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Motorsport

Sport

Aston's V12 magic and the taming of the bumps: The winners and losers of Sebring

Sebring (Facility) Aston (Organization) IMSA Porsche Wayne Taylor Racing Wayne Taylor Aston Martin BMW Penske Nick Tandy

IMSA is only two races into its 2025 season, and already it has presented an impressive 36 hours of racing between four classes, with more than 200 drivers and over 60 cars featuring future technologies — cars you could have in your own garage (just racier). Few series can tout that kind of span or depth, and that’s before the green flag drops at a notoriously difficult Sebring Raceway track.

Sebring is a special place, not just for the fans — some who camp out weeks in advanced, and have done the same routine, in the same spot for decades. This 12 hour race has established itself as unique place for drivers, cars and the teams, where unforeseen challenges lurk around every corner. If drivers make a wrong move, or hit the wrong line, it can end their luck and their team’s chances fairly quickly.

On that note, a look at who was able to tame Sebring's surprises, and who are hoping to redeem themselves going into Long Beach next month.

Winner: Aston Martin’s Valkyrie LMH

#23 Aston Martin Thor Team Aston Martin Valkyrie: Ross Gunn, Roman De Angelis, Alex Riberas (Photo by: IMSA)

There’s no doubting that the Aston Martin was the fan favorite this weekend (behind the #77 AO Racing Rexy, of course), and everyone wanted a chance to see and hear its new prototype machine in person. Already impressive is its naturally aspirated V12 paired with the homologated GTP hybrid system that reminded me of an older Formula 1 car at first “sound.”

An important lesson from this weekend was that Aston understood the reality of the race, considering the trials Sebring would present. The expectations of its new Valkyrie GTP entry were not to conquer here, but simply finish the race. And they did, finishing 9th in the class with 13 total entries. Although two laps down, it finished ahead of the #60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian, the #40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac (retired), #24 BMW M Team RLL, and the #63 Automobili Lamborghini Squadra Corse (retired).

In good fun and games, Aston Martin Racing took to trolling the #63 Lamborghini on social in the heat of the battle. The funnier part of this, is at least they did finish ahead of them (by a few spots). It’ll be exciting to see this car developed over the season and see where it and how it becomes more competitive in an already incredibly competitive category. (Also hoping this entices even more manufacturers to participate, and bring some larger engines [re: V12s] with them.)

Hey @LamborghiniSC… 👋🏻#AstonMartin #IMSA #Sebring12 #ValkyrieHypercar pic.twitter.com/7OVYzZDXhR
— Aston Martin Racing (@AMR_Official) March 15, 2025

Loser: Wayne Taylor Racing

#40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V- Series.R: Jordan Taylor, Louis Deletraz, Brendon Hartley (Photo by: IMSA)

It’s not that WTR isn’t a successful outfit, on the contrary, the team is usually quite remarkable at coming back from setbacks when they do come about. But the amount of times the WTR outfit has had a car involved in an incident in just the first two races is notable. And Sebring wasn’t any less forgiving than Rolex.

Saturday kicked off the string of poor luck with the #10 bumping a GTD car clear off of the track. The #40 sent it into the wall of Turn 7. The #40 was able to recover, briefly, but ended up retiring near the end of the race. And to really cap things off, the #45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini (GTD) also joined in on the string of “no good very bad things” as well. At least two of the three cars finished.

Wayne Taylor was also in an exceptionally frustrated mood, clear in his interview with IMSA Radio during the yellow flag pit cycle where the #60 Acura and #24 BMW incident occurred. Who can blame him?

Winner: Porsche and Porsche Penske Motorsport

#77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (992): Laurin Heinrich, Klaus Bachler, Alessio Picariello drives under fireworks (Photo by: James Gilbert - Motorsport Images)

If you had sat in the media center, you also would have sat patiently while IMSA communications director Nate Siebens read through a very long list of accolades not only for Nick Tandy, but for Porsche and Porsche Penske Motorsport. It was a long enough list that at times, it elicited a surprised look from Tandy, like even he too, was learning just how winning he and his team and brand were.

It certainly leaves you wondering “what’s left for Penske to win?” (The answer: Le Mans and Petit Le Mans are priority). Porsche kicked off the last hour leading all of the “branded” categories: GTP, GTD Pro and GTD, and would come home with victories in the first two. One of their drivers is now a Triple Crown of endurance winner (Tandy), and another (Laurin Heinrich), set a best race-lap record for the GTD Pro category, and broke it again, in the last hour of the race as well.

With Penske’s GTP cars running “flawlessly” for 36 hours at the start of the season, you don’t want to jinx it, but his last two big wins on the list might be well within reach in 2025.

Loser: AF Corse

#21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3: Simon Mann, Lilou Wadoux Ducellier, Alessandro Pier Guidi (Photo by: IMSA)

What a back and forth weekend for the AF Corse garage, especially its Ferrari saga. Friday, the #21 car earned the pole for the GTD category, but literally couldn’t stop Saturday at the start of the race, landing the car in pit lane for repairs as they try to address a braking issue. But fret not, it seems anytime Alessandro Pier Guidi was behind the wheel, magic was happening, and the Ferrari more than made up any lost ground, eventually leading the category. Later on there was the off-roading incident in Turn 1, involving a brutal knockout of one of the WeatherTech signs, and the #21 made it known it had not been a fan. A pit stop to address the damage and a driver change didn’t seem to do it, because Lilou Wadoux was forced to limp it back within the first laps of her stint, before it was retired.

Its #88 LMP2 car made it further into the race, but suffered a worse fate than its GTD counterpart. At the start of the 10th hour of the race, the course finally went green after a long caution, and as everyone got to speed, the #88 missed its turn, hitting the wall of Turn 17, and triggering another caution. Everyone was ok, egos were likely bruised, and the #88 had certainly seen better days.

Winner: Sebring’s infamous bumps

#48 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO: Max Hesse, Dan Harper, Jesse Krohn (Photo by: IMSA)

It’s a well-known and highly utilized phrase when conversations center on Sebring: “Respect the bumps.” Its multiple track surfaces, along with the cracks and pitting it wears like aging badges of honor, create a truly unique track, one that teams and drivers internationally agree makes it one of the most challenging tracks to drive in the world. Running a car for 24 hours on a track like Daytona or Le Mans is one feat — but literally pitting it against the pits of Sebring for 12 hours is even more harsh.

This year, with GT cars now donning the same torque sensors of the prototype classes, it appears many of them were provided a hard lesson of learning to fine tune a car’s performance to account for the rough surfaces that you aim to hit (and the ones you might have to out of necessity) cause those sensors to react more often. Any bump could cause a spike in data, which can result in a warning on the first spike, and eventual penalties following for further infractions.

While the sensitivity was a concern at Daytona – the inaugural race for GTs to run with sensors — the warnings and errant spikes were actually quite minimal. But Sebring was quick to remind teams that they still had a lot to learn in the season ahead, with several warnings for infractions issued throughout the 12 hours, and a few penalties (for a second offense). Long live the bumps.

Loser: The #14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus

#14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3: Ben Barnicoat, Aaron Telitz, Kyle Kirkwood, Jose Maria Lopez (Photo by: IMSA)

Wayne Taylor Racing was having a bad day, but if you put all those together for one car, then it’s the #14 of Vasser Sullivan Racing. In just the third hour of the entire 12 hours, the team had received a penalty for changing a tire without the proper crew, and then found itself in an incident with the #48 Paul Miller Racing BMW, that sent it behind the while having to address a messy front end and suspension issues.

It did return in the next hour, only 20 laps down, which isn’t impossible to recover in an endurance race of this length, but there could be other mishaps that could lend to its better placing if it makes it to the end. It eventually retired having only completed 255 laps (the lead GTD Pro, #77 AO Racing Porsche completed 329 total), while it’s GTD brethren, the #12, would fight a tough battle to earn a podium and second-place finish.

Winner: Turner Motorsport

#96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO: Patrick Gallagher, Robby Foley, Jake Walker (Photo by: IMSA)

You’ll not have seen much about Turner Motorsport on the Sebring weekend race reports, but the #6 BMW M4 GT3 Evo finished Sebring only a lap down and 6th in the GTD category. And they owe it to Mandy Moore — having posted a photo of their divine Mother Mandy Moore prayer candle on social. She really seemed to have delivered on their prayers.

As the sun sets on this amazing @IMSA Sebring 12 hour, we genuflect and call on our divine Mother to bless our 96 with less understeer and more top end on the straights.

ALL RISE.

The @TheMandyMoore prayer candle has been lit. #PraiseMandy #IMSA #Sebring12 pic.twitter.com/AxV8LqDNPx
— Turner Motorsport (@Turnermotrsport) March 15, 2025