significant damage that was enough to rule it out of the race. Ferrari led 1-2-3 on the restart, as the #21 AF Corse machine of Antonio Fuoco led Frederik Schandorff’s #70 of Inception Racing with Triarsi Competizione’s #021 of Kenton Koch running third. Come the end of the fourth hour, the only change was Robichon’s #27 climbing back up to third.

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