Sebring 12 Hours: Prime title contenders lock out front row
Ricky Taylor of Acura Team Penske took pole ahead of his father’s Cadillac driven by Renger van der Zande, setting up a thrilling start to tomorrow’s 2020 Sebring 12 Hours.
Taylor’s #7 Acura ARX-05 lapped the iconic 3.74-mile course in 1min46.874sec to beat Renger van der Zande’s Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R by a quarter second, as the two enter the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship finale just two points apart.
Dane Cameron missed out on making it an all-Acura front row by 0.015sec but claimed third ahead of Sebastien Bourdais in the JDC Miller Motorsports #5 entry.
A brave effort from Tincknell netted fifth spot for Mazda ahead of Action Express Racing’s Pipo Derani, the second Mazda of Oliver Jarvis, and Matheus Leist in the second JDC Miller Cadillac.
In LMP2, Patrick Kelly put PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports on pole, 1.77sec faster than Naveen Rao in the Inter Europol Competition, with John Farano of Starworks and Don Yount of Performance Tech Motorsports in third and fourth respectively.
There was a surprise in GT Le Mans, as the Porsche 911 RSRs which had dominated practice were found down in fifth (Nick Tandy) and sixth (Neel Jani, 0.934sec slower ahead of his first GT race.)
Instead it was 2020 champion elect Antonio Garcia who delivered the top time – a 1min55.456sec – to deliver his second pole position of the season by a convincing 0.660sec ahead of Connor De Phillippi in the #25 BMW M8.
Jesse Krohn was a further 0.2sec down in the second BMW, but ahead of the second Corvette of Tommy Milner.
In GT Daytona, former Champ Car racer Jan Heylen got his tires up to temperature, delivered a stunning one-and-done flyer of 2min00.844 and then immediately pitted his Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R to leave his rivals to try and match it.
They didn’t come close, Andrew Davis finishing second but 0.7sec off in the Hardpoint Racing Audi R8, just enough to nip ahead of the fastest AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F, the #14 car of Aaron Telitz.
Richard Heistand was the fastest of the Lamborghini Huracan drivers, delivering P4 for Grasser Racing Team, while Cooper MacNeil did a fine recovery job after a spin to deliver fifth for Scuderia Corsa, ahead of the second Lexus of Frankie Montecalvo.
Robby Foley’s BMW M6 of Turner Motorsport will line up seventh ahead of Shinya Michimi who is hoping to help Mario Farnbacher and Matt McMurry earn GT Daytona championship honors this weekend in the #86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX.
| Cla | Num | Driver | Class | Chassis | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7 |  Helio Castroneves  Ricky Taylor Alexander Rossi | DPi | Acura DPi | 1'46.874 | |
| 2 | 10 |  Renger van der Zande  Ryan Briscoe  Scott Dixon | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'47.125 | 0.251 |
| 3 | 6 |  Juan Pablo Montoya Dane Cameron  Simon Pagenaud | DPi | Acura DPi | 1'47.140 | 0.266 |
| 4 | 5 | Sébastien Bourdais Tristan Vautier Loic Duval | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'47.209 | 0.335 |
| 5 | 55 | Jonathan Bomarito  Harry Tincknell Ryan Hunter-Reay | DPi | Mazda DPi | 1'47.245 | 0.371 |
| 6 | 31 | Felipe Nasr Pipo Derani Gabby Chaves | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'47.327 | 0.453 |
| 7 | 77 | Oliver Jarvis Tristan Nunez Olivier Pla | DPi | Mazda DPi | 1'47.474 | 0.600 |
| 8 | 85 | Matheus Leist  Stephen Simpson Scott Andrews | DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'47.696 | 0.822 |
| 9 | 52 | Patrick Kelly  Simon Trummer Scott Huffaker | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'51.373 | 4.499 |
| 10 | 51 |  Jakub Smiechowski Naveen Rao Matthew Bell | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'53.147 | 6.273 |
| 11 | 38 | Don Yount Patrick Byrne Guy Cosmo | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'54.045 | 7.171 |
| 12 | 8 |  John Farano  Mikkel Jensen David Heinemeier Hansson | LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'54.194 | 7.320 |
| 13 | 3 |  Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor Nick Catsburg | GTLM | Corvette C8.R | 1'55.456 | 8.582 |
| 14 | 25 | Bruno Spengler Connor de Phillippi Colton Herta | GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 1'56.116 | 9.242 |
| 15 | 24 |  Jesse Krohn John Edwards Augusto Farfus | GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 1'56.316 | 9.442 |
| 16 | 4 | Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner Marcel Fassler | GTLM | Corvette C8.R | 1'56.446 | 9.572 |
| 17 | 911 | Nick Tandy Frédéric Makowiecki Earl Bamber | GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | 1'56.840 | 9.966 |
| 18 | 912 | Earl Bamber  Laurens Vanthoor Neel Jani | GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | 1'57.774 | 10.900 |
| 19 | 16 | Ryan Hardwick Patrick Long Jan Heylen | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 2'00.844 | 13.970 |
| 20 | 30 | Rob Ferriol Andrew Davis  Pierre Kaffer | GTD | Audi R8 LMS GT3 | 2'01.546 | 14.672 |
| 21 | 14 | Jack Hawksworth Aaron Telitz Kyle Kirkwood | GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 2'01.605 | 14.731 |
| 22 | 11 | Richard Heistand Steijn Schothorst Franck Perera | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 2'01.652 | 14.778 |
| 23 | 63 | Cooper MacNeil  Alessandro Balzan Jeff Westphal | GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 2'01.802 | 14.928 |
| 24 | 12 | Frankie Montecalvo Townsend Bell Michael de Quesada | GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 2'01.839 | 14.965 |
| 25 | 96 | Nick Yelloly Robby Foley Dillon Machavern | GTD | BMW M6 GT3 | 2'02.210 | 15.336 |
| 26 | 86 | Mario Farnbacher Matt McMurry  Shinya Michimi | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 2'02.286 | 15.412 |
| 27 | 48 | Bryan Sellers Madison Snow Corey Lewis | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 2'02.435 | 15.561 |
| 28 | 74 | Gar Robinson Lawson Aschenbach Marc Miller | GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 2'02.689 | 15.815 |
| 29 | 23 | Ian James Roman De Angelis Darren Turner | GTD | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 2'02.705 | 15.831 |
| 30 | 57 | Trent Hindman Mikhail Goikhberg Joey Hand | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 2'03.153 | 16.279 |
| 31 | 44 | Andy Lally John Potter Spencer Pumpelly | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 2'04.363 | 17.489 |
| View full results | ||||||
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Sebring 12 Hours: Taylor’s Acura on top in night practice
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Garcia happy Sebring isn’t “super stressful” title-decider
About this article
| Series | IMSA |
| Event | Sebring 12 Hours |
| Author | David Malsher-Lopez |
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