SEBRING, Fla. – With eight hours down and four to go in the 67th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts, it’s looking promising for Cadillac to score its second victory in the prestigious once-around-the-clock event.
Cadillac DPi-V.R prototypes occupied the first four spots in the running order at the two-thirds distance with Felipe Nasr leading the way in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering machine. He was 23.306 seconds ahead of second-place Matthieu Vaxiviere in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac, with Filipe Albuquerque running in third place in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac, 34.447 seconds in arrears of the leader.
The three Cadillacs were the only DPi cars on the lead lap at eight hours.
Chris Miller was fourth, one lap down in the No. 84 JDC-Miller Motorsports DPi-V.R. Three more cars, including Nissan and Acura DPis along with another Cadillac were running one lap down to the leaders, but would be right back on the lead lap and in the mix with one more full-course caution.
By leading at eight hours, Nasr earned the maximum five points towards the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup, moving the No. 31 team to within one point, 24-23, of the DPi class-leading No. 10 team.
In the LMP2 class, the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA trio of Kyle Masson, Cameron Cassels and Andrew Evans continues to enjoy a comfortable, 19-lap lead. By leading the first two Michelin Endurance Cup segments, the No. 38 team now has moved into the LMP2 points lead.
In the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class, seven of the eight cars in the class were still running on the lead lap with Richard Westbrook at the front of the field in the No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT. Westbrook led Jan Magnussen in the No. 3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R by 16.825 seconds, with Philipp Eng running third in the No. 24 BMW Team RLL M8 GTE.
Having led at both the four- and eight-hour scoring intervals at Sebring, the No. 67 team has moved into the GTLM points lead in the Michelin Endurance Cup standings by one point, 18-17, over the No. 912 Porsche GT Team 911 RSR shared by Earl Bamber, Laurens Vanthoor and Mathieu Jaminet.
And the GT Daytona (GTD) class battle still includes 10 cars on the lead lap with Lars Kern guiding the way in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R. Kern was 10.142 seconds ahead of Jeroen Bleekemolen in the No. 33 Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsports GT3 Mercedes-AMG GT3, followed by Mario Farnbacher in third place aboard the No. 86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3.
The No. 33 team continues to lead the Michelin Endurance Cup standings in the GTD class by six points, 23-17, over the No. 11 GRT Grasser Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 squad of Rolf Ineichen, Mirko Bortolotti and Rik Breukers.