It's been announced that round six of the World Endurance Championship's 'Super Season' at Sebring will be rescheduled to the earlier date of March 15 (Friday) next year. It will also be a shorter race of 1,000 miles – roughly eight hours.
WEC confirmed a return to Sebring last year with plans for a 1,500-mile race taking place on the same weekend as IMSA's Sebring 12 Hours. The WEC race was originally due to start at midnight on Saturday following the conclusion of the IMSA event.
However during a meeting between key stakeholders and organisers, it was agreed that the FIA-sanctioned endurance event should be moved to Friday and reduced in length. It will start in the afternoon and run into the late-evening. A full event schedule is due to be released at a later date.
WEC will make use of a separate, newly installed pitlane adjacent to the Ulmann Strait thereby allowing a smoother, faster transition between on track sessions for the different championships.
The revised schedule will be more comfortable for spectators, corner workers, media, teams and commercial partners, and will provide even more entertainment for the fans.
The WEC paddock will run concurrently to the IMSA paddock – which remains in its usual location – towards Turn 16 and, as at all WEC races, will be open to fans.
Gérard Neveu, WEC boss, said after the meeting: "Everyone went in to the meeting with a willingness to find a solution which worked well for all of us, knowing that some flexibility would be required on both sides, and the key points such as the schedule and the pitlane and paddock were agreed very quickly.
"We would like to sincerely thank Scott Atherton and all his team at IMSA, Wayne Estes and his staff at Sebring Raceway for the co-operation, flexibility and positive attitude they displayed throughout the recent weekend. We received a very warm welcome, had many meetings while in Florida, and a lot of the logistical bumps have already been smoothed out ready for the WEC’s visit next year."
Scott Atherton, president of IMSA added: "The decisions that came from our discussions with the WEC, FIA and track management promise to make the 2019 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts weekend an absolute must for sports car racing fans from across North America and around the world.
"There has been a lot of speculation surrounding the initial announcement of this combined event, but we always believed we could all find solutions to the many questions and challenges that needed to be addressed to host two world-class events on one weekend. And that’s exactly what we did.
"In the weeks and months ahead, we know this spirit of cooperation will continue as we complete the process of planning what promises to be an unprecedented showcase of sports car endurance racing for the fans – and competitors in each championship."
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