12 Hours at Sebring is equal to 24 Hours anyplace else

By Mar 14, 2019, 11:00 AM EDT
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IMSA Weathertech SportsCar drivers have had a little less than two months to recover from one of the most grueling endurance races in motorsports with the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona. By the end of this weekend, they will know they needed every minute of rest.

Sebring International Raceway is a relatively easy three-hour drive south of Daytona. Both tracks are a little more than three and half miles in length and have a similar number of turns. This week’s race is half the distance in regard to time on the track, but no one should be fooled into thinking it is any easier.

“People say, ‘if you last 12 hours at Sebring, you last 24 hours anyplace else,’ ” Joao Barbosa told the NASCAR America crew last month. “The preparation of the car needs to be spot on. It’s a very bumpy track. Very challenging. Also for the driver – not only physically, but mentally because you go through the dark, you go through the bumps. It starts playing with your head a little bit.”

Super smooth and well-lit, Daytona is a palace. Sebring is a throwback to the days when endurance races actually took place on city streets and airport runways.

“The thing with Sebring different than Daytona … (Daytona is) all paved (smoothly); we get to Sebring, those Turns 1 and 17 are concrete,” NBC analyst and IMSA GTD driver Townsend Bell said in the video above. “And they’re concrete from like the 1940s. There’s some sealer and things, but the vertical bumps just get rougher and rougher each year.

“You feel like it’s 50 years ago. And that’s what’s cool about Sebring. It’s an old race track. It really has very little in terms of modern improvement, and I love that. It has all that rich character.

Bell and the No. 12 AIM Vasser-Sullivan team finished second in the GTD class in the Rolex 24, but team ahead of them is not racing the full season, so Bell has a chance to hang onto first in the points with another strong run.

The No. 10 Cadillac won a rain-plagued Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. (Courtesy IMSA.com, LAT Images, Richard Dole)

In the Daytona Prototype class, the leader also has an opportunity to maintain their lead.

Wayne Taylor Racing scored the overall win at Daytona after a daring last-lap pass by Formula 1 veteran Fernando Alonso. And if they win at Sebring, it will not be the first time they’ve had the distinction of winning the “36 Hours of Florida.” Wayne Taylor began 2017 with a five-race winning streak that included these two iconic endurance events.

“Everyone wants to win Daytona and everyone wants to win Sebring,” Jordan Taylor said in a press release. “Obviously, these races are part of a bigger picture with the championship, but heading into the weekend, the plan is to go for the win. If we find ourselves in a spot where we can’t compete for the win, then we will go into championship mode, but at this point, we want to win another Sebring 12-hour. We won there in 2017 and finished second last year. These endurance races always suit or team’s strengths, so I can’t wait to get started.”

When they pulled off those wins in 2017, Taylor had support in the form of NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon and Max Angelelli at Daytona before changing up the lineup for Sebring. This year Matthieu Vaxiviere, who is coming off a second-place finish in a 12-hour endurance race at Mount Panorama in Bathurst, New South Wales, joins the team at Sebring.

“I first drove (Sebring) in December in the LMP2 and I have mixed feeling for the track,” Vaxiviere said. “The first few laps, I learned the track and I completely loved it. But, after a couple of runs, I was not a big fan.

“So I’m a bit torn about how I ultimately feel about the track. Maybe after 20 hour of racing on it for me, I will like it a lot.”

Not everyone comes to Sebring with a points lead, however. This is the second in a 12-race schedule that stretches to October, and while it is not the race one wishes to play catch up on, it is one that must be survived. Team Joest had a difficult time in Daytona, finishing 40th overall and ninth in the Daytona Prototype class with the No. 55 team of Jonathan Bomarito, Harry Tincknell and Olivier Pla. The No. 77 had a worse fate, finishing 44th overall and completing just 220 of the 593 laps.

“The 12 Hours of Sebring is one of the best races of the year,” Bomarito said in a release. “It always comes down to a last lap fight for the win where you’re tired, beat up, and still wanting more punishment that this great track places on both the driver and machine. We had really fast Mazda RT24-Ps at Daytona and I would be really disappointed if that wasn’t the case at Sebring. The whole team has worked really hard to take what we’ve learned from Daytona to continue to get better for the rest of the year.”

Ford unveils a new Mustang for 2024 Le Mans in motorsports ‘lifestyle brand’ retooling

Associated PressJun 9, 2023, 7:00 PM EDT
Ford Mustang Le Mans
Ford Performance
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LE MANS, France — Ford has planned a return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans with its iconic Mustang muscle car next year under a massive rebranding of Ford Performance aimed at bringing the automotive manufacturer “into the racing business.”

The Friday unveil of the new Mustang Dark Horse-based race car follows Ford’s announcement in February (and a ballyhooed test at Sebring in March) that it will return to Formula One in 2026 in partnership with reigning world champion Red Bull.

The Mustang will enter the GT3 category next year with at least two cars in both IMSA and the World Endurance Championship, and is hopeful to earn an invitation to next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. The IMSA entries will be a factory Ford Performance program run by Multimatic, and a customer program in WEC with Proton Competition.

Ford CEO Jim Farley, also an amateur sports car racer, told The Associated Press the Mustang will be available to compete in various GT3 series across the globe to customer teams. But more important, Farley said, is the overall rebranding of Ford Performance – done by renowned motorsports designer Troy Lee – that is aimed at making Ford a lifestyle brand with a sporting mindset.

“It’s kind of like the company finding its own, and rediscovering its icons, and doubling down on them,” Farley told the AP. “And then this motorsports activity is getting serious about connecting enthusiast customers with those rediscovered icons. It’s a big switch for the company – this is really about building strong, iconic vehicles with enthusiasts at the center of our marketing.”

Ford last competed in sports car racing in 2019 as part of a three-year program with Chip Ganassi Racing. The team scored the class win at Le Mans in 2016 in a targeted performance aimed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Ford snapping Ferrari’s six-year winning streak.

Ford on Friday displayed a Mustang with a Lee-designed livery that showcased the cleaner, simplified look that will soon be featured on all its racing vehicles. The traditional blue oval with Ford Performance in white lettering underneath will now be branded simply FP.

The new mark will be used across car liveries, merchandise and apparel, display assets, parts and accessories and in advertising.

Farley cited Porsche as an automaker that has successfully figured out how to sell cars to consumers and race cars in various series around the world while creating a culture of brand enthusiasts. He believes Ford’s new direction will help the company sell street cars, race cars, boost interest in driving schools, and create a merchandise line that convinces consumers that a stalwart of American automakers is a hip, cool brand.

“We’re going to build a global motorsports business off road and on road,” Farley told the AP, adding that the design of the Mustang is “unapologetically American.”

He lauded the work of Lee, who is considered the top helmet designer among race car drivers.

“We’re in the first inning of a nine inning game, and going to Le Mans is really important,” Farley said. “But for customer cars, getting the graphics right, designing race cars that win at all different levels, and then designing a racing brand for Ford Performance that gets rebranded and elevated is super important.”

He said he’s kept a close eye on how Porsche and Aston Martin have built their motorsports businesses and said Ford will be better.

“We’re going in the exact same direction. We just want to be better than them, that’s all,” Farley said. “Second is the first loser.”

Farley, an avid amateur racer himself, did not travel to Le Mans for the announcement. The race that begins Saturday features an entry from NASCAR, and Ford is the reigning Cup Series champion with Joey Logano and Team Penske.

The NASCAR “Garage 56” entry is a collaboration between Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet and Goodyear, and is being widely celebrated throughout the industry. Farley did feel left out of the party in France – a sentiment NASCAR tried to avoid by inviting many of its partners to attend the race so that it wouldn’t seem like a Chevrolet-only celebration.

“They’re going right and I’m going left – that NASCAR thing is a one-year deal, right? It’s Garage 56 and they can have their NASCAR party, but that’s a one-year party,” Farley said. “We won Le Mans outright four times, we won in the GT class, and we’re coming back with Mustang and it’s not a one-year deal.

“So they can get all excited about Garage 56. I almost see that as a marketing exercise for NASCAR, but for me, that’s a science project,” Farley continued. “I don’t live in a world of science projects. I live in the world of building a vital company that everyone is excited about. To do that, we’re not going to do a Garage 56 – I’ve got to beat Porsche and Aston Martin and Ferrari year after year after year.”

Ford’s announcement comes on the heels of General Motors changing its GT3 strategy next season and ending its factory Corvette program. GM, which unlike Ford competes in the IMSA Grand Touring Prototype division (with its Cadillac brand), will shift fully to a customer model for Corvettes in 2024 (with some factory support in the IMSA GTD Pro category).