2016 12 Hours of Sebring

The 64th Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh from Florida was an endurance sports car racing event held at Sebring International Raceway near Sebring, Florida from 16 to 19 March 2016. The race was the second round of the 2016 IMSA SportsCar Championship, as well as the second round of the North American Endurance Cup. It was the final time that the original Daytona Prototypes participated in the race, as, for 2017, they were replaced with the new DPi cars.

Sebring International Raceway

The race was won by Tequila Patrón ESM's Honda HPD-Ligier JS P2 driven by Scott Sharp, Johannes van Overbeek, Ed Brown, and Pipo Derani after completing a pass for the lead in the final moments of the race. It was the first overall 12 Hours of Sebring win for both ESM and Honda. The Prototype Challenge class was won by the No. 54 CORE Autosport entry driven by Colin Braun, Mark Wilkins, and Jon Bennett. GT Le Mans was won by the No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R from Corvette Racing, driven by Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner, and Marcel Fässler. The GT Daytona class was won by the No. 63 Ferrari 488 GT3 from Scuderia Corsa, driven by Christina Nielsen, Alessandro Balzan, and Jeff Segal. The race saw a stoppage of roughly two hours and 15 minutes due to heavy rain and lightning just before the halfway-point of the event.

Background

Sebring International Raceway, where the race was held.

International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) president Scott Atherton confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2016 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in August 2015. It was the third consecutive year the event was held as part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and the 64th 12 Hours of Sebring. The 12 Hours of Sebring was the second of twelve scheduled automobile endurance races of 2016 by IMSA, and the second in the four round North American Endurance Cup (NAEC). It was held at the 17-turn, 3.741-mile (6.021 km) Sebring International Raceway in Sebring, Florida on March 19, 2016.

Before the race, Ed Brown, Pipo Derani, Johannes van Overbeek, and Scott Sharp were leading the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 36 points. With 36 points, Misha Goikhberg, Kenton Koch, Chris Miller, and Stephen Simpson led the PC Drivers' Championship. GTLM was led by Marcel Fässler, Oliver Gavin, and Tommy Milner with a three-point advantage over Antonio García, Jan Magnussen, and Mike Rockenfeller. In GTD, the Drivers' Championship was led by Andy Lally, John Potter, René Rast, and Marco Seefried with 36 points. Honda, Chevrolet, and Audi were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Tequila Patrón ESM, JDC-Miller MotorSports, Corvette Racing, Magnus Racing each led their own Teams' Championships.

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 10:00 am ET on Thursday and ended with Dane Cameron topping the charts for Action Express Racing, with a lap time of 1:52.447.

Pos.	Class	No.	Team	Driver	Time	Gap
1	P	31	Action Express Racing	Dane Cameron	1:52.447	_
2	P	5	Action Express Racing	Scott Pruett	1:53.226	+0.779
3	P	2	Tequila Patrón ESM	Johannes van Overbeek	1:53.312	+0.865
Source:

Practice 2

The second practice session took place at 2:25 pm ET on Thursday and ended with Christian Fittipaldi topping the charts for Action Express Racing, with a lap time of 1:53.850.

Pos.	Class	No.	Team	Driver	Time	Gap
1	P	5	Action Express Racing	Christian Fittipaldi	1:53.850	_
2	P	31	Action Express Racing	Scott Pruett	1:54.283	+0.433
3	P	24	Alegra Motorsports	Daniel Morad	1:54.334	+0.484
Source:

Night Practice

The night practice session took place at 7:30 pm ET on Thursday and ended with Filipe Albuquerque topping the charts for Action Express Racing, with a lap time of 1:52.832.

Pos.	Class	No.	Team	Driver	Time	Gap
1	P	5	Action Express Racing	Filipe Albuquerque	1:52.832	_
2	P	55	Mazda Motorsports	Jonathan Bomarito	1:53.882	+1.050
3	P	10	Wayne Taylor Racing	Jordan Taylor	1:54.088	+1.256
Source:

Final Practice

The fourth and final practice session took place at 10:15 am ET on Friday and ended with Dane Cameron topping the charts for Action Express Racing, with a lap time of 1:52.135.

Pos.	Class	No.	Team	Driver	Time	Gap
1	P	31	Action Express Racing	Dane Cameron	1:52.135	_
2	P	5	Action Express Racing	Filipe Albuquerque	1:52.228	+0.093
3	P	60	Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian	Olivier Pla	1:53.067	+0.932
Source:

Qualifying

In Friday afternoon's 90-minute four-group qualifying, each category had separate 15-minute sessions. Regulations stipulated that teams nominate one qualifying driver, with the fastest laps determining each class' starting order. IMSA arranged the grid to put Prototypes ahead of the PC, GTLM and GTD cars.

Qualifying results

Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by ‡. All Prototype and Prototype Challenge cars were grouped together on the starting grid, regardless of qualifying position.

Pos.	Class	No.	Team	Driver	Time	Gap	Grid
1	P	60	Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian	Olivier Pla	1:51.217	_	1 ‡
2	P	2	Tequila Patrón ESM	Pipo Derani	1:51.391	+0.174	2
3	P	31	Action Express Racing	Dane Cameron	1:51.943	+0.726	3
4	P	5	Action Express Racing	Christian Fittipaldi	1:52.205	+0.988	4
5	P	55	Mazda Motorsports	Tristan Nunez	1:52.951	+1.734	5
6	P	90	VisitFlorida Racing	Marc Goossens	1:53.185	+1.968	6
7	P	70	Mazda Motorsports	Tom Long	1:53.513	+2.296	7
8	P	10	Wayne Taylor Racing	Rubens Barrichello	1:53.576	+2.359	8
9	P	81	DragonSpeed	Nicolas Minassian	1:54.171	+2.954	9
10	P	24	Alegra Motorsports	Daniel Morad	1:54.193	+2.976	10
11	P	0	Panoz DeltaWing Racing	Andy Meyrick	1:54.274	+3.057	11
12	PC	54	CORE Autosport	Colin Braun	1:54.910	+3.693	12‡
13	PC	52	PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports	Tom Kimber-Smith	1:55.843	+4.626	13
14	PC	20	BAR1 Motorsports	Johnny Mowlem	1:56.661	+5.444	14
15	PC	38	Performance Tech Motorsports	James French	1:57.189	+5.972	15
16	PC	8	Starworks Motorsport	Alex Popow	1:57.241	+6.024	16
17	P	50	Highway to Help	Jim Pace	1:57.422	+6.205	17
18	PC	85	JDC-Miller MotorSports	Misha Goikhberg	1:57.630	+6.413	18
19	PC	88	Starworks Motorsport	Sean Johnston	1:58.218	+7.001	19
20	GTLM	25	BMW Team RLL	Bill Auberlen	1:58.402	+7.185	20‡
21	GTLM	100	BMW Team RLL	John Edwards	1:58.592	+7.375	21
22	GTLM	68	Scuderia Corsa	Daniel Serra	1:58.637	+7.420	22
23	GTLM	67	Ford Chip Ganassi Racing	Richard Westbrook	1:58.708	+7.491	23
24	GTLM	3	Corvette Racing	Antonio García	1:58.856	+7.639	24
25	GTLM	4	Corvette Racing	Oliver Gavin	1:58.878	+7.661	25
26	GTLM	911	Porsche North America	Patrick Pilet	1:59.009	+7.792	26
27	GTLM	62	Risi Competizione	Toni Vilander	1:59.020	+7.803	27
28	GTLM	66	Ford Chip Ganassi Racing	Dirk Müller	1:59.053	+7.836	28
29	GTLM	912	Porsche North America	Frédéric Makowiecki	1:59.170	+7.953	29
30	GTD	63	Scuderia Corsa	Jeff Segal	2:02.350	+11.133	30‡
31	GTD	33	Riley Motorsports	Jeroen Bleekemolen	2:02.386	+11.169	31
32	GTD	96	Turner Motorsport	Jens Klingmann	2:02.660	+11.443	32
33	GTD	23	Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing	Mario Farnbacher	2:03.037	+11.820	33
34	GTD	22	Alex Job Racing	Leh Keen	2:03.241	+12.024	34
35	GTD	73	Park Place Motorsports	Patrick Lindsey	2:03.284	+12.067	35
36	GTD	51	Spirit of Race	Raffaele Giammaria	2:03.340	+12.123	36
37	GTD	16	Change Racing	Spencer Pumpelly	2:03.455	+12.238	37
38	GTD	97	Turner Motorsport	Markus Palttala	2:03.625	+12.408	38
39	GTD	21	Konrad Motorsport	Christopher Zöchling	2:03.822	+12.605	39
40	GTD	9	Stevenson Motorsports	Lawson Aschenbach	2:03.856	+12.639	40
41	GTD	11	Change Racing	Townsend Bell	2:03.861	+12.644	41
42	GTD	27	Dream Racing	Fabio Babini	2:03.933	+12.716	42
43	GTD	98	Aston Martin Racing	Paul Dalla Lana	2:04.204	+12.987	43
44	GTD	48	Paul Miller Racing	Bryce Miller	2:04.260	+13.043	44
45	GTD	28	Konrad Motorsport	Christopher Brück	2:04.302	+13.085	45
46	GTD	44	Magnus Racing	John Potter	2:04.857	+13.640	46
47	GTD	540	Black Swan Racing	Tim Pappas	2:07.095	+15.878	47
48	GTD	45	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Tracy Krohn	2:07.338	+16.121	48
49	GTD	6	Stevenson Motorsports	No Time Established			49
Source:

Race

Post-race

Race Results

Class winners are denoted in bold. P stands for Prototype, PC (Prototype Challenge), GTLM (Grand Touring Le Mans) and GTD (Grand Touring Daytona).

Final race classification Pos Class No. Team Drivers Chassis Tire Laps Time/Retired Engine 1 P 2 Tequila Patrón ESM Scott Sharp Ed Brown Johannes van Overbeek Pipo Derani Ligier JS P2 C 238 12:00:59.881 Honda HR35TT 3.5 L V6 Turbo 2 P 31 Action Express Racing Dane Cameron Eric Curran Scott Pruett Corvette Daytona Prototype C 238 +2.926 Chevrolet 5.5 L V8 3 P 5 Action Express Racing João Barbosa Christian Fittipaldi Filipe Albuquerque Corvette Daytona Prototype C 238 +3.940 Chevrolet 5.5 L V8 4 P 81 DragonSpeed Henrik Hedman Nicolas Lapierre Nicolas Minassian Oreca 05 C 238 +4.339 Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8 5 P 90 VisitFlorida Racing Marc Goossens Ryan Dalziel Ryan Hunter-Reay Corvette Daytona Prototype C 238 +18.078 Chevrolet 5.5 L V8 6 P 55 Mazda Motorsports Jonathan Bomarito Tristan Nunez Spencer Pigot Mazda Prototype C 238 +29.735 Mazda MZ2.0T 2.0 L I4 Turbo 7 DNF P 60 Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian John Pew Oswaldo Negri Jr. Olivier Pla Ligier JS P2 C 237 Rear Suspension Honda HR35TT 3.5 L V6 Turbo 8 P 70 Mazda Motorsports Tom Long Joel Miller Ben Devlin Keiko Ihara Mazda Prototype C 237 +1 Lap Mazda MZ2.0T 2.0 L I4 Turbo 9 PC 54 CORE Autosport Jon Bennett Colin Braun Mark Wilkins Oreca FLM09 C 236 +2 Laps Chevrolet LS3 6.2 L V8 10 PC 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Tom Kimber-Smith José Gutiérrez Robert Alon Oreca FLM09 C 236 +2 Laps Chevrolet LS3 6.2 L V8 11 GTLM 4 Corvette Racing Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner Marcel Fässler Chevrolet Corvette C7.R M 235 +3 Laps Chevrolet 5.5 L V8 12 GTLM 25 BMW Team RLL Bill Auberlen Dirk Werner Bruno Spengler BMW M6 GTLM M 235 +3 Laps BMW 4.4 L Turbo V8 13 GTLM 912 Porsche North America Earl Bamber Frédéric Makowiecki Michael Christensen Porsche 911 RSR M 235 +3 Laps Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6 14 GTLM 62 Risi Competizione Giancarlo Fisichella Toni Vilander Davide Rigon Ferrari 488 GTE M 235 +3 Laps Ferrari F154CB 3.9 L Turbo V8 15 GTLM 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook Scott Dixon Ford GT M 235 +3 Laps Ford 3.5 L EcoBoost V6 16 GTLM 100 BMW Team RLL John Edwards Lucas Luhr Kuno Wittmer BMW M6 GTLM M 235 +3 Laps BMW 4.4 L Turbo V8 17 PC 8 Starworks Motorsport Alex Popow Renger van der Zande David Heinemeier Hansson Oreca FLM09 C 233 +5 Laps Chevrolet LS3 6.2 L V8 18 GTLM 68 Scuderia Corsa Alessandro Pier Guidi Daniel Serra Andrea Bertolini Ferrari 488 GTE M 233 +5 Laps Ferrari F154CB 3.9 L Turbo V8 19 PC 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Misha Goikhberg Chris Miller Stephen Simpson Kenton Koch Oreca FLM09 C 232 +6 Laps Chevrolet LS3 6.2 L V8 20 PC 38 Performance Tech Motorsports James French Kyle Marcelli Josh Norman Oreca FLM09 C 231 +7 Laps Chevrolet LS3 6.2 L V8 21 DNF P 0 Panoz DeltaWing Racing Katherine Legge Sean Rayhall Andy Meyrick DeltaWing DWC13 C 229 Steering Élan (Mazda) 1.9 L I4 Turbo 22 GTD 63 Scuderia Corsa Christina Nielsen Alessandro Balzan Jeff Segal Ferrari 488 GT3 C 229 +9 Laps Ferrari F154CB 3.9 L Turbo V8 23 GTD 96 Turner Motorsport Bret Curtis Jens Klingmann Ashley Freiberg BMW M6 GT3 C 229 +9 Laps BMW 4.4 L Turbo V8 24 GTD 44 Magnus Racing John Potter Andy Lally Marco Seefried Audi R8 LMS C 229 +9 Laps Audi 5.2 L V10 25 GTD 23 Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing Mario Farnbacher Alex Riberas Ian James Porsche 911 GT3 R C 229 +9 Laps Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6 26 GTLM 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Joey Hand Dirk Müller Sébastien Bourdais Ford GT M 229 +9 Laps Ford 3.5 L EcoBoost V6 27 GTD 22 Alex Job Racing Cooper MacNeil Leh Keen Gunnar Jeannette Porsche 911 GT3 R C 229 +9 Laps Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6 28 GTD 48 Paul Miller Racing Bryce Miller Bryan Sellers Madison Snow Lamborghini Huracán GT3 C 229 +9 Laps Lamborghini 5.2 L V10 29 GTD 97 Turner Motorsport Michael Marsal Markus Palttala Jesse Krohn BMW M6 GT3 C 229 +9 Laps BMW 4.4 L Turbo V8 30 GTD 6 Stevenson Motorsports Robin Liddell Andrew Davis Connor De Phillippi Audi R8 LMS C 229 +9 Laps Audi 5.2 L V10 31 GTD 51 Spirit of Race Matteo Cressoni Raffaele Giammaria Peter Mann Ferrari 488 GT3 C 229 +9 Laps Ferrari F154CB 3.9 L Turbo V8 32 GTD 98 Aston Martin Racing Paul Dalla Lana Pedro Lamy Mathias Lauda Richie Stanaway Aston Martin Vantage GT3 C 229 +9 Laps Aston Martin 6.0 L V12 33 PC 20 BAR1 Motorsports Johnny Mowlem Marc Drumwright Ryan Lewis Don Yount Oreca FLM09 C 228 +10 Laps Chevrolet LS3 6.2 L V8 34 GTD 16 Change Racing Spencer Pumpelly Corey Lewis Al Carter Lamborghini Huracán GT3 C 227 +11 Laps Lamborghini 5.2 L V10 35 GTD 33 Riley Motorsports Ben Keating Jeroen Bleekemolen Marc Miller Dodge Viper GT3-R C 227 +11 Laps Dodge 8.3 L V10 36 GTD 540 Black Swan Racing Tim Pappas Nick Catsburg Patrick Long Andy Pilgrim Porsche 911 GT3 R C 226 +12 Laps Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6 37 GTD 28 Konrad Motorsport Franz Konrad Terry Borcheller Christopher Brück Josh Webster Lamborghini Huracán GT3 C 226 +12 Laps Lamborghini 5.2 L V10 38 GTD 45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Tracy Krohn Niclas Jönsson Pierre Kaffer Audi R8 LMS C 220 +18 Laps Audi 5.2 L V10 39 DNF P 50 Highway to Help Jim Pace Byron DeFoor David Hinton Dorsey Schroeder Riley Mk XXVI DP C 212 Crash Dinan (BMW) 5.0 L V8 40 DNF PC 88 Starworks Motorsport Sean Johnston Maro Engel Michael Lyons Oreca FLM09 C 209 Brakes Chevrolet LS3 6.2 L V8 41 GTLM 3 Corvette Racing Antonio García Jan Magnussen Mike Rockenfeller Chevrolet Corvette C7.R M 202 +36 Laps Chevrolet 5.5 L V8 42 P 24 Alegra Motorsports Carlos de Quesada Daniel Morad Cameron Lawrence Dominik Farnbacher Riley Mk XXVI DP C 195 +43 Laps Dinan (BMW) 5.0 L V8 43 DNF P 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Ricky Taylor Jordan Taylor Max Angelelli Rubens Barrichello Corvette Daytona Prototype C 169 Electrical Chevrolet 5.5 L V8 44 DNF GTD 9 Stevenson Motorsports Lawson Aschenbach Matt Bell Dion von Moltke Audi R8 LMS C 165 Engine Audi 5.2 L V10 45 DNF GTD 73 Park Place Motorsports Patrick Lindsey Jörg Bergmeister Matt McMurry Jan Heylen Porsche 911 GT3 R C 145 Crash Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6 46 DNF GTLM 911 Porsche North America Patrick Pilet Nick Tandy Kévin Estre Porsche 911 RSR M 116 Crash Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6 47 DNF GTD 11 Change Racing Bill Sweedler Townsend Bell Richard Antinucci Lamborghini Huracán GT3 C 30 Crash Lamborghini 5.2 L V10 48 DNF GTD 27 Dream Racing Paolo Ruberti Cédric Sbirrazzuoli Fabio Babini Luca Persiani Lamborghini Huracán GT3 C 27 Did Not Finish Lamborghini 5.2 L V10 DNS GTD 21 Konrad Motorsport Pierre Ehret Christopher Zöchling Jürgen Krebs Lamborghini Huracán GT3 C - Did Not Start Lamborghini 5.2 L V10 Sources:

Tyre manufacturers Key Symbol Tyre manufacturer C Continental M Michelin