Sebring 12 Hours - 13th to 16th March 2013

Skeeter

Skeeter

Skeeter

Caporegime
Joined
8 Mar 2007
Posts
37,146
Location
Surrey
Bit early, but theres a few things I've found out that I thought the odd person on here might be interested in.

But first, info!

Poster13FINALproof.jpg


http://www.sebringraceway.com/

The 2013 Sebring 12 hours is on March the 13th to 16th. Race start time is 10:30am EST and runs to 10:30pm EST.

Its an ALMS race so multi class with P1, P2, PC, GT, and GTC classes. Audi and Toyota will be in action in P1. My personal favourate the Nissan Deltawing will be officially classified in P2 (Yay!), and the GT classes will contain the usual epic battles between Corvettes and Porsches and whatever else turns up.

For those hard core enough, the race is on the same weekend as the first F1 GP, and as far as I know is broadcast on MotorsTV live. GMT timings are 2:30pm until 2:30am Sunday morning. I'm staying up for it, who else is?

The entry list so far is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_12_Hours_of_Sebring

So thats the race, but theres is an interesting point to note. From the Sebring site...

This year's Sebring 12 hours on March 16th will be the last chance fans have to see LMP1 cars in action at Sebring

The ALMS and Grand-AM series are combining in 2014 into a single series, where the ALMS P2 and Grand-AM DP classes will combine, PC will remain, as will the 2 GT classes. There is no P1 class!

http://www.alms.com/articles/grand-am-alms-announce-2014-class-structure

• GRAND-AM’s DP and the ALMS’ P2 classes will combine into one, headlining prototype class that also will include the revolutionary DeltaWing prototype, with performance of the cars balanced to maintain close competition.
• The ALMS’ Prototype Challenge (PC) class for spec prototypes will continue to run as a separate class.
• Both of the organizations’ production-based GT classes will continue as separate, distinct categories based on performance, preserving each class’ proud history and loyal fan following. As part of this plan, the ALMS’ GTC cars will join the GRAND-AM GTs.
• GRAND-AM’s new GX class, which is debuting at this year’s Rolex 24 later this month, is being explored as a possible addition to the GRAND-AM half of the GT mix in 2014-15. There also is the possibility that GX will run separately as a fifth class.
Click to expand...

The WEC round in America (Circuit of the Americas) will be the only chance to see Le Mans P1 cars in the USA. Sebring will remain an ALMS race so will be filled with P2 and DP cars from 2014 onwards :(.

I also assume that with the Deltawing staying in ALMS and not WEC we wont be seeing it back at Le Mans again :(.

So anyway, who else is staying up for this one?
 
Last edited:
Entry list for the 61st Sebring 12 Hours

No Toyota, which is a shame. Means the overall race win will petty much be a battle between the 2 Audis.

P2 looks close as always, but the biggest battle is going to be GT, with the most cars and a great spread of manufacturers.

The DeltaWing has been classified as P1, which I think is a little unfair as they have always aimed for P2 level performance. Part of me thinks its a deliberate move to put it into a class it doens't have any real chance of competing in to avoid people complaining about it when it beats them.

Qualifying is at 5:15pm (GMT) on Friday and will be streamed online, while the race is at 2:30pm Saturday through to 2:30am Sunday and is shown in almost its entirety on MotorsTV.
 
Toyota are competing in the WEC, as are Audi. Sebring is an ALMS race so its additional to the WEC calendar for Audi to go over there and compete. I don't expect Audi will compete any other ALMS rounds throughout the year, instead doing the WEC rounds.

Its a shame really that the last P1 class race at Sebring wont see a multi team fight :(.

Interestingly, when the WEC go to America in September to Austin, the ALMS race is a support race to the 6 hour WEC race, rather than combining the fields? But then I don't think the classes align any more other than P1.
 
Last edited:
ALMS is dead. It merges with the GrandAm series next year and the P1 class will no longer exist.

The split from the ACO was both a good and bad thing. Changing their rules got them a few years of great racing, especially with the P2 Porches taking on the P1 cars. However the fact its now a different set of regs to the WEC means teams don't tend to swap between them any more. Prototype racing is an expensive business, and there isn't really enough interest to sustain 2 seperate series. The series that has Le Mans was always going to win.

ALMS was as competitive as LMES in the early 2000's when it was full of Audi R8s, too.
 
GT1 is a slightly different thing though. Yes the classification is dead, but the series is fine as its running GT3 regulations and GT3 is booming. Manufacturers are climbing over each other to get into GT3 racing. They had to do something as they only had a couple of entrants using GT1 cars.

I can see it being re branded to just the FIA GT World Championship soon.
 
Jesus the Audi team is a machine. They are going to do another 18 hours of driving on Monday and Tuesday with these cars as testing for Le Mans!
 
Well, I agree with the commentators, the 2013 Audi doesn't look to be much of an improvement on the 2012 car, so my money is on Toyota for Le Mans.

Good close racing right until the end. And all the talk of the United Sportscar Racing series makes me feel that it won't suck next year. No P1 will be a loss though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom