They may be located in the same US state (Florida) but are totally different in nature: Daytona International Speedway and Sebring International Raceway.
The former hosted the season opener in January, but it is Sebring taking center stage this weekend, for Round 2 of the 2023 SportsCar Championship.
Series champions Element Sim Racing missing at Sebring
The biggest story of the week certainly has to be series champions Element Sim Racing going to miss the event – the first time ever that the German team misses a race in VSCA – and their No. 1 BMW V8 Hybrid LMDh will not be on the grid for the second race of the season.
Likewise, the No. 905 LMDh machine of Kairos eSports will be missing from track action as well at Sebring.
In their place, Brazil’s Delta Racing and their No. 12 car will make its debut in the series, along with the No. 35 of TR powered by Geekz Energy.
Can Mayer Simspeed make it back-to-back wins?
Mayer Simspeed Performance and their No. 3 BMW won the 24 Hours of Daytona in January and have earned the right to be included among the top favorites for Saturday’s race.
Will the Bavarian team from Germany be able to make it back-to-back wins? Niclas Pedersen, driver of the No. 3 BMW certainly hopes so:
“You can never expect to win these races. They are just too long and too many things can happen. Besides, the full course yellows are the big equalizer and so is this car. Teams may have trouble early on and still have a shot to come back with the wave bys and all.”, said Pedersen.
“But we’ll give it our all, as always. Maybe we can pull it off. I think the car felt pretty good in practice.”
An entire armada of LMDh class competitors, led by runners-up Stow Motorsports and Daytona pole sitters No. 79 Champion Motorsports will be gunning to take the top spot.
Will sparks continue to fly in LMP2 at Sebring?
In LMP2, there was some fantastic racing at Daytona and sparks were flying between race winners No. 199 Race Factory and the No. 14 machine of Fischer Motorsport during and even after the race, with some words exchanged between the teams and both cars making contact during the race.
Sebring, if anything, promises more action-packed racing in the second-tier class of the series, that provides top-tier excitement for the fans.
The championship leaders and Daytona winners proved in practice, their No. 199 Dallara P217 will be a force to be reckoned with, claiming the fastest lap in Free Practice 1 over the No. 19 machine of Trading Paints Racing Team.
Several LMP2s found trouble at Daytona and will look to make up for it at Sebring, such as the No. 121 car of Olympus eSports, that posted the third-fastest lap in FP1.
LMP2 series veterans Albrecht Motorsports and their No. 96 machine also looked fast in practice by way of Maik Steinicke and will look to build on a top-five finish to get an even better result at Sebring.
Sebring with its brutal bumps, rough concrete surface and narrow turns, will challenge drivers, crews and spotters alike, to manage one of the toughest races of the year.
Add on top of that, the speed difference between LMDh and LMP2 is to be expected much less significant than at Daytona, also thanks in part to the LMP2 having an advantage on the brakes compared to its top class counterpart, the BMW LMDh car.
Kinetic looking to keep strong hold on GTD class
The biggest and for many perhaps most fun class to watch will be GTD. Series champions and 24 Hours of Daytona winners Kinetic Racing and their No. 67 Porsche could not have dreamed of a better start to their 2023 campaign.
Will Aedan Campbell and his team-mates be able to hold off the competition once again? In the 2022 season, Sebring proved to be the worst finish for the No. 67 Porsche team and this time around they will look to avoid a repeat.
One team that will be making sure to give Kinetic a run for their money will be MAD Sim Racing and their No. 393 Mercedes AMG GT3. Only because of a last lap-last gasp pass, did the first-year team from Mooresville, North Carolina come up short of winning the 24 Hours of Daytona. At Sebring, they’ll now look to close the deal and go to victory lane.
The lone Ferrari on the grid, Nerd Herd Racing and their No. 974 Ferrari 488 GT3 had an amazing start to the 2023 season, earning third-place honors at Daytona.
Can the team from Arizona put together another performance, showing the competition it doesn’t take many cars of a given manufacturer, to have it represented amongst the top of the class?
Firestorm Motorsport meanwhile expanded its GTD program by bring back its No. 30 entry while the No. 219 Lamborghini of Trading Paints Racing Team will be missing at Sebring.
Race start before noon, finish at dusk
The 12 Hours of Sebring promise to have a plethora of stories. Each team and each driver looks to make the most of their opportunity after having to wait two months for VSCA racing to make its return.
On Saturday it will all count for 55 cars on the grid and when the field is taking the green flag at 10:45 am local time, it starts a journey that ultimately will end with the finish taking place at dusk.
“We do expect a great race. We do know this is one of the more challenging races for teams and drivers, physically, mentally and traffic-wise, but also because of the temperature changes from noon time to the night time finish. We do hope it will be a good show for fans to watch.”
Speaking of watching: VSCA will once again live stream the event, flag to flag, on its YouTube channel, completely for free and for everyone.
The 12 Hours of Sebring also is part of the VSCA Endurance Cup which means Endurance Cup points will be awarded to teams at the 4 hour, 8 hour mark and at the finish.
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