Sebring 12 Hour Recap: Winners, Losers and Porsche Penske Domination

The 12 Hours of Sebring is in the books, and to what shouldn't be a surprise to anyone it was Porsche Penske Motorsport coming out on top with the overall victory.

We'll get into how things went down across the grueling 12 hours of racing from morning into night, with the clear headliner being the pair of Penske 963s again occupying the podium with a 1/2 finish after their P1/P3 conquering of the Rolex 24 in January.

There's plenty to cover now that we're two races down for the season and heading into a months-long break before the first sprint race of the season at Long Beach goes down on April 12.

Let's dive into it all - from Penske's aforementioned dominance to Wayne Taylor Racing's downright miserable day to Winward Racing going back-to-back at Sebring to Rex's brace-faced triumph in GTD Pro.

Here we go - 

GTP Car(s) of the Day - No. 7 and No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsports 

What else can you say about the 963 and Penske Motorsport's ability to continue to maximize what the LMDh machine can produce? Take your opinions of BOP out of the conversation - the Penske team and their drivers continue to showcase their talent and ability when the chips are on the table. They didn't suffer any contact damage on track, they didn't bone a pit stop to set themselves back, and they didn't violate any yellow-flag procedures (unless of course I totally missed any of those things from the day) . They simply keep their nose clean and allow every other team in the class to shoot themselves in the foot before pouncing on the opportunities that present themselves when things matter most. Coming out of the last yellow flag of the night Felipe Nasr pulled away from his teammate in Matty Campbell and then the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac to set the pace as the minutes ticked off the clock. Hate it all you want but Penske has translated his winning DNA into IMSA and his GTP program and have established themselves as the team everyone else has to get through if they want to win races and championships.

The Non-Winning GTP Winners of the Day - No. 93 Meyer Shank Acura 

When Meyer Shank announced last October that their return to the top flight of racing was coming in tandem with a ridiculous lineup of driver talent that rivals any other team on the grid you knew they were going to come out swinging. That's exactly what's going on through two races thus far with a P2 finish at the Rolex and P3 at Sebring. Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly are dynamite behind the wheel and if the No. 60 didn't suffer one of the most bizarre and unfortunate accidents in pit lane when they clipped the No. 24 you have to figure the trio of Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun and Scott Dixon would've been in the mix at the end as well. MSR and Co. took their medicine and served their penalties in 2024 and rightfully so; with that being water under the bridge now they've returned to the scene with plans of challenging for the GTP title. 

The 'Holy Crap This Is Struggle Bus City' of the Day - Lamborghini SC63

What are we to make of the SC63? Let's start with the positives - they made it through 8 hours and 42 minutes of racing. That's great! Now the negative - they suffered yet another race retirement. That's bad. The SC63 bowed out at the Rolex 24 after running into an overheating issue after just 34 laps, while a mechanical issue took them out of Sebring after 256 laps completed. All of the pressures of the world have magnified themselves on Lamborghini and the SC63 after they airlifted themselves out of the WEC for cost concerns and found sanctuary in IMSA with a single-car effort. Thus far it's been a nightmare with this program leaning on life support and a very uncertain future beyond 2025. The car design and new livery look great and the idea was in the right place, but it goes to show how unbelievably difficult it is to build a prototype program from the ground up. The longer we go with the car being uncompetitive on track the closer we get to seeing Lamborghini snap their fingers and axe the entire thing, leaving the SC63 to disintegrate into dust and sweep away into the wind.

Maama Mia...

The Honorary 'LFG They Crossed the Finish Line' of the Day - No. 23 Heart of Racing Valkyrie 

We're holding the No. 23 Heart of Racing Valkyrie to the same standard as their sister cars in the WEC - the development and fine-tuning of this prototype car and program is the paramount focus - overall race results be damned. We want to see this car cross the finish line each time out on the track, that's all that this season is about. The Valkyrie's North American debut couldn't have gone any better short of fighting for a podium finish or God forbid an overall race win - but let's not get greedy here. Finishing a 12 hour enduro just 2 laps down from the class leader is an amazing, AMAZING achievement for THOR and Aston Martin Racing, there's no other way to slice it. Forget the stigma against participation trophies - what Ross Gunn, Alex Riberas and Roman De Angelis were able to accomplish is something to be proud of for fans of the V12 monster. The car was a hit for fans and they were treated to a full 12 hours of it on track, and not only did the car avoid suffering any mechanical or electrical setbacks, they consistently posted quick lap times in the 1:50s - they were never seconds off the pace which happens routinely with new cars racing against established competitors. It honestly is nearly impossible to consider that the team was able to keep this thing on the road until the end of the night and it sets them up quite nicely heading into Long Beach.

Justice For Ricky Taylor of the Day - No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing 

Allow me to say that from the jump I did not think that Ricky Taylor bumped the No. 023 GTD Ferrari off the road and into the barrier in real time. When deciding on their ruling, IMSA did not have the on-board feed from the No. 10 Caddy to view, so they went with the footage they had and it was incriminating enough to drop a brutal drive through penalty + 60 seconds to the WTR machine, which then produced a wild rant from Wayne himself to the NBC crew. The penalty set the No. 10 back to a point where they were never really able to recover; things were just off all day for both the #10 and No. 40. As it turns out, we now have the on-board footage that was posted by crewmate Filipe Albuquerque to his Instagram stories -  and the video proves that Ricky never touched the rear end of the Ferrari; the spin out happened on Charles Scardina's own accord somehow. Again in the moment I took the stance that Taylor didn't touch him due to the fact that the bright shiny chrome nose didn't have a single scratch or dent on it. It won't change the fact that WTRs day at Sebring was one to forget, but it does clear Ricky from the portion of fans that crucified him for being over-aggressive and wiping out a fellow car on the track.

Penalty of the Day - Dries Vanthoor Drive-Through For Lane Change On the Green Flag

In a showing of how some GTP teams shot themselves in the foot throughout the day, pole-sitter Dries Vanthoor managed to secure the race's first penalty in the opening five seconds of action when he switched lanes on the green flag start, yielding a drive-through penalty as a repercussion. Like, come on dude! At least give us a few laps before we start making mental mistakes. Similar to how the Cadillac's boned themselves with setbacks and were left to fight uphill trying to get back to the front of the pack, the BMWs never managed to get to the front of the GTP class themselves to set the race pace; instead they had to play catch up against the 8-ball, and things really turned when the No. 24 clipped the No. 60 Acura on pit lane. After a strong showing at the Rolex it was a slight setback at Sebring, but we chug on forward. 

Toughest Retirement of the Day - No. 21 Ferrari Af Corse

There were plenty of candidates for 'Toughest Retirement of the Day' across all four classes yet we're going with the No. 21 Af Corse Ferrari in GTD. After securing pole in qualifying and running strong all day, things fell apart out of nowhere courtesy of an engine failure at 255 laps completed. The Ferrari was fast as hell and we were forecasting how formidable the trio of Simon Mann, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Lilou Wadoux were going to be against the rest of the competition as the sun was beginning to set. Alas, with Wadoux behind the wheel and just under four hours to go on the clock she pulled off to the side of the track with no previous indication that anything was amiss and boom just like that their day was finished. That's the tough side of racing teams will lament in the aftermath.

The Argy Bargy Move of the Day - Philip Elis Bumps Jack Hawksworth Out the Way

The GTD battle went down to the wire when the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes driven by Philip Ellis nudged Jack Hawksworth out of the way to take over first place with just about 14 minutes left on the clock. If the No. 12 had spun out on track it would've surely been a drive-through penalty, yet Hawksworth kept his wits about him and stayed in the fight to finish P2. The last 40 minutes was a battle throughout with Hawksworth fending off Ellis as he raced up inside his tailpipes. It's a tough break for Vasser Sullivan as they were gunning for a back-to-back team victory at the 12 Hour after the Pro boys brought it home last season. Instead, it's Winward Racing going B2B in GTD after their triumph last year - big ups to the Mercedes AMG still showing everyone on the grid how it's done.

Winward sure love racing at Sebring

GTD Pro Battle of the Day - Basically Every Car For All 12 Hours 

I really hate going to BOP to highlight the good or bad when it comes to the level of racing quality we're experiencing here the last two years, and I say that because the battles we've seen the GTD Pro guys put on at both the Rolex 24 and now at the Sebring 12 Hours has been nothing short of spectacular. At any point you can glance at the running top-five or peek deeper at live timing and scoring and you're bound to see six or seven of the Pro cars racing within 10 seconds of each other. Yes, the BOP ratings, coupled with yellow flag procedures, have leveled the playing field to a point where there's barely an advantage to be found between any car on the track, and it's t'll be hard for any one car or driver to pull ahead far enough from the pack where they're building a 30 or 40 second lead. Even still, the skill level of the drivers factors into what we're seeing play out just as much as the BOP ratings. Rex managed to stick his snout out in front when things got tight at the end of the 12 hours, and through 36 hours of racing to begin the season we have the No. 65 Ford sitting in P1 for the standings followed by Rex in P2 and the No. 1 Paul Miller BMW.

LMP2 Recap of the Day - 4 Retirements and Near Redemption for No. 8 Tower Motorsports 

Four LMP2s bit the dust through the 12 hours of action, with the gnarly wipeout of the No. 88 Af Corse in Turn 17 serving as a sucky end for the team with young'n Matías Pérez Companc behind the wheel. The No. 43 Inter Europol green/yellow machine claimed the class victory with the No. 8 Tower Motorsports ride finishing less than two second behind. It was almost redemption for a Tower squad that got put to the screws by IMSA following the Rolex 24 when their win was stripped due to a post-race tech infraction. Tower and lead man Sebastian Bourdais railed against the ruling to no avail, leaving them to stick with the reality of having their race victory taken away. They nearly pulled off the victory at Sebring, and now that the 36 Hours of Florida are behind them it's easy to see Tower being a force to contend with for the rest of the LMP2 paddock, especially with Bourdais' talents behind the wheel.

Photo via intereuropol.com

So there you have it - the race recap for a kickass 12 Hours of Sebring. Stay tuned for more fallout from the race weekend as we eventually shift over to the first sprint race of the season at the Long Beach Grand Prix. 

(Photos via: porschenewsroom.com, Racer.com, IMSA.com)