After four out of 12 hours of racing completed at Sebring, Jack Aitken of the #31 Cadillac Racing continued in the lead of the second IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race this year.
The race continued to bring the thrills of battles and the woes of incidents across the four sensational classes of the WeatherTech Championship.
At the front of GTP, tactics were at play from Porsche Penske as the two Cadillacs from Whelen and Chip Ganassi Racing had controlled the lead so far during the opening portion of the 12-hour race.
It was only until the fourth hour when during a pitstop, the #7 Porsche 963 of Dane Cameron jumped into the lead during the third caution period of the race.
His team under fuelled the #7 so as to take the lead as the #01 and #31 Cadillac V-Series.Rs – with Scott Dixon and Jack Aitken driving – made their respective pit stops.
At the green flag, Cameron defended hard from an eager Aitken on the start-finish straight, and continued to challenge the Porsche Penske – a team who struggled earlier on with race pace.
Eventually, Aitken confidently made it past the #7 Porsche into Turn 17 as the #31 Cadillac utilised significantly more grip than the Porsche on the inside line.
Dixon caught back to the rear of Cameron made it up second position, as the #7 Porsche was unable to hold back the Cadillacs which showcased more composure in comparison to the Porsche 963’s handling.
Drama for the #24 BMW M Team RLL in amidst a small incident, as Jesse Krohn was forced to perform an unscheduled pit stop after he got hit in the rear when he braked in order to avoid a spinning McLaren and Porsche.
At the conclusion of the fourth hour, Jack Aitken led in the #31 Cadillac V-Series.R, followed by Scott Dixon in the #01 Cadillac and Richard Westbrook in the #85 JDC Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 for third position.
In the LMP2 category, the lead fight reigned on with Matt Brabham in the #99 AO Racing Oreca 07 charging ahead of Nico Pino’s #2 United Autosports USA Oreca for the lead during the third hour.
Meanwhile the winners from the 24 Hours of Daytona – #18 Era Motorsport Oreca – found themselves back towards the front of the order with Ryan Dalziel up into third position from the #22 United Autosports USA Oreca of Dan Goldburg.
A third full-course-yellow was deployed after Lilou Widoux in the #88 Richard Mille AF Corse Oreca 07 stopped at the run-off at Turn 7, eventually becoming the third official retirement of the race.
The #99 AO Racing Oreca faced a critical penalty in the form of a drive-through after they did not man the fire extinguisher properly.
Upon the return of green flag conditions, Mikkel Jensen of the #11 TDS Racing Oreca snatched the LMP2 lead with Bjoy Garg (#22 United Autosports USA Oreca) down to second position.
Prior to the end of the fourth hour, a fourth caution was deployed with the #33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier JS P217 of Lance Wilsey stopped at Turn 16 after making contact behind another competitor.
Jensen occupied the LMP2 lead in front of Tom Dillmann’s #52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Oreca and Rene Lindh of the #81 DragonSpeed Oreca.
GTD Pro was fairly settled in terms of fighting positions in the combined GTD field of two classes.
After a small incident between the #9 Pfaff McLaren 720S of James Hinchliffe being spun by the #86 MDK Porsche 911 of Klaus Bachler, the McLaren once again went behind the wall for repairs after having encountered issues towards the beginning of the race which constrained them behind the wall.
The #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 of Neil Verhagen held the lead of GTD Pro ahead of Antonio Garcia’s #3 Corvette Z06 GT3.R and Daniel Serra’s #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296.
GTD was led by the #57 Winward Racing of Indy Dontje, followed by the Ferrari 296 GT3s of #023 Triasi Competizione (Alessio Rovera) and the #34 Conquest Racing (Cedric Sbirrazzuoli).
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