The VSCA SportsCar Championship heads to one of North America’s most storied endurance venues on February 28th for the Monster Energy 12 Hours of Sebring, Round 3 of the 2026 season and Round 2 of the Endurance Cup. The fifth annual edition of the event once again brings GTP, LMP2, GT PRO, and GT AM onto Sebring International Raceway’s unforgiving 3.7-mile, 17-turn layout.
Sebring has a reputation that precedes it. The concrete slabs that make up much of the surface create a relentless rhythm of bumps that punish cars and drivers alike. Teams will need two to five drivers to get through the twelve-hour distance, starting at 15:00 GMT and running from a late-morning sim-time start into full darkness by the 10:45 pm finish. With rain in the forecast, particularly toward dusk and evening, this year’s edition may add another layer of unpredictability to an already demanding race.
History suggests that Sebring rewards patience rather than outright speed. In thirteen class races here since 2022, pole position has only translated into victory three times. On average, winners have come from seventh on the grid, proof that endurance racing here is less about the opening laps and more about surviving the long haul.
Monster Energy Sponsor of Event
In a landmark deal, VSCA secured sponsorship for the event in October 2025 when it announced that Monster Energy will sponsor the Monster Energy 12 Hours of Sebring, the fifth annual edition of the event.
"We're tremendously proud and grateful to have Monster Energy sponsor this race, making it possible to be broadcast live on GreenFlag TV. Like we said in October, we want to thank everybody at Monster Energy and the people involved in the background, who made this partnership possible, for all their effort and great work. It's almost time to go racing and we hope that teams, drivers and fans enjoy the show.", said VSCA Co-Founder & President Benjamin Fischer.
Championship Battles Take Shape
Momentum is firmly with the #51 World Of SimRacing Team Cadillac after winning at Long Beach lifted the Cadillac V-Series.R crew into the GTP championship lead with 915 points. Wastegate Racing’s #32 Ferrari 499P sits 35 points behind, while the #96 Albrecht Motorsports Cadillac trails by 70. The #51 entry is also the defending Sebring winner and has already claimed two victories at this event, making it the benchmark heading into race week.
LMP2 returns after sitting out Long Beach, bringing renewed focus to the #23 Twin Turn SR by Debeka Bornheim Dallara, winners of the Maconi Setup Shop 24 Hours of Daytona. They lead the standings with a 55-point margin over the #420 Track Limits SimRacing entry, while #512 Wolf Motorsport Simracing holds third. After the long season opener at Daytona, Sebring will offer the first real indication of how stable that hierarchy truly is in the season. Can the defending LMP2 champions once again reign supreme?
In GT PRO, the #183 Blocco Motore Simsport Aston Martin arrives as the class leader after its Long Beach victory. The #68 TwoLemmaTree Racing McLaren remains within 60 points, while the #44 Fischer Motorsport Porsche sits 105 points back and will be looking to repeat their sister #84 Porsche’s Sebring success from 2024. The race also carries echoes of last season, when Sim City Racing’s Porsche used a Sebring victory as part of a three-race winning streak that launched its championship campaign.
GT AM remains tightly contested as well. Wastegate Racing’s #33 Mercedes leads SRN Motorsports’ #74 Mercedes by just 45 points, even though the latter have won the first two races of the season, back to back. The #3 Tri-State Racing BMW sits further back but still firmly in the hunt. SRN’s victory at Long Beach kept the pressure on the points leaders and ensured that Sebring arrives with the class wide open.
Endurance Cup Stakes and Strategy
Sebring plays an outsized role in the Endurance Cup standings as the second-longest race of the season. Up to fifteen points are available, awarded at the four-hour and eight-hour marks as well as at the finish. First place earns five points at each stage, with second and third receiving four and three points respectively, while all remaining classified cars collect two.
Those intermediate scoring moments often shape strategy, particularly when Full-Course Yellows break up the rhythm of the race. The #12 Delta Racing BMW leads the GTP Endurance Cup standings by a single point over the #51 Cadillac, with the #32 Ferrari just two points further back. Similar margins exist across the other classes, where Twin Turn SR leads LMP2, TwoLemmaTree Racing leads GT PRO, and Wastegate Racing heads GT AM.
This will also be the first Endurance Cup race under revised FCY procedures. VSCA has introduced measures designed to shorten caution periods, including the possibility of starting wave-bys while the iRacing pace car is still on track. The series has also eliminated free towing areas and clarified that cars requiring a tow may potentially no longer trigger a caution. Teams are now also allowed to self-serve penalties during the race if they accept responsibility for incidents, potentially avoiding post-race sanctions.
Whether those changes reduce interruptions remains to be seen. Daytona earlier this year produced a record twenty FCYs, while Sebring has historically seen fewer but still significant interruptions. The event has ranged from five cautions in 2022 and 2023 to just three in 2025, although last year’s yellows still totaled nearly two hours of neutralized running.
Familiar Names and Open Questions
The official entry list is expected to be released on Thursday and is expected to contain plenty of familiar contenders, but there are still unanswered questions. The #8 Ares Racing Porsche 963 was listed for Long Beach but never appeared, and it remains unclear whether the team will return for Sebring. In endurance racing, absence can quickly turn into lost ground, particularly with so many points available.
Previous winners across the classes underline how difficult this event can be to master. The #51 Cadillac has dominated recent GTP editions, while LMP2 and the GT categories have seen a wider spread of success. Even teams that once ruled the event have come and gone, a reminder that endurance racing rarely follows a straight line.
Sebring’s long day tends to compress time in a strange way. The opening hours feel almost relaxed, but as darkness approaches the tension builds and every decision carries more weight. It is often said that endurance races are not won in the first hour but they can certainly be lost there, and Sebring has a habit of proving that point.
GreenFlag TV Live Broadcast
GreenFlag TV will provide full live coverage of the Monster Energy 12 Hours of Sebring beginning at 15:00 GMT, following the race from the late-morning green flag through the transition into darkness.
By the time the checkered flag falls, the championship picture may look very different. Twelve hours at Sebring rarely pass without leaving their mark. On this concrete battlefield, survival is often the first victory, and everything else comes after.