The 63rd Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh from Florida was an endurance sports car racing event held at Sebring International Raceway from March 18-21st. The race was the second round of the 2015 United SportsCar Championship as well as the second of four events in the North American Endurance Cup.
The race was won by Action Express Racing's No. 5 Corvette Daytona Prototype, piloted by Sébastien Bourdais, João Barbosa, and Christian Fittipaldi, finishing a full lap ahead of any else in the field. The Prototype Challenge class was won by the No. 52 entry from PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports piloted by Mike Guasch, Tom Kimber-Smith, and Andrew Palmer, securing their second consecutive victory in the season. In the GT Le Mans class, victory went to Corvette Racing's No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R driven by Antonio García, Ryan Briscoe, and Jan Magnussen. Finally, in GT Daytona, victory went to the No. 23 Porsche 911 GT America from Alex Job Racing and Team Seattle driven by Mario Farnbacher, Ian James, and Alex Riberas, though it only took the lead with roughly four minutes to go when the No. 33 Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper GT3-R suffered overheating issues.[1]
Practice
There were four practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, three on Thursday and one on Friday. The first two one-hour sessions were on Thursday morning and afternoon. The third held later that evening ran for 90 minutes; the fourth on Friday morning lasted an hour.[2][3]
Practice 1
The first practice session took place at 10:15 am ET on Thursday and ended with João Barbosa topping the charts for Action Express Racing, with a lap time of 1:52.485.[4]
| Pos. | Class | No. | Team | Driver | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P | 5 | Action Express Racing | João Barbosa | 1:52.485 | _ |
| 2 | P | 60 | Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian | Oswaldo Negri Jr. | 1:53.732 | +1.247 |
| 3 | P | 57 | Krohn Racing | Niclas Jönsson | 1:53.871 | +1.386 |
| Source:[5] | ||||||
Practice 2
The second practice session took place at 2:25 pm ET on Thursday and ended with Olivier Pla topping the charts for Krohn Racing, with a lap time of 1:52.731.[6]
| Pos. | Class | No. | Team | Driver | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P | 57 | Krohn Racing | Olivier Pla | 1:52.731 | _ |
| 2 | P | 60 | Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian | Oswaldo Negri Jr. | 1:53.554 | +0.823 |
| 3 | P | 5 | Action Express Racing | João Barbosa | 1:53.818 | +1.087 |
| Source:[7] | ||||||
Night Practice
The night practice session took place at 7:15 pm ET on Thursday and ended with Olivier Pla topping the charts for Krohn Racing, with a lap time of 1:51.973.[8]
| Pos. | Class | No. | Team | Driver | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P | 57 | Krohn Racing | Olivier Pla | 1:51.973 | _ |
| 2 | P | 5 | Action Express Racing | Sébastien Bourdais | 1:52.246 | +0.273 |
| 3 | P | 60 | Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian | Oswaldo Negri Jr. | 1:52.536 | +0.563 |
| Source:[9] | ||||||
Final Practice
The fourth and final practice session took place at 9:50 am ET on Friday and ended with Oswaldo Negri Jr. topping the charts for Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian, with a lap time of 1:52.096.[10]
| Pos. | Class | No. | Team | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P | 60 | Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian | 1:52.096 | _ |
| 2 | P | 57 | Krohn Racing | 1:52.578 | +0.482 |
| 3 | P | 5 | Action Express Racing | 1:52.588 | +0.492 |
| Source:[11] | |||||
Qualifying
Qualifying was broken into four sessions. The first session of qualifying was for the GTD class. The No. 33 Riley Motorsports entry driven by Jeroen Bleekemolen set the fastest time in GTD.[12]
The second session of qualifying was for the GTLM class. Frédéric Makowiecki qualified on pole for the class driving the No. 912 Porsche North America, besting Patrick Pilet in the No. 911 Porsche North America entry.[12]
The third session of qualifying was for the PC class. Martin Plowman qualified on pole driving the No. 16 car for BAR1 Motorsports.[13]
The final session of qualifying was for the P class. Olivier Pla qualified on pole driving the No. 57 car for Krohn Racing, beating Ryan Dalziel in the No. 1 Tequila Patrón ESM by just over three tenths of a second.[14]
Qualifying results
Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by ‡.
| Pos. | Class | No. | Team | Driver | Time | Gap | Grid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P | 57 |  Krohn Racing |  Olivier Pla | 1:51.152 | _ | 1 ‡ |
| 2 | P | 1 | Tequila Patrón ESM |  Ryan Dalziel | 1:51.455 | +0.303 | 2 |
| 3 | P | 5 | Action Express Racing |  João Barbosa | 1:52.128 | +0.976 | 3 |
| 4 | P | 60 | Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian |  Oswaldo Negri Jr. | 1:52.170 | +1.018 | 4 |
| 5 | P | 31 | Action Express Racing | Dane Cameron | 1:52.490 | +1.338 | 5 |
| 6 | P | 90 | VisitFlorida.com Racing | Richard Westbrook | 1:52.691 | +1.539 | 6 |
| 7 | P | 10 | Wayne Taylor Racing | Ricky Taylor | 1:52.720 | +1.568 | 7 |
| 8 | P | 2 | Tequila Patrón ESM | Johannes van Overbeek | 1:53.047 | +1.895 | 8 |
| 9 | P | 01 | Chip Ganassi Racing | Joey Hand | 1:53.329 | +2.177 | 9 |
| 10 | P | 0 | DeltaWing Racing Cars with Claro/TracFone |  Memo Rojas | 1:55.223 | +4.071 | 10 |
| 11 | PC | 16 | BAR1 Motorsports | Martin Plowman | 1:55.257 | +4.105 | 11‡ |
| 12 | PC | 54 | CORE Autosport | Colin Braun | 1:55.327 | +4.175 | 12 |
| 13 | PC | 52 | PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports | Tom Kimber-Smith | 1:55.416 | +4.264 | 13 |
| 14 | PC | 38 | Performance Tech Motorsports | Conor Daly | 1:55.748 | +4.596 | 14 |
| 15 | PC | 11 | RSR Racing |  Chris Cumming | 1:56.450 | +5.298 | 15 |
| 16 | PC | 85 | JDC-Miller MotorSports | Rusty Mitchell | 1:57.248 | +6.096 | 16 |
| 17 | P | 70 | SpeedSource | Tristan Nunez | 1:57.421 | +6.269 | 17 |
| 18 | PC | 8 | Starworks Motorsport |  Alex Popow | 1:57.842 | +6.690 | 18 |
| 19 | GTLM | 912 | Porsche North America | Frédéric Makowiecki | 1:58.587 | +7.435 | 19‡ |
| 20 | GTLM | 911 | Porsche North America | Patrick Pilet | 1:58.806 | +7.654 | 20 |
| 21 | GTLM | 3 | Corvette Racing |  Antonio García | 1:58.828 | +7.676 | 21 |
| 22 | GTLM | 25 | BMW Team RLL |  Dirk Werner | 1:58.842 | +7.690 | 22 |
| 23 | GTLM | 62 | Risi Competizione | Pierre Kaffer | 1:58.927 | +7.775 | 23 |
| 24 | GTLM | 24 | BMW Team RLL | Lucas Luhr | 1:58.930 | +7.778 | 24 |
| 25 | GTLM | 4 | Corvette Racing | Tommy Milner | 1:59.451 | +8.299 | 25 |
| 26 | GTLM | 17 | Team Falken Tire | Wolf Henzler | 1:59.787 | +8.635 | 26 |
| 27 | GTLM | 98 | Aston Martin Racing | Pedro Lamy | 1:59.896 | +8.744 | 27 |
| 28 | GTD | 33 | Riley Motorsports |  Jeroen Bleekemolen | 2:03.485 | +12.333 | 28‡ |
| 29 | GTD | 23 | Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing | Mario Farnbacher | 2:03.538 | +12.386 | 29 |
| 30 | GTD | 73 | Park Place Motorsports | Patrick Lindsey | 2:04.106 | +12.954 | 30 |
| 31 | GTD | 22 | Alex Job Racing | Leh Keen | 2:04.339 | +13.187 | 31 |
| 32 | GTD | 007 | TRG-AMR North America |  James Davison | 2:04.855 | +13.703 | 32 |
| 33 | GTD | 81 | GB Autosport |  Damien Faulkner | 2:04.930 | +13.778 | 33 |
| 34 | GTD | 44 | Magnus Racing | Andy Lally | 2:04.944 | +13.792 | 34 |
| 35 | GTD | 58 | Wright Motorsports |  Jan Heylen | 2:05.059 | +13.907 | 35 |
| 36 | GTD | 93 | Riley Motorsports | Ben Keating | 2:05.081 | +13.929 | 36 |
| 37 | GTD | 48 | Paul Miller Racing | Bryce Miller | 2:05.265 | +14.113 | 37 |
| 38 | GTD | 45 | Flying Lizard Motorsports | Marco Holzer | 2:05.499 | +14.347 | 38 |
| 39 | GTD | 49 |  AF Corse | Marco Cioci | 2:05.781 | +14.629 | 39 |
| 40 | GTD | 63 | Scuderia Corsa | Anthony Lazzaro | 2:06.479 | +15.327 | 40 |
| 41 | GTD | 97 | Turner Motorsport | Boris Said | 2:07.373 | +16.221 | 41 |
| 42 | P | 07 | SpeedSource | No Time Set | 42 | ||
| 43 | P | 50 | Fifty Plus Racing | No Time Set | 43 | ||
| 44 | P | 7 | Starworks Motorsport | Did Not Participate | 44 | ||
| 45 | GTD | 18 | Mühlner Motorsports America | Did Not Participate | 45 | ||
| 46 | GTD | 009 | TRG-AMR North America | Did Not Participate | 46 | ||
| Source:[15] | |||||||
Race
Start and early hours
Afternoon
Sunset to finish
Post-race
Race result
Class winners are denoted in bold and ‡.
| Key | |
|---|---|
| Symbol | Tyre manufacturer |
| C | Continental |
| M | Michelin |
| F | Falken Tire |