The town of Sebring, Florida was founded in 1912 by George E. Sebring a pottery manufacturer from Ohio, and was nicknamed “The City on the Circle” in reference to Circle Drive the center of the Sebring downtown historic district. In March 1952 Sebring hosted its first 12-Hours race. Seventy years later and Sebring International Raceway was hosting the seventieth edition of the 12-hour race – the “70th Annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented By Advanced Auto Parts” – to give it’s full and proper title.

The race was the second round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and with the first round of the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship 1000 Miles of Sebring formed the doubleheader that has been dubbed “Super Sebring”. The inaugural FIA World Endurance Championship race took place at Sebring in 2012 as part of the 12-hour race with all of the cars from both the American Le Mans Series as it was then and the FIA WEC Series competing in different classes during the same race. The first Super Sebring with separate races took place in 2019 and was a huge success – the pandemic put paid to 2020 and 21 – so 2022 was a welcome return for the FIA WEC.

For 2022 Corvette Racing is embarking on a new adventure. They are competing for the first time in their history in the FIA WEC for the full season. They have split the team in two and they now have the #64 C8.R (chassis C8.R-003) racing in the FIA WEC and the #3 (C8.R-002) will compete in the IMSA Championship. The other big news from the Corvette Racing perspective is that the #64 full-season entry in the FIA WEC will race in Y-E-L-L-O-W.

The not so good news is that for the IMSA WeatherTech Championship for 2022 it will be a single-car entry – the #3 Corvette C8R – and this will race in the GTD Pro Class with the ex-GTLM chassis car running on a waiver until GM builds a re-engineered GT3 spec car which is due in 2024. The FIA WEC will continue to run GTE Pro (GT2 spec) for at least 2022 hence the reason it was finally attractive for Corvette Racing to make the switch to the FIA WEC full time.

Brit Nick Tandy and long-time Corvette Racing driver America’s own Tommy Milner will perform the full season driving duties in the FIA WEC. Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor will do the honors in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship. This again seems a little odd to me as I would have thought putting both the American drivers together in the IMSA car and both the foreign guys into the WEC car. However, having had a chat with Nick Tandy his words were “An American car needs an American driver!” – which kind of makes sense so this is why Jordan Taylor is in the IMSA series and Tommy Milner is in the FIA WEC.

The FIA WEC Prologue

The weekend before Super Sebring the #64 took part in the official test weekend for the FIA WEC season called the FIA WEC Prologue.

The first session on Saturday morning saw the #64 record the best lap time of 1:59.122 which was good enough for 3rd in the GTE Pro Class before a weather front swept over the track drenching everything for about 30 minutes so the session was red-flagged and finished early. In session two on Saturday afternoon, the Corvette again finished third – but two seconds quicker – with a time of 1:57.029. Sunday was sunny but still cold (46-degrees) in the morning with a cold breeze all day and a high only in the low 60s. Sunday’s morning session three saw the #64 C8.R record a best time of 1:56.409 second in GTE Pro. The afternoon session four saw the C8.R take first place but with a slightly slower time of 1:56.476.

Qualifying

Qualifying for the FIA WEC race the #64 Corvette C8.R finished in third place behind both Porsches with a best lap time of 1:57.696. Qualifying for the IMSA race the #3 Corvette C8.R finished in third place in the GTD PRO field with a time of 1:59.927 although it was actually beaten by three of the GTD Class cars so was starting sixth in the GT field.

The FIA WEC 1000 Miles of Sebring

The FIA WEC 1,000 Mile of Sebring race started at midday on Friday and was scheduled to run until 8 p.m. Nick Tandy started the #64 Corvette C8.R and it took him seventeen laps to get by the #91 Porsche and take second place in the GTE Pro Class. Lap 31 and Nick Tandy pitted for fuel only, next lap, both Porsches pitted. Nick Tandy took over the GTE Pro lead and held it for all of the next stint from the #92 Porsche. Lap 63 and Nick pitted and handed the car over to Tommy Milner and a full set of new tires. Both Porsches got assessed for a fifteen-second penalty added to their pit stop for improper start procedure at the beginning of the race giving Tommy a (comfortable) eleven-second lead of the GTE Pro class with the three-quarters of the race to go. Tommy did a double stint with the lead stretching to 25 seconds.

The first red flag happened on lap 111 when Jose Maria Lopez in the #7 Toyota clipped the #88 GTE Am Porsche whilst overtaking it and spun off into the barriers before Turn 10. He rejoined the track pouring smoke from the front right corner of the car and rather than nurse the car back to the pits decided to drive at full racing speed until he came to Turn 14 when he discovered he had no steering input and plowed straight into the tire barriers and flipped the car onto its’ roof! The Sebring clean-up crew did an amazing job taking less than 45 minutes to remove the Toyota and repair the tire barriers. The race re-started with three hours and 43 minutes left. Sadly for Tommy, his 25-second lead had disappeared behind the safety car laps before the race restarted with the #92 Porsche right behind the #64 Corvette C8R. Tommy handed the #64 Corvette C8R over to Nick Tandy, the pit stop was a bit longer than normal by about ten seconds as there was a problem shutting the driver’s door. A prototype had tagged Tommy a few laps earlier and this had caused the issue. Tandy rejoined in fourth place behind the #51 Ferrari but overtook the Ferrari around the outside at Turn 10 to re-take third place thanks to his fresher tires. Two hours to go and the #91 Porsche had a problem getting their right rear wheel changed losing 24 seconds and promoting the Corvette back into second place. Tommy took over the #64 Corvette C8R from Nick Tandy during a Full Course Yellow with one hour and 45 minutes to go.

The race was red-flagged for a second time with an hour and seven minutes to go before the scheduled finish time because of lightning in the local area, after some twenty minutes the safety car appeared with the field of cars dutifully following, and it was hoped the race would re-start with some forty minutes to go, however, the third and final red flag finished the race as the weather became even more threatening and just after the final red flag was thrown the heavens did indeed open and the circuit was lashed with heavy rain, thunder, and lightning. The #64 Corvette C8.R was classified in second place splitting the Porsches which for the first race of a new championship was a great result.

The IMSA Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring Presented by Advanced Autoparts

After the storm that ended the FIA WEC 1000 Miles of Sebring race, it was overcast and very humid at the start of the IMSA race on Saturday morning. A balance of performance change part way through the Sebring event for the IMSA Corvette meant a slightly bigger restrictor allowed the C8R to make about an extra 20BHP.

Antonio Garcia took the 12-Hours of Sebring start at 10:10 a.m. and steadily took the car forward first dispatching the three GTD cars before leap-frogging both the #63 Lamborghini and the #62 Ferrari at the first round of pit stops having done a couple more laps than the Italian cars.

Jordan Taylor took over the #3 Corvette C8.R just over 2-hours into the race and continued to lead. 2 hours and 42 minutes gone and the first full-course caution after JP Montoya collided with the #1 GTD Class BMW which had emergency braked to avoid a spinning #6 LMP3 car at Turn 1. It took nearly 30 minutes to clean up the mess and reset the field before racing restarted with 3 hours and 7 minutes gone, two further full-course cautions occurred during Jordan Taylor’s driving stint. Just before the 5-hour mark Jordan Taylor pitted from the lead and handed the #3 Corvette C8.R over to “flying” Dutchman Nicky Catsburg. Nicky did a stunning job during his time in the car and with 4 hours and 34 minutes to go restarted in second place behind the Pfaff #9 Porsche which had inherited the GTD Pro-Class lead as they were in the pits when the latest caution was called. Nicky managed to muscle his way around the #9 Porsche through the Turn 3,4, and 5 sections of the track and after that managed to pull away and build a small lead. Three hours and 38 minutes to go and Nicky pitted handing the #3 Corvette C8R back to Jordan Taylor with a 5-second lead.

Two and a half hours to go and Antonio Garcia took over from Jordan Taylor with a five and a half-second lead from the #24 BMW. One hour 34 minutes to go and Antonio pitted for fuel and tires, the #24 BMW inherited the lead. Seven minutes later the BMW pitted and Antonio retook the GTD Pro-Class lead by about six seconds. The #24 made an unscheduled pit stop just seven minutes later for a fluid top-up so that pretty much ruined their chance of challenging the Corvette for the victory in the final hour. With 51 minutes to go and Antonio pitted from the lead of the GTD Pro Class for fuel and tires hopefully for the final time. Antonio re-joined with a sixteen-second lead over the #63 Lamborghini. By the end of the 12-hours, the #3 Corvette C8.R came home for the win from the #63 Lamborghini by just 4.4-seconds.

In 1952 the winning car completed 145 laps of the then 5.16-mile circuit for a total of 748.20 miles in 2022 the winning car – the #02 Cadillac DPi – completed 351 laps of the now 3.74-mile circuit in the 12 hours for a total of 1312.74 miles a new distance record.