The 65th Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring fueled by Fresh from Florida was an

endurance Endurance (also related to sufferance, forbearance, resilience, constitution, fortitude, persistence, tenacity, steadfastness, perseverance, stamina, and hardiness) is the ability of an organism to exert itself and remain active for a ...

sports car racing Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing that uses sports cars with two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be either purpose-built Sports prototype, sports prototypes, which are the highest level in sports car racing; or grand to ...

event held at

Sebring International Raceway Sebring International Raceway is a road course auto racing facility in the Southeastern United States, southeastern United States, located near Sebring, Florida. Sebring Raceway is one of the oldest continuously operating race tracks in the U.S ...

near

Sebring, Florida Sebring ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Highlands County, Florida, United States. It is nicknamed "The City on the Circle", in reference to Circle Drive, the center of the Sebring Downtown Historic District. It is the principal city of th ...

from 16 to 18 March 2017. The race was the second round of the

2017 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship The 2017 IMSA SportsCar Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the 2017 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship) was the 47th season of the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) GT Championship that traces its lineage to the 19 ...

, as well as the second round of the North American Endurance Cup. The race was won by

Wayne Taylor Racing Wayne Taylor Racing (WTR) is a sports car racing team that was founded in 2004 by racing driver Wayne Taylor. From 2023 to 2025, the team had a partnership with Andretti Global, Andretti Autosport that also saw them rebrand as Wayne Taylor Raci ...

Cadillac DPi-V.R The Cadillac DPi-V.R is a sports prototype racing car which started competing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in North America in 2017. It is the manufacturer variation of Dallara P217 base, and replaces the Corvette DP. It marke ...

driven by

Ricky Taylor Ricky Scott Taylor (born August 3, 1989) is an American professional racing driver, most notably in the International Motor Sports Association, IMSA IMSA SportsCar Championship, WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. His career highlights include an ...

, Jordan Taylor, and

Alex Lynn Alexander George Lynn (born 17 September 1993) is a British people, British racing driver who is from Great Dunmow. He currently competes in the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship driving the No. 12 Cadillac V-Series.R for Jota Sport. Lynn h ...

, ahead of Mustang Sampling Racing's Cadillac DPi-V.R and Whelen Engineering Racing's Cadillac DPi-V.R. The PC class winners were Performance Tech Motorsports with drivers James French,

Patricio O'Ward Patricio "Pato" O'Ward Junco (born 6 May 1999) is a Mexican professional auto racing driver who competes full-time in the IndyCar Series, driving the No. 5 Chevrolet for Arrow McLaren. He is the 2018 Indy Lights champion. He is signed to the Mc ...

, and Kyle Masson driving an

Oreca FLM09 The Le Mans Prototype Challenge (shortened to LMP Challenge or LMPC) was a spec sports prototype formula created by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), organisers of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and sports car constructor Oreca. The formula is inte ...

Corvette Racing Corvette Racing was an American auto racing team established in 1999 by General Motors and Pratt Miller for the purposes of competing in sports car racing internationally. Corvette Racing was originally the official racing program for General M ...

won the GTLM class for the third straight year with Antonio García,

Jan Magnussen Jan Ellegaard Magnussen (born 4 July 1973) is a Danish professional racing driver and was a factory driver for General Motors until the end of the 2020 season. He has competed in Champ Car, Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), NASCAR, the FIA ...

, and

Mike Rockenfeller Mike Rockenfeller (born 31 October 1983), nicknamed "Rocky", is a German professional racing driver and was an Audi factory driver competing in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, DTM and the FIA World Endurance Championship. He won his first DTM ...

taking the win in their

Chevrolet Corvette C7.R The Chevrolet Corvette C7.R is a grand tourer racing car built by Pratt Miller and Chevrolet for competition in endurance racing between 2014 and 2019. It is a replacement for the Corvette C6.R racing car, using the C7 generation Chevrolet Cor ...

. The GTD category was won by Riley Motorsports - WeatherTech Racing's

Ben Keating Benjamin Edward Keating (born August 18, 1971) is an American racing driver and business owner operating out of Victoria, Texas. Keating is the owner of 30 car auto dealerships across Texas, The Keating Auto Group. Since starting auto racing in ...

Jeroen Bleekemolen Jeroen Pascal Bleekemolen (born 23 October 1981 in Heemstede) is a Dutch professional Auto racing, racing driver. In the Chrysler Viper GTS-R he drove in the FIA GT Championship, with great success. He competed in the German Formula Three Champi ...

, and

Mario Farnbacher Mario Farnbacher (born 14 May 1992) is a German racecar driver. He won the IMSA SportsCar Championship in the GTD class in 2019 and 2020, and also won the GT World Challenge America Pro-Am title in 2022. He has class victories at the Petit Le ...

in a

Mercedes-AMG GT3 The Mercedes-AMG GT is a series of 2-door sports cars produced by German automobile manufacturer Mercedes-AMG. The car was introduced on 9 September 2014 and was officially unveiled to the public in October 2014 at the Paris Motor Show. While n ...

Background

International Motor Sports Association The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) is a North American sports car racing sanctioning body based in Daytona Beach, Florida, under the jurisdiction of the ACCUS arm of the FIA. It was started by John Bishop, a former executive dir ...

(IMSA) president Scott Atherton confirmed that the race was part of the

2017 IMSA SportsCar Championship The 2017 IMSA SportsCar Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the 2017 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship) was the 47th season of the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) GT Championship that traces its lineage to the 19 ...

schedule in August 2016. It was the fourth year in a row that the race was part of the series calendar, and the 65th 12 Hours of Sebring. The race was the second of 2017's twelve scheduled IMSA automobile endurance races, and the second of four North American Endurance Cup (NAEC) events. It was held at the 17-turn,

on March 18, 2017. After the

24 Hours of Daytona The 24 Hours of Daytona, also known as the Rolex 24 At Daytona for sponsorship reasons, is a 24-hour sports car racing, sports car Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Flo ...

7 weeks earlier, Jordan Taylor,

Max Angelelli Massimiliano Angelelli (born 15 December 1966) is a retired Italian racecar driver. He won the 2005 and 2017 24 Hours of Daytona and the 2001 Six Hours at the Glen. Also he was the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series champion in 2005 and 2013, as ...

, and

Jeff Gordon Jeffery Michael Gordon (born August 4, 1971) is an American stock car racing executive and former professional stock car racing driver who currently serves as the vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports. He raced full-time from 1993 to 2015, d ...

were leading the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 35 points. With 36 points, James French,

, Kyle Masson, and Nicholas Boulle led the PC Drivers' Championship. GTLM was led by

Joey Hand Joseph Alan Hand (born February 10, 1979) is an American professional racing driver who competes in sports car racing as a Ford factory driver. A former champion of the Star Mazda Series, Hand is the co-winner of the 2011 24 Hours of Daytona dri ...

, Dirk Müller, and

Sébastien Bourdais Sébastien Olivier Bourdais (; born 28 February 1979) is a French professional racing driver who currently races in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Cadillac Hertz Team Jota in the Hypercar category. He is one of the most successful dr ...

with a three-point advantage over

Frédéric Makowiecki Frédéric Makowiecki (born 22 November 1980) is a French professional racing driver who currently competes as a factory driver for Alpine Endurance Team in the Hypercar category of the FIA World Endurance Championship. Career After competin ...

Patrick Pilet Patrick Grégory Yoan Pilet (born October 8, 1981) is a French professional racing driver. He has competed in major sports car endurance races like the 24 Hours of Le Mans, 24 Hours of Daytona, 24 Hours of Spa, 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Ma ...

, and

Dirk Werner Dirk Werner (born 25 May 1981 in Hannover, Lower Saxony) is a German racing driver. Born in Hannover, Werner was 2007 and 2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the ...

. In GTD, the Drivers' Championship was led by Michael Christensen, Carlos de Quesada, Michael de Quesada, Jesse Lazare,

Daniel Morad Daniel Morad (born April 24, 1990) is a Canadian racecar driver, YouTuber, races in IMSA for Winward Racing in a Mercedes AMG GT3 in the GTD Class. He is notable for winning the 2007 American Formula BMW championship; the 2010 World Championsh ...

with 35 points ahead of

Connor De Phillippi Connor De Phillippi (born December 25, 1992) is an American professional racing driver and gold rated BMW Motorsport works driver. Racing career Early career De Phillippi began karting at the age of 5 years old and by the time he was 14 years o ...

Jules Gounon Jules Jean-Louis Gounon (born 31 December 1994 in Aubenas) is an Andorran-based French people, French professional racing driver. He is best known for his victories in the Spa 24 Hours, 24 Hours of Spa in 2017 24 Hours of Spa, 2017 and 2022 24 Ho ...

Christopher Mies Christopher Mies (born 24 May 1989) is a professional German racing driver, and Ford Performance factory driver. He was an Audi Sport factory driver for 14 years from 2009 to 2023, competed in GT3 series such as ADAC GT Masters, GT World Chall ...

, and Jeffrey Schmidt.

Cadillac Cadillac Motor Car Division, or simply Cadillac (), is the luxury vehicle division (business), division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Its major markets are the United States, Canada and China; Cadillac models are ...

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

, and

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in luxury, high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Th ...

were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while

, Performance Tech Motorsport, Ford Chip Ganassi Racing, and Alegra Motorsports each led their own Teams' Championships. On March 8, 2017, IMSA issued the latest technical bulletin outlining the

Balance of Performance In sports car racing, balance of performance (BoP) is a regulation and mechanism that maintains parity between competing vehicles by adjusting the limits and parameters of a vehicle such as horsepower, weight, engine management, and aerodynamics ...

for the event. In P, the

received a 20 kilogram weight increase and a 0.6 mm smaller air restrictor. In GTLM, the BMW M6 GTLM and

Porsche 911 RSR The Porsche 911 RSR and its predecessor GT3 RSR, GT3 RS and GT3 R were a line of GT racing cars produced by Porsche that are used in motorsport for endurance races. They are based on the then highest class in GT racing worldwide, the GTE class fr ...

were given fuel capacity increases of 4 and 3 liters, respectively. In GTD, the Acura NSX GT3 received a 20 kilogram weight increase as well an increase in turbo boost, and 1 extra liter of fuel capacity. The

Audi R8 LMS The Audi R8 is a mid-engine, 2-seater sports car, which uses Audi's trademark quattro permanent all-wheel drive system. It was introduced by the German car manufacturer Audi AG in 2006. Production ended in the first quarter of 2024. The car i ...

received a 5 kilogram weight increase. The

received a 20 kilogram weight increase as well as a 1.5 mm larger air restrictor, and 2 extra liters of fuel capacity. The

Porsche 911 GT3 R The Porsche 911 GT3 is a high-performance homologation model of the Porsche 911 sports car. It is a range of high-performance models, which began with the 1973 911 Carrera RS. The GT3 has had a successful racing career in the one-make national ...

received a fuel capacity increase of 2 liters while the

Lexus RC F GT3 The Lexus RC (Japanese: レクサス・RC, ''Rekusasu RC'') is a compact executive two-door sport coupé manufactured by Lexus, Toyota's luxury division. The RC which according to Lexus stands for "Radical Coupe" is a two-door coupé version of ...

lost 1 liter of fuel capacity.

Entries

A total of 46 cars took part in the event split across four classes. 10 cars were entered in P, 4 in PC, 10 in GTLM, and 21 in GTD. In P,

replaced

in the #10

entry after Angelelli retired from racing after Daytona.

DragonSpeed DragonSpeed Racing is an American auto racing team that competes in the European Le Mans Series, FIA World Endurance Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In 2019, the team entered the NTT IndyCar Series with a five race schedule, includin ...

were absent.

Marino Franchitti Marino Alessandro Cesare Franchitti (born 7 July 1978) is a British racing driver, and the younger brother of Dario Franchitti. He has spent the majority of his career racing in sports cars and grand tourers, with a career highlight of winning t ...

joined Tom Long and Joel Miller in the #70 Mazda Motorsports entry. In PC,

Starworks Motorsport Starworks Motorsport was an American automobile racing team based in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, last competing in the 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship fielding the No. 8 Oreca 07 in LMP2. The team was established in 2010 by Peter Baron. History ...

scaled down to one entry. Garett Grist, Max Hanratty, and

Sean Rayhall Sean Rayhall (born March 10, 1995) is a racing driver. He competed in the LMP3 class of the European Le Mans Series, winning the championship in 2017. He has also previously raced in the GT Daytona class of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, ...

shared the #8

entry.

Gustavo Yacamán Gustavo "''El Tigrillo''" (English: The Ocelot) Yacamán Aristizabal (born February 25, 1991) is a Colombian racing driver from Santiago de Cali who currently manages the USF Juniors series. Yacamán began his career in open-wheel racing, but swit ...

joined Marc Drumwright, Chapman Ducote, and Colin Thompson in the #26 BAR1 Motorsports entry. In GTLM, Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK scaled down to one entry. In GTD,

Konrad Motorsport Konrad Motorsport is an auto racing team initially from Austria, but now based in Germany. Founded by Austrian racer Franz Konrad in 1976, the team has mostly run Porsches, although they have also run Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and Saleens over th ...

, Spirit of Race,

Manthey Racing Manthey Racing GmbH is a German auto racing team established in 1996 by former race car driver Olaf Manthey. Manthey Racing is currently competing in the Nürburgring Endurance Series, Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, and the GT2 European Series, an ...

Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Racing is a British auto racing team established in 2004 as a partnership between automobile manufacturer Aston Martin and engineering group Prodrive. The partnership was initially created for the purpose of returning Aston ...

, and TRG were absent.

GRT Grasser Racing Team Gottfried Grasser GmbH racing as GRT Grasser Racing Team is an Austrian racing team. The team, based only 10 kilometers away from the Red Bull Ring, has raced in various Group GT3 based racing series with support from Lamborghini since 2015, inclu ...

scaled down to one entry.

Spencer Pumpelly Spencer Pumpelly (born December 28, 1974) is an American professional racing driver who competes part-time in IMSA, driving the No. 44 Acura NSX GT3 for Magnus Racing with Archangel Motorsports as well as part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, ...

joined

, Michael Christensen, and Michael de Quesada in the #28 Alegra Motorsports entry.

Practice

There were four practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, three on Thursday and one on Friday. The first two one-hour sessions were on Thursday morning and afternoon. The third held later that evening ran for 90 minutes; the fourth on Friday morning lasted an hour.

Practice 1

The first practice session took place at 11:10 am ET on Thursday and ended with

Stephen Simpson Stephen Simpson (born 8 January 1984) is a South African-American professional racing driver currently competing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and previously in the A1 Grand Prix, Champ Car Atlantic Championship and the Indy P ...

topping the charts for JDC-Miller MotorSports, with a lap time of 1:49.516. The PC class was topped by the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca FLM09 of

with a time of 1:55.172.

was fastest in GTLM while

Bryan Sellers Bryan Sellers (born August 19, 1982 in Dayton, Ohio) is an American racing driver. Sellers won the title in the U.S. F2000 in 2002 and later competed in the Atlantic Championship and in racing sports cars. Racing career Bryan Sellers first co ...

set the fastest time in GTD.

Practice 2

The second practice session took place at 3:15 pm ET on Thursday and ended with Jordan Taylor topping the charts for

, with a lap time of 1:49.888. Colin Thompson set the fastest time in PC. The GTLM class was topped by the #4

Tommy Milner Thomas Milner (born January 28, 1986) is an American GM factory racing and test driver, also currently employed full-time in Corvette Racing. He is also the co-owner of PRIVATE LABEL Team Hype E-Sports team on iRacing. He was featured in 2011 ...

with a lap time of 1:57.206.

was second in the #66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing car and Antonio García rounded out the top 3. Andrew Davis was fastest in GTD.

Night Practice

The night practice session took place at 7:30 pm ET on Thursday and ended with

Mike Conway Michael Robert Conway (born 19 August 1983) is a British professional racing driver. He lives in Sevenoaks, Kent and is currently competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship with Toyota Motorsport GmbH, Toyota Gazoo Racing. Early caree ...

topping the charts for Whelen Engineering Racing, with a lap time of 1:49.815.

set the fastest time PC by 0.257 seconds ahead of

in the #8

entry.

set the fastest time in GTLM with a time of 1:57.166. The GTD class was topped by the #57 Stevenson Motorsports

of Lawson Aschenbach with a lap time of 2:00.964.

Final Practice

The fourth and final practice session took place at 9:20 am ET on Friday and ended with

Christian Fittipaldi Christian Fittipaldi (born 18 January 1971) is a Brazilian former racing driver who has competed in various forms of motorsport including Formula One, Champ Car, and NASCAR. He was a highly rated young racing driver in the early 1990s, and parti ...

topping the charts for Mustang Sampling Racing, with a lap time of 1:49.211.

set the fastest time in PC. Dirk Müller was fastest in GTLM while Michael Christensen set the fastest time in GTD.

Qualifying

On Friday afternoon's 90-minute four-group qualifying, each category had separate 15-minute sessions. Regulations stipulated that teams nominate one qualifying driver, with the fastest laps determining each class' starting order. IMSA then arranged the grid to put Prototypes ahead of the PC, GTLM and GTD cars. Neel Jani Le Mans drivers parade 2011

The first was for cars in GTD class.

Tristan Vautier Tristan Philippe Alain Vautier (born 22 August 1989) is a French professional racing driver who is currently competing in the 2025 IMSA SportsCar Championship for Proton Competition and in the 2025 European Le Mans Series for CLX Motorsport, CLX ...

qualified on pole for the class driving the #75

SunEnergy1 Racing Kenny Charles Edward Habul (born 24 May 1973 in Sydney, Australia) is an Australian racing driver and a businessman. CEO of solar energy provider SunEnergy1, Habul is a two-time winner of the Bathurst 12 Hour and the inaugural Intercontinental ...

car. The second session of qualifying was for cars in the GTLM class. Ryan Briscoe qualified on pole driving the #67 car for Ford Chip Ganassi Racing, besting Dirk Müller in the sister #66 entry. The third session of qualifying was for cars in the PC class.

set the fastest time driving the #26 BAR1 Motorsports car. The final session of qualifying was for the P class.

Neel Jani Neel Jani (born 8 December 1983) is a Swiss people, Swiss professional racing driver. He achieved his greatest success winning the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2016 after first joining Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche's Le Mans Pro ...

qualified on pole driving the #13 car for

Rebellion Racing Rebellion Racing was a Swiss racing team that competed in endurance racing. The team competed in the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup season and won the LMP1 teams' title in the 2011 Le Mans Series season. The team started as an association ...

, beating

in the #5 Mustang Sampling Racing by less than one tenth of a second.

Qualifying results

Pole position In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the ra ...

s in each class are indicated in bold and by . * The No. 4 Corvette Racing entry was moved to the back of the GTLM field for violating competition rules regarding the car's ride height. * The No. 54 CORE Autosport entry was moved to the back of the GTD field as per Article 43.6 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).

Race

Start and early hours

Afternoon

Sunset to finish

Post-race

With a total of 70 points, Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor's victory allowed them to increase their advantage over Fittipaldi, Barbosa, and Albuquerque in the Prototype Drivers' Championship to 5 points. Cameron, Curran, and Conway advanced from sixth to third. In the PC Drivers' Championship, Rayhall advanced from fourth to second while Boulle dropped from first to fifth. The result kept Hand, Müller, and Bourdais atop the GTLM Drivers' Championship. García, Magnussen, and Rockenfeller advanced from fourth to second. As a result of winning the race, Bleekemolen, Keating, and Farnbacher advanced from third to first in the GTD Drivers' Championship. Cadillac, and Ford continued to top their respective Manufacturers' Championships while Mercedes-AMG took the lead of the GTD Manufacturers' Championship. Wayne Taylor Racing, Performance Tech Motorsports, and Ford Chip Ganassi Racing kept their respective advantages in their of Teams' Championships. Riley Motorsports Team AMG took the lead of the GTD Teams' Championship with ten rounds remaining.

Race Results

Class winners are denoted in bold.2017 12 Hours of Sebring scoring
/ref>

Statistics

* Fastest Lap - #31 Mike Conway - 1:49.629 on lap 100

Standings after the race

* Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings. * Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings. * Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.

References

External links

{{12 Hours of Sebring 12 Hours of Sebring

12 Hours of Sebring The 12 Hours of Sebring is an annual motorsport Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance race for Sports car racing, sports cars held at Sebring International Raceway, on the site of the former Hendricks Army Airfield World War II air base in S ...