Photo: Jurgen Tap/Porsche
***Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring pole-sitter Jack Aitken believes the opening stages of tomorrow’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and Michelin Endurance Cup contest will likely see GTP teams double-stint their Michelin tires due to the limited tire allocation of 11 sets per car between qualifying and the race.
***While it’s the same tire limit for the top class as last year, teams are still coming to grips with Michelin’s new-for-2026 Pilot Sport Endurance tire, which is the Medium compound this weekend.
***Aitken said: “The way the race runs, it pushes you to a double stint early in the race when it’s hot, which is pretty unpleasant. We’ve had to do it in previous years, and it’s not been a major issue… This year we are going into a bit of the unknown because nobody has pushed that much mileage on the [new] tire in practice this weekend. I’m sure it will be fine. The new Michelin has been a pretty nice little upgrade from the previous tire, fixed a few issues that we had. I wouldn’t expect the degradation is going to be especially worse.”
***Saturday’s qualifying marked only the second time in series history where the quickest car in a specific class did not win the pole due to it being stripped of its fastest lap in the session because of the car bringing out a red flag in a practice session. The rule was introduced at the beginning of the 2025 season.
***Ironically, it involved PJ Hyett on both occasions, with the AO Racing team/owner driver crashing his No. 99 Oreca 07 Gibson in opening practice on Thursday but ran a benchmark 1:50.941 time in qualifying, and was on track to set an even quicker time to keep the pole, but had a slight hiccup on his final flying lap.
***Hyett lost class pole for last year’s Motul Petit Le Mans in a similar situation when Inter Europol Competition’s Jeremy Clarke was promoted to the top qualifying position.
***On Saturday, it gave Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen’s Misha Goikhberg his first career WeatherTech Championship pole in only his second race as a newly minted FIA Bronze-rated driver and his first qualifying attempt in class. When asked if he ever experienced anything like this in the past, Goikhberg said: “No. [Hyett] did throw it off in T17, so he was trying!”
***Jack Hawksworth, in his 100th WeatherTech Championship race in a Lexus RC F GT3, smashed the GTD Pro qualifying lap record, in a session that saw the top eight in class, made up of seven different GT3 manufacturers, separated by less than one second.
***Hawksworth said: “Honestly, from the minute we rolled out in FP1, I think we were surprised at how competitive we’ve been. We came off the back of really being uncompetitive at Daytona. We knew we were going to be better at this race. But we’re more in the mix than we thought we were.”
***The No. 48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, initially qualified second in GTD Pro by Luca Stolz, will start from the rear of the class after the car did not meet the minimum ride height requirements in post-qualifying tech inspection, promoting the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO to a front row start. It was the only technical infraction from qualifying.
***The top eight qualifiers in GTD, where Heart of Racing Team’s Eduardo Barrichello scored a maiden class pole, was made up by six GT3 manufacturers. Barrichello’s run marked the first pole for an Aston Martin in the race since 2006 when Pedro Lamy took an Aston Martin DBR9 to top qualifying honors in the GT1 class.
***Sportscar365 understands that a technical working group meeting was held at Sebring on Tuesday, with the proposed 2030 common set of top-class prototype regulations among the key topics. Progress has continued to be made between manufacturers and the sanctioning bodies, although the ACO’s goal of revealing the full extent of the regulations at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans appears to be unlikely, based on multiple sources who were asked not to be named.
***Max Esterson, who made his GT3 race debut in January’s Rolex 24 at Daytona with RLL Team McLaren, says he knows Sebring “off the back of my head” in iRacing, having won a previous edition of the iRacing Sebring 12 Hours in the top split, at the wheel of a GT3 car. “In Sebring on iRacing, I must have done it probably more than any other track,” he told Sportscar365.
***Winward Racing is seeking its third consecutive GTD class victory at Sebring, having just come off its third Rolex 24 at Daytona class win in the last five years. Team owner/driver Russell Ward confirmed to Sportscar365 earlier this week that Sebring will mark the last scheduled outing for its GTD Pro Mercedes-AMG entry for the season, but is actively seeking ways of expanding into a full-time two-car operation in the series.
***George Kurtz confirmed that Alex Quinn will be his full season co-driver in the No. 04 CrowdStrike by APR Oreca 07 Gibson, which is coming off a long-awaited first Rolex 24 at Daytona class victory. Kurtz explained that Peugeot factory pilot Malthe Jakobsen, who he shared the car with for the majority of last year, would have had to miss several races, including the LMP2 headline race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, due to the Dane’s FIA World Endurance Championship commitments.
***Kurtz told Sportscar365: “It’s been great to work with [Alex]. He slotted in perfectly. We ran with him a few times last year. He’s done a great job. He’s super fast and has been helpful, just in my own driving, I think it’s going to be an exciting year for all of us.”
***CrowdStrike by APR’s driver lineup for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, an entry which was secured by Kurtz, Jakobsen and Louis Deletraz winning the 2025-26 Asian Le Mans Series championship, has been finalized but not yet announced according to Kurtz. “I’m pretty excited about the lineup,” he added.
***Porsche LMDh factory director Urs Kuratle said he’s in full support of JDC-Miller Motorsports running its Porsche 963 to last year’s specification, which has enabled keeping the Minnesota-based team on the grid due to costs involved with upgrading to the German manufacturer’s 2026 aero package.
***Kuratle told Sportscar365: “It’s a great possibility, for anybody. It keeps JDC running here in the championship, which is really nice, and we are happy with this one. We support customers as much as we can. The bodywork is the main change from last year to this year’s car, some of the bodywork, and there’s no supply chain issues there.”
***Edsel B. Ford II, a member of the board of directors of Ford Motor Company, is in attendance this weekend and witnessed his first Mustang Challenge North America event. “It was great to watch the race and present the trophies. This is the first time I’ve been able to come to a race track to see the Mustang Challenge, to see our Ford Racing Mustang GT4 race car, and to visit with our Mustang GT3 teams. It’s been a wonderful experience.”
***Robert Wickens was recently inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame. The 37-year-old is expected to return to DXDT Racing for the sprint race portion of the season in the team’s Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R alongside season-long driver Mason Filippi, beginning with next month’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
***At least two GTD Pro teams are expected to field one-off GTD entries for the 100-minute Long Beach race, which is only eligible for GTP and the Pro-Am-enforced GT class.
***Six U.S. military veterans have been embedded with IMSA teams this weekend through Operation Motorsport’s continued initiatives. Host teams include Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports, Acura Meyer Shank Racing, KohR Motorsports, Czabok Simpson Motorsport and Random Vandals Racing.
***Operation Motorsport recently opened entries for the second annual CrowdStrike Veterans Race of Remembrance Powered by AWS, which will expand into an eight-hour endurance race at Virginia International Raceway on Nov. 6-8.
***Sebring International Raceway and Lexus have announced a multi-year partnership designating Lexus as the ‘Official Vehicle’ of the track and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, replacing Cadillac. Lexus vehicles and branding are displayed throughout the property, with the Lexus RC F set to serve as the official event-promotional vehicle for all annual events taking place at the circuit.
***Lexus Racing and Toyota Gazoo Racing director of motorsport Jeff Bal said: “Through this relationship, we’re adding a partnership with one of the world’s most legendary and popular race tracks, which aligns perfectly with our partnership with one of IMSA racing’s most successful teams, Vasser Sullivan. Lexus has more than 30 dealerships in Florida and with Sebring being centrally located in the state and home to a massive and passionate audience, we will undoubtedly introduce the performance, luxury and reliability of Lexus to a large number of potential owners.”
***Sebring International Raceway and ExxonMobil have extended their long-running partnership, which will see Mobil 1 remain the title sponsor of the Twelve Hours of Sebring for the long-term, including next year’s 75th running of the race. An ExxonMobil brand will have served as title sponsor of the race for 32 consecutive years, beginning in 1995.
***Ring Power Corporation and Sebring have entered into a strategic agreement allowing the St. Augustine, Fla.-based company to showcase its brand as well as products and services at all Sebring events, including this weekend. Among the most notable items are LED traffic message boards that provide critical information to both arriving fans and competitors.
***AMKUS Rescue Systems, a leading manufacturer of rescue tools trusted by first responders and motorsports safety teams worldwide, has been named the ‘Official Rescue Tool Provider’ of Sebring International Raceway. Through this partnership, AMKUS tools will support Sebring’s safety teams with rescue equipment.
***NBC Sports’ coverage of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring begins on Peacock on Saturday at 10 a.m. EST, which will carry the race flag-to-flag, in addition to also being available on NBCSN beginning at 4:30 p.m. Leigh Diffey will be joined by Calvin Fish, Townsend Bell, Brian Till and Oliver Gavin in the broadcast booth, with Kevin Lee, Matt Yocum, Marty Snider, Dave Burns and Chris Wilner on pit lane.
***IMSA Radio’s coverage of the race, which also includes the international video feed available on IMSA’s YouTube channel, will be anchored by John Hindhaugh, Ryan Myrehn, Peter Mackay and Arjuna Kankipati.
John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John
