Nissan Onroak DPi -22 12 Hours of Sebring

The 66th Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts was an

endurance Endurance (also related to sufferance, resilience, constitution, fortitude, and hardiness) is the ability of an organism to exert itself and remain active for a long period of time, as well as its ability to resist, withstand, recover from an ...

sports car racing Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built prototypes or grand tourers based on road-going models. Broadly speaking, sports car racing i ...

event held at

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

near

Sebring, Florida Sebring ( ) is a city in the south-central Florida and is the county seat of Highlands County, Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, ...

from 15 to 17 March 2018. The race was the second round of the

2018 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship The 2018 IMSA SportsCar Championship was the 48th motor racing championship sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) (which traces its lineage to the 1971 IMSA GT Championship). It was the fifth season of the United Sports ...

, as well as the second round of the

North American Endurance Cup The IMSA SportsCar Championship, currently known as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship under sponsorship, is a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada and organized by the International Motor Sports Association (IMS ...

. The race was won by

Tequila Patrón ESM Extreme Speed Motorsports was an American auto racing team based out of Riviera Beach, Florida. Founded by Scott Sharp and Patrón CEO Ed Brown, the team competed in the FIA World Endurance Championship, Tudor United SportsCar Championship, a ...

Nissan Onroak DPi The Ligier Nissan DPi, also known as the Onroak Nissan DPi is a Daytona Prototype car built by Ligier Automotive. The car is based on the Ligier JS P217, which was built to meet the 2017 FIA and ACO regulations for 2017 for the LMP2 category in t ...

driven by

Pipo Derani Pipo is a masculine given name. Notable people with the name include: * Pipo (actor) (1933-1998), Mexican actor * Pipo Nguyen-duy (born 1962), Vietnamese photographer * Pipo of Ozora (1369–1426), Italian soldier * Pipo (footballer, born 1992), ...

Johannes van Overbeek Johannes is a Medieval Latin form of the personal name that usually appears as "John" in English language contexts. It is a variant of the Greek and Classical Latin variants (Ιωάννης, '' Ioannes''), itself derived from the Hebrew name '' Ye ...

, and

Nicolas Lapierre Nicolas Lapierre (born 2 April 1984) is a French professional racing driver. He raced with Toyota and with Alpine Racing in the past seasons of the FIA World Endurance Championship. He is a two-time winner of the 12 Hours of Sebring, with overal ...

, ahead of the

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 marked ...

's of

Wayne Taylor Racing Wayne Taylor Racing is a sports car racing team that competes in the IMSA SportsCar Championship Daytona Prototype International class. The team campaigns the No. 10 Konica Minolta sponsored Acura ARX-05 full-time for Filipe Albuquerque a ...

and Whelen Engineering Racing. Porsche took GTLM honours with

Nick Tandy Nick Tandy (born 5 November 1984) is a professional British racing driver currently racing for Corvette Racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship in the 64 Corvette C8.R. His major victories include the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 2015 ...

Frédéric Makowiecki Frédéric Makowiecki (born 22 November 1980) is a French professional racing driver, currently competing as a factory driver for Porsche Motorsport in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTLM class. Career After competing in karting, Arra ...

, and

Patrick Pilet Patrick 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 Mans. Born in ...

behind the wheel of their 911 RSR. The GTD category was won by Paul Miller Racing's

Corey Lewis Corey Sutherland Lewis (also known as Rey or The Rey) is an American comic book creator. He is primarily known as the creator of '' Sharknife'', published by Oni Press. Other works include ''PENG'' for Oni, and providing back-up comic strips for ...

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 ...

and

Madison Snow Madison Snow (born December 26, 1995) is an American racing driver who currently competes in the IMSA SportsCar Championship. In 2018 Snow became only the second driver in IMSA history to win two championships in the same year, winning both the W ...

in a GT3-spec

Lamborghini Huracán The Lamborghini Huracán (Spanish for "hurricane"; ) is a sports car manufactured by Italian automotive manufacturer Lamborghini replacing the previous V10 offering, the Gallardo. The Huracán was revealed online in December 2013, making its wo ...

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 ...

's (IMSA) president Scott Atherton confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the

2018 IMSA SportsCar Championship The 2018 IMSA SportsCar Championship was the 48th motor racing championship sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) (which traces its lineage to the 1971 IMSA GT Championship). It was the fifth season of the United Sports ...

(IMSA SCC) in August 2017. It was the fifth consecutive year it was part of the IMSA SCC, and the 66th 12 Hours of Sebring. The 24 Hours of Daytona was the second of twelve scheduled sports car

races of 2018 by IMSA, and the second of four races of the North American Endurance Cup (NAEC). It was held at the 17-turn,

on March 17, 2018. On March 1, 2018, IMSA released a bulletin outlining the minimum refueling times for all the classes. All cars in the Prototype class were given 30 second minimum refueling time while GTLM and GTD were given times of 34 and 40 seconds, respectively. The times were made to override any refueling restrictor size following Montaplast by Land-Motorsport's penalty at Daytona. 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 endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is run on the Sports Car Course layou ...

7 weeks earlier,

Filipe Albuquerque Filipe Miguel Delgadinho Albuquerque (born 13 June 1985) is a Portuguese professional racing driver, currently driving a Acura ARX-05 in the IMSA SportsCar Championship for Wayne Taylor Racing Wayne Taylor Racing is a sports car racing tea ...

João Barbosa João Barbosa (born 11 March 1975 in Porto, Portugal) is a Portuguese auto racing driver. He currently competes in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for Sean Creech Motorsport in the LMP3 class. Before the 2021 Six Hours of the Glen, ...

, and

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 par ...

were leading the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 35 points. GTLM was led by

Ryan Briscoe Ryan Briscoe (born 24 September 1981) is an Australian-American professional racing driver from Sydney who has predominantly raced open-wheel and sports cars in Europe and America. In IndyCar he collected 8 wins and 28 podiums, finishing thi ...

Richard Westbrook Richard Westbrook (born 10 July 1975) is a British professional racing driver noted for his success in racing Porsche and International sports cars. As a junior, he attended St Joseph's College, Ipswich. He has won both the Porsche Supercup i ...

, and

Scott Dixon Scott Ronald Dixon (born 22 July 1980) is a professional racing driver from New Zealand, who competes in the NTT IndyCar Series for Chip Ganassi Racing. Dixon has won the IndyCar championship six times: in 2003, 2008, 2013, 2015, 2018 and 202 ...

with a three-point advantage over

Joey Hand Joseph F. 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 drivi ...

, Dirk Müller, and

Sébastien Bourdais Sébastien Olivier Bourdais (born 28 February 1979) is a French professional racing driver. He is one of the most successful drivers in the history of American open-wheel car racing, having won 37 races. He won four successive championships un ...

. In GTD, the Drivers' Championship was led by

Mirko Bortolotti Mirko Bortolotti (born 10 January 1990) is an Italian racing driver from Trento. He has won the Italian Formula 3 Championship in 2008, the FIA Formula 2 Championship in 2011, the Eurocup Megane Trophy in 2013 and the Blancpain GT Series Enduran ...

, Rik Breukers,

Rolf Ineichen Rolf Ineichen (born 2 May 1978) is a Swiss racing driver who currently competes in the GT World Challenge Europe and the ADAC GT Masters. Career Business ventures Ineichen serves on the board of directors at OTTO'S AG, a Swiss discount departmen ...

, and

Franck Perera Franck Perera (born 21 March 1984 in Montpellier, France) is a race car driver who has competed in a number of international open-wheel racing championships. Career In 2006, Perera drove in the GP2 Series for the DAMS team, after four years of ...

with 35 points.

Cadillac The Cadillac Motor Car Division () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM) that designs and builds luxury vehicles. Its major markets are the United States, Canada, and China. Cadillac models are distributed ...

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

Lamborghini Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. () is an Italian brand and manufacturer of luxury sports cars and SUVs based in Sant'Agata Bolognese. The company is owned by the Volkswagen Group through its subsidiary Audi. Ferruccio Lamborghini (1916–199 ...

were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Mustang Sampling Racing,

Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Chip Ganassi Racing, LLC (CGR), also sometimes branded as Chip Ganassi Racing Teams, is an American auto racing organization with teams competing in the NTT IndyCar Series, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, FIA World Endurance Championship ...

, and

GRT Grasser Racing Team Gottfried Grasser GmbH racing as GRT Grasser Racing Team is an Austrian racing team. The team has raced in various Group GT3 based racing series with support from Lamborghini since 2015. Gottfried Grasser Team founder Ing. Gottfried Grasser (bor ...

each led their own Teams' Championships. On March 7, 2018, IMSA released the latest technical bulletin outlining

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

for the event. In the Prototype class, the

Acura ARX-05 The Acura ARX-05 is a sports prototype racing car built to Daytona Prototype International regulations. It was developed in partnership by Honda Performance Development and Oreca, and is based on the Oreca 07 chassis and powered by the Acura AR35 ...

received a reduction of turbo boost and a fuel capacity reduction of 1 liter while the

got a turbo boost reduction between 6000-7600 rpm. The

received a 10 kilogram weight increase while the

Mazda RT24-P The Mazda RT24-P also known as the Mazda Road to 24 – Prototype is a Daytona Prototype International built to the 2017 IMSA DPi regulations. The car is designed and built by Mazda Motorsports, in collaboration with Multimatic Motorsports, and is ...

received a fuel capacity increase of 2 liters and adjustments to the cars rear wing. In the GTLM class, the

BMW M8 GTE The BMW M8 GTE is an endurance grand tourer (GT) car constructed by the German automobile manufacturer BMW. It was developed in late 2016 and made its competitive début in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and FIA WEC for the 2018 se ...

received a 20 kilogram weight reduction and increase of power between 5000-7500 rpm while the

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

got a fuel capacity increase of 2 liters. In the GTD class, the

Mercedes-AMG GT3 The Mercedes-AMG GT (C190 / R190) is a grand tourer produced in coupé and roadster bodystyles by German automobile manufacturer Mercedes-AMG. The car was introduced on and was officially unveiled to the public in October 2014 at the Paris Mo ...

received a 20 kilogram weight increase and a 1mm air restrictor increase while the

Lexus RC F GT3 The Lexus RC (Japanese: レクサス・RC, ''Rekusasu RC'') is a compact executive two-door 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 the Le ...

received a 1mm air restrictor increase.

Entries

A total of 43 cars took part in the event split across 3 classes. 16 cars were entered in P, 9 in GTLM, and 18 in GTD. In P, BAR1 Motorsports and Jackie Chan DCR JOTA were absent while

United Autosports United Autosports is a sports car racing team, founded by American businessman and entrepreneur Zak Brown and former British racing driver Richard Dean. In 2020, United Autosports became the first ever team to win the prestigious 24 Hours of ...

scaled down to 1 entry.

Paul Di Resta Paul di Resta (born 16 April 1986) is a British racing driver from Scotland, competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Peugeot Sport in their LMH entry. He drove in Formula One for Force India from to , and became a reserve drive ...

joined

Phil Hanson Phil Hanson (born October 3, 1932) is a former member of the Arizona House of Representatives from January 2001 until January 2005. He was first elected to the House in November 2000, representing District 17, and was re-elected in 2002 after re- ...

and

Alex Brundle Alex Brundle (born 7 August 1990) is a British racing driver and broadcaster who currently competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship with Inter Europol Competition. He was the 2016 European Le Mans Series champion (LMP3) and is the son o ...

in the United Autosports #32 entry while

Bruno Senna Bruno Senna Lalli (, born 15 October 1983) is a Brazilian professional racing driver. He is the nephew of the late Ayrton Senna, three-time Formula One world champion. He is also the first man to win a race in every WEC class, and was the 2017 W ...

missed the event after having undergone a surgical procedure a few weeks earlier. In GTD,

Grasser Racing Team Gottfried Grasser GmbH racing as GRT Grasser Racing Team is an Austrian racing team. The team has raced in various Group GT3 based racing series with support from Lamborghini since 2015. Gottfried Grasser Team founder Ing. Gottfried Grasser (b ...

and

Manthey Racing Olaf Manthey (born 21 April 1955 in Bonn) is a German former race car driver, and current owner of Porsche team Manthey Racing. Manthey's career as a driver began in 1974. In the 1980s, he won two races of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft. Re ...

skipped the event while

Risi Competizione Risi Competizione is an Italo- American auto racing Ferrari factory-backed team formed by Giuseppe Risi in 1997. Initially, the team had a partnership with Doyle Racing using the name Doyle-Risi Racing, but soon Giuseppe Risi took full control of ...

scaled down focussing on its GTLM effort. CJ Wilson Racing made their

IMSA SportsCar Championship The IMSA SportsCar Championship, currently known as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship under sponsorship, is a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada and organized by the International Motor Sports Association (IMS ...

debut at this event. Dillon Machavern and

Markus Palttala Markus Palttala (born 16 August 1977 in Nakkila) is a Finnish racing driver. After racing in karts, Palttala began racing cars in the Finnish Touring Car Championship in 1998. He competed in the 2001 European Super Production Championship, dri ...

joined Don Yount in the

Turner Motorsport Turner Motorsport (Also known as TMS Racing or Turner racing ) is a professional sports car racing team located in Newton, NH, and is the second most prolific BMW privateer racing team in the world, second only to Schnitzer Motorsport, who sto ...

entry. Following the retirement of

Scott Pruett Scott Donald Pruett (born March 24, 1960) is a former American race car driver who has competed in NASCAR, CART, IMSA, Trans-Am and Grand-Am. He and his wife Judy have three children and are children's book authors. Pruett started racing go ...

Sean Rayhall Sean Rayhall (born March 10, 1995 in Winston, Georgia) 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 Spor ...

joined

3GT Racing 3GT Racing is an American racing team formed by Paul, Tony and John Gentilozzi. 3GT will compete at the 2017 IMSA SportsCar Championship with two Lexus RC F GT3 under the brand 3GT Racing, with Scott Pruett and Sage Karam as two of the drivers. T ...

in the teams #15 entry.

joined

and

in the Paul Miller Racing entry. Tom Dyer joined

Ryan Eversley Ryan A. Eversley (born December 22, 1983) is an American professional auto racing driver. Since 2015, Eversley has been a Honda factory driver who primarily races in sports car racing championships such as the Michelin Pilot Challenge and Pirel ...

and Chad Gilsinger in the

HART Hart often refers to: * Hart (deer) Hart may also refer to: Organizations * Hart Racing Engines, a former Formula One engine manufacturer * Hart Skis, US ski manufacturer * Hart Stores, a Canadian chain of department stores * Hart's Reptile Wo ...

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 11:00 am ET on Thursday and ended with

Hélio Castroneves Hélio Castroneves (; born Hélio Alves de Castro Neves; 10 May 1975) is a Brazilian auto racing driver. He has won the Indianapolis 500 a record-equalling four times: in 2001, 2002, 2009, and 2021. He won the 2021 24 Hours of Daytona with W ...

topping the charts for Acura

Team Penske Team Penske (formerly Penske Racing) is an American professional auto racing organization, competing in the NTT IndyCar Series, NASCAR Cup Series, and the FIA World Endurance Championship. Debuting at the 1966 24 Hours of Daytona, the organiza ...

, with a lap time of 1:48.237.

Practice 2

The second practice session took place at 3:10 pm ET on Thursday and ended with

Ricky Taylor Ricky Taylor (born August 3, 1989) is an American racing driver, most notably in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. His career highlights include an IMSA Series Championship in 2017, as well as marquee wins at the Daytona 24, 12 Hours o ...

topping the charts for Acura

n, with a lap time of 1:47.841.

Night Practice

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

René Rast René Rast (born 26 October 1986 in Minden) is a German professional racing driver and the 2017, 2019 and 2020 DTM champion. He previously drove for Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler in Formula E from 2019 to 2021 before Audi left the sport at the end o ...

topping the charts for Mazda Team Joest, with a lap time of 1:48.233.

Final Practice

The fourth and final practice session took place at 8:00 am ET on Friday and ended with

topping the charts for Acura

, with a lap time of 1:47.076.

Qualifying

Qualifying was broken into three sessions. The first was for cars in GTD class.

Daniel Serra Daniel Gardano Serra (born 24 February 1984) is a Brazilian auto racing driver. He competes full-time in the Brazilian Stock Car Pro Series, driving the No. 29 Chevrolet Cruze for Eurofarma-RC and is also a Ferrari Factory Driver. He won 3 ti ...

qualified on pole for the class driving the #51 car for

Spirit of Race AF Corse is an Italian auto racing team founded by former racing driver Amato Ferrari in 1995 in Piacenza. Strongly linked to the Maserati and Ferrari brands, AF Corse currently competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship, GT World Chal ...

, beating

Christopher Mies Christopher Mies (born 24 May 1989) is a professional German racing driver who currently competes for Audi Sport in GT3 series such as ADAC GT Masters and GT World Challenge Europe. Career Mies began his career in 2006 in the Toyota Yaris Cu ...

in the #29 Montaplast by Land-Motorsport car by over five tenths of a second. The second session of qualifying was for cars in the GTLM class.

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 ...

qualified on pole driving the #25 car for BMW Team RLL, beating James Calado in the #62

car by less than one tenth of a second. The final session of qualifying was for the P class.

Tristan Vautier Tristan Vautier (born 22 August 1989) is a French professional racing driver. Racing career Formula Renault Born in Saint-Martin-d'Hères, Isère, Vautier began his career in the French Formula Renault Campus series in 2006, where he finish ...

qualified on pole driving the #90 car for

Spirit of Daytona Racing Spirit of Daytona Racing (known as VisitFlorida Racing from 2015 to 2018) was an auto racing team that competed last in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Prototype Class with the No. 90 Cadillac DPi-V.R, driven by Tristan Vautier, Ma ...

, besting

Olivier Pla Olivier Pla (born 22 October 1981) is a French racing driver currently competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Glickenhaus Racing. His younger brother Jim is also a racing driver Career French Formula Campus and Formula Three Bor ...

in the #2

entry.

Qualifying results

Pole positions 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 ...

in each class are indicated in bold and by . * The No. 77 Mazda Team Joest entry was moved to the back of the P field after failing post qualifying technical inspection. * The No. 55 Mazda Team Joest entry was moved to the back of the P field failing post qualifying technical inspection. * The No. 32 United Autosports entry initially qualified sixteenth for the P class. However, the team changed engines after qualifying. By IMSA rules, the entry was moved to the rear of the P field on the starting grid. * The No. 93 Michael Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian entry was moved to the back of the GTD field for starting the race with a different driver than who qualified.

Race

Start and early hours

Afternoon

Sunset to finish

Post-race

In Prototype, Curran, Nasr, and Conway moved to first after being second coming into Sebring. Albuquerque, Barbosa, and Fittipaldi dropped from first to third. The result kept Briscoe, Westbrook, and Dixon atop the GTLM Drivers' Championship with 63 points. Pilet, Tandy, and Makowiecki advanced from eighth to second while Hand, Müller, and Bourdais dropped from second to fourth. De Phillippi, Sims, and Auberlen moved to fifth after being ninth coming into Sebring. As a result of winning the race, Sellers and Snow took the lead of the GTD Drivers' Championship. Bleekemolen, Keating, and Stolz advanced from fourth to second while Legge, Parente, and Hindman dropped from second to third. MacNeil, Jeannette, and Balzan advanced from tenth to fourth. Cadillac, Ford, and Lamborghini continued to top their respective Manufacturers' Championships while Ford Chip Ganassi Racing kept their respective advantage in the GTLM Teams' Championship. Whelen Engineering Racing and Paul Miller Racing took the lead in their respective Teams' Championships with ten rounds left in the season.

Race Results

Class winners are denoted in bold.

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 race for sports cars held at Sebring International Raceway, on the site of the former Hendricks Army Airfield World War II air base in Sebring, Florida, US. The event is the second ro ...