2024 Sebring 12 Hours : Qualifying

Posted: 3-15-2024

By William Ratcliff

The 2024 12 Hours of Sebring has lots to deliver, as always. The new #63 Lamborghini SC63 LMDh debuts, along with the Corvette Z06 GT3.R and Ford Mustang GT3. A record field of 58 cars will mean lots of traffic and close racing. Qualifying was mostly clean and very exciting! Here are the results.

Source: IMSA

Lexus #14 Wins Pole for Mobil 1's 50th Anniversary

The striking gold liveried #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus is marked for their title sponsor Mobil 1, and just so happened to put it on the front row for the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring. The #14 set a flying lap of 1:58.714.

Qualifying started with the #66 Gradient Racing Acura of Sheena Monk. She kept the lead for a while until the tires warmed on her competition. The #57 WinWard Mercedes and #47 Ferrari ran up front, and settled in nicely in the GTD lead. The #3 Pratt and Miller Corvette was competitive for the top 3, but the #14 and #23 held 1st and 2nd. With only a few minutes on the clock, the #77 AO Racing Porsche "Rexy" knocked the Corvette off the third podium step. The #14 Lexus had a 0.450 second lead over the GTD Pro field, as the #23 set a 1:59.264 and the #77 set a 1:59.446. In GTD: 1:58.778 for the #57, 1:59.014 for the #47, and 1:59.143 for the #12 Lexus.

However, in post-race tech, the #57 WinWard Mercedes was disqualified for "non-permitted sensors installed during the session" [2]. This moved the #47 Ferrari to 1st, the #12 Lexus to 2nd, and the #32 Korthoff-Preston Mercedes to 3rd with a 1:59.35.

Source: IMSA

AO Racing's Spike Renders PJ Hyett Speechless

The LMP2 qualifying started with a fast charging #04 Crowdstrike LMP2. The #2 Wynn's liveried United Autosports LMP2 of Ben Keating went to the lead early, after a wild drift. Coming into a turn, the rear came around on the #2 very quickly, as if he had pulled a handbrake on the car. But in typical Ben Keating fashion, the slide looked intentional tire-warming. The time Keating set 1:52.673, would persist for the whole session.

The #99 of PJ Hyett set a 1:52.320 to get to the lead in the AO Racing "Spike" machine. At the same time, the #18 Era Motorsport went into the grass at Turn 7. Perez Companc had a brake lockup into Turn 10 in the #88. The #20 caused a red flag with a crash into the wall at Turn 7. Though there was no visible damage on the car, it came to an inconvenient stop across Turn 7. Not even able to be put in neutral, the car had to be lifted and towed.

A very surprised PJ Hyett pulled into victory lane to talk with IMSA Radio. He set a 1:52.142, ahead of the Goldburg's 1:52.313 in the #22, and Keating's 1:52.673. Hyett told Shea Adam, "I'm kinda speechless about what's happening right now." He praised his crew, and expressed his surprise he beat Ben Keating. "He's my freakin' hero..I'm very happy."

Source: IMSA

Pipo Derani Puts Cadillac on Pole Again!

The #31 led the 11 car GTP field out of the pits. The #40 Acura, the two BMWs, and the brand new #63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63 came into the pits right away, to scrub in tires. The #01 Cadillac had the opposite strategy: flat out. They were the first to lead, along with the #10 Acura and the #31 Cadillac. The #85 JDC Miller Motorsports Porsche 963 put Phil Hansen at the top with a 1:15.441.

A red flag came out 6 minutes in, as the #6 Penske Porsche had crashed. Mathieu Jaminet had dipped the right tires into the grass in Turn 1. The car spun towards the wall, hopped the grass, and crashed into IMSA TV's camera, and bounced back on track.

By regulation, a qualifying session must have 10 minutes to be official. So fter cleaning up the Porsche, the session resumed with 4 minutes and 4 seconds to go.

The GTPs went back out flying, with just enough time for an out lap, a warm up, and a flying lap. The #10 was out to compete, but picked up a penalty during the red flag for working on the car. The #31 Cadillac of Pipo Derani went to 1st in the warm up lap, with the #01 Cadillac right behind. The #24 BMW of Philip Eng had a great third place time. Only 3 cars crossed the line for a flying lap: the #31 Cadillac, the #7 Porsche, and #40 Acura. Pipo Derani realized his lap wasn't faster and went on a cool down. The #7 and #40 did not slow down, and improved to 5th and 3rd respectively.

The #31 Cadillac, #01 Cadillac, and #40 Acura set the podium qualifying positions with a 1:48.152, 1:48.299, and 1:48.593. It was not a runaway lead in GTP, and was an excellent representation of who could pull performance out of these prototypes.

Summary

The 12 Hours of Sebring starts at 9:40 AM EST on Saturday, March 16th, and is available to watch on Peacock, NBC, USA, and IMSA.TV (for those outside of the US). Stay tuned after the race on IMSA Radio to hear the Michelin Post Race Tech show, for more information about the race. It's the first race for #63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini, and the 2nd year of the GTPs at Sebring. It's also the first years for the Corvette Z06 GT3.R, at a track where Corvettes have been very successful, and the Ford Mustang GT3. Also, the #14 Lexus, #01 Cadillac, and the #3 and #4 Corvettes are sporting 50th Anniversary Mobil 1 liveries. Stay tuned to RatcliffReviews for a recap of the race!

[1] IMSA Scoring

[2] Sportscar365 - WinWard Disqualified in Post-Race Tech

[3] IMSA Official - Qualifying Youtube