This weekend’s Twelve Hours of Sebring saw four different practice sessions for each class from DPi to GTD. All four practice sessions between Thursday and Friday remained dry and temperatures seemed to be consistent with what should be expected for the race on Saturday.
Practices 1 and 3 would see the most accurate race representations with each 90 minute session involving all classes on track at the same time. Practice 2 would see two separate 75 minute session with GTD, LMP2, and LMP3 in one session with DPI and GTD Pro in the other.
The final practice on Friday occurred just before qualifying and only lasted 15 minutes, serving mostly as a warmup session for cars and drivers prior to qualifying.
DPi would see times ranging between the mid 1:45s to the mid 1:51s. Both manufacturers in the class, Acura and Cadillac, had strong performances amongst their top teams, but it would be Cadillac who would top the timing sheets in all four practice sessions. Whelen Engineering Racing and Pipo Derani would top the sheets in the middle of the day Practice 2 on Thursday with a 1:45.750.
Cadillac’s success could be attributed to their strength of numbers in the DPi class as well as to stronger factory support. Practice can not always be used as a measure of how a race will turn out, but things are looking good for Cadillac this weekend.
In the LMP2 class, times would vary from the high 1:48s to high 1:56s (the slower times coming in the much shorter Practice 4). Scott Huffaker and PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports topped the sheets overall in the night time and cooler Practice 3 with a 1:48.842. With all LMP2 cars being mechanically the same it will come down to preparation, skill, and endurance to decide who will come out on top come Saturday. PR1 and Tower Motorsport would not consistently be at the top, but they both would have strong performances throughout all four practice sessions.
It would seem as though LMP3 is going to be as highly contested as always, with various orders on the timing sheets among the four practice sessions. Their times would range from the high 1:56s to the low 2:01s, this does not include the outliers and those who did not set times. Malthe Jakobsen and Sean Creech Motorsport would set the fastest practice lap with a 1:56.878 in the evening Practice 3 session.
GTD and GTD Pro times would range from the mid 2:00s to a low 2:07. With the most variation in manufacturers and car specifications, throughout all four practice session no manufacturer seemed to have absolute control when it came to being fastest. What we did see among all the practice sessions was a bunching up and mixture of GTD, GTD Pro, and some LMP cars. This is all to be suspected considering the large field of 53 cars at the circuit this year.
