After winning the season-opening 24 Hours of Daytona in January, Lone Wolf Motorsport and their No. 747 Dallara P217 team will look to repeat as winners at Sebring and just about everybody else will look to make sure, exactly this won’t happen.
That includes Daytona P2 Prototype class runners-up World of Simracing and their No. 51 team, who have showed convincing pace throughout VSCA testing at Sebring a couple of weeks ago.
Other competitive teams in VSCA testing at Sebring included Race4CAT Motorsport’s No. 10 Dallara P217 and Fischer Motorsport USA, who finished sixth at Daytona in their No. 14 Dallara P217.
In GT3 class, championship leaders and Daytona race winners NReSports and their No. 76 Porsche 911 GT3 certainly have to be considered one of the favorites to take the win again at Sebring. But teams like FR13DA Sports Group, FBP Racing and their Ferrari and Kinetic Racing will be ready to join the battle.
With several rule changes that VSCA has announced after Daytona, in cooperation with the teams competing in the SportsCar Championship, the 12 Hours of Sebring is expected to be a race that will be a bit different than the season-opener at Daytona; in part also because Sebring is a very different track, but one with equally much history as Daytona.
Originally opening during the second world war as a training airfield for future combat pilots, Hendricks army airfield, as it was then called, was transformed into a racing circuit shortly after the war by Alec Ulmann and hosted its first racing event in 1950.
Since then, the 3.74 mile (5.95 km) track has become infamous for its tricky track surface, being described by some drivers as being “bumpy to all hell”, and “similar to a film set after Michael Bay has finished shooting”. Many of its 17 turns have cemented their places in history as some of the best corners in the world.
Turn one, for instance, requires a special level of commitment, that cannot easily achieved within a few laps. Given its blind turn-in and with the whole corner looking the same until the exit, it is prudent for the driver to get close to the inside retaining wall at the apex. On the exit, cars will usually still get extremely close to the grass.
The slowest corner on track is the hairpin, the site of many dive-bombs and daring last-second moves on the final lap. For drivers it is critically important to not overshoot the braking point or there is a very long detour around the pre-1983 layout that will see them re-joining back on track having lost around 4-5 seconds.
The final corner, and arguably the most famous, is “Sunset” - named for the blinding sun that hits the driver’s eyes when night begins to fall. Certainly the bumpiest corner on the track, with the inside of the corner being better-suited on a rollercoaster than a racetrack, turn 17 has not one correct line, but allows drivers to take different lines on the way through.
Most drivers are getting extremely close to the inside wall, right as it breaks away, only to then go extremely wide on a late apex to the corner exit.
Other drivers take a more traditional approach and start wide, cut in, then go wide on exit. Doing this makes it very easy to clip the grass on the outside and unintentionally ending up in the pit wall at over 150mph, as a risk that drivers are very familiar with.
Shared by many, the opinion prevails by most in the racing community, that indeed is legendary not only due to its heritage, but due to the challenge it represents.
“It is the Nordschleife without the elevation, Macau without the walls, and Silverstone with its highspeed precision.”, is a saying about Sebring in the past.
Saturday’s Free Practice 1 saw Race4CAT Motorsport’s No. 10 Dallara P217 set the fastest lap time in P2 Prototype class, while TR Motorsports and their No. 35 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO set the fatest lap in GT3 class. Times were incredibly tight in a highly competitive field in both classes.
Teams are buzzing with energy and excitement to see if they can tame this near three-quarter of a century old historic venue to see who can be the fastest, who can be the best. The VSCA 12 Hours of Sebring are set to take the green flag on Saturday, March 26th at 14:00 GMT.