Photo Courtesy: Chuck Andersen
The 2022 IMSA 12 Hours of Sebring will be remembered for Earl Bamber’s late charge to victory lane in his Ganassi Cadillac, a heavy crash that took out GTD and LMP2 favorites, and two Ferraris emerging to stand on the GTD podium. It will not be remembered as a Porsche Motorsports classic.
While Pfaff Motorsport and Wright Motorsport looked to defend their respective GTD Pro and GTD victories at the 24 Hours of Daytona seven weeks earlier, neither repeated their Daytona success at Sebring.
Image Source: Porsche AGThe entry list included 11 GTD Pro cars and 17 GTD cars, making up about half of the 53 total cars in the race. Three prototype classes ran as well, all designed by regulation to be faster than the GT classes. In practice, the fastest GT cars ran with or outpaced the slower prototype cars. The large field ensured that traffic was an ever-present factor on the track and in a crowded pit lane.
Porsche was never in contention for the podium in either of its two classes. In GTD Pro, Porsches got only a scant whiff of the leaders and spent the bulk of the race mid-pack. In GTD, the promise of a pole position quickly gave way to early mechanical issues, putting a favorite many laps down for most of the event.
Image Source: Porsche AGNew Regulations at Sebring 2022
Sebring was the second IMSA event to feature new GT regulations, creating two different classes but both with the same equipment. GTD Pro teams featured purely professional drivers, and GTD teams mixed professional and amateur drivers. Equipment might have been identical, but the full-time professionals separated themselves in the running order with lap times consistently faster by tenths of a second. In the end, the GTD Pro winners covered 323 laps—only two laps more than the GTD winners.
Image Source: Porsche AGThe GTD Pro Porsche Contenders at Sebring 2022
Two 911 GT3 R Porsches came to race in GTD Pro—Pfaff Motorsports and WeatherTech Racing.
Matt Campbell, Mathieu Jaminet and Felipe Nasr drove the #9 Pfaff car, intending to give Pfaff a second successive Sebring win. Campbell and Jaminet were scheduled to drive the full 2022 IMSA calendar, while Nasr joined as a third driver for the endurance races. Porsche plans for Nasr to drive with the new Porsche prototype program in 2023.
Image Source: Porsche AGCooper MacNeil, Julien Andlauer, and Alessio Picarello drove the #79 WeatherTech Porsche. The MacNeil family is the force behind WeatherTech products. While Cooper MacNeil does not make his living as a professional driver, he linked with Porsche factory drivers Andlauer and Picariello. The WeatherTech Porsche is run together with Proton Competition.
Image Source: Porsche AGPorsche’s GTD Contenders at Sebring 2022
Two other teams represented Porsche in GTD—Team Hardpoint and Wright Motorsports.
Rob Ferriol, Kathryn Legge, and Stefan Wilson raced the #99 Team Hardpoint Porsche. Wright Motorsports divided driving duties between Ryan Hardwick, Zach Robichon, and Jan Heylen for their #16 Porsche.
Zach Robichon was part of the driver line-up when Pfaff Motorsports took GTD class honors in the 2021 12 Hours of Sebring. He moved into a part-time role with Wright Motorsports for 2022, when Pfaff switched to the fully professional GTD Pro class.
Image Source: Porsche AGPractice before the race was largely uneventful for all but Team Hardpoint. Katherine Legge suffered a crash in night practice in turn 17, damaging the right rear corner. Fortunately, the team had a backup chassis available.
The crew worked transferring parts from the race car to the spare until midnight on Thursday night and resumed their work at the track early Friday morning. A long rebuild day ended at 11:30pm on Friday night, causing them to miss both practice and qualifying.
Image Source: Porsche AGThe #99 Porsche went through technical inspection at 6:30am on Saturday morning, in time for the 20-minute morning warm-up and the 10:10am race start. The warm-up was just enough to make sure the car was stitched together but not enough to refine set-up. As is often the case in endurance racing, the race to get to the starting line can be an endurance race of its own.
Image Source: Porsche AGRace Day Arrives at Sebring 2022
Hot Florida weather greeted the field on race day. Rain clouds stayed away, but the sun baked the track and made life difficult for drivers and crews. Seven yellow flags slowed proceedings for stricken cars throughout the race, leaving just shy of ten hours of green flag running. Contact was the culprit in some cases, but stricken cars stranded around the track caused others.
Image Source: Porsche AGNeither GTD Pro Porsche was able to stay with the class leaders. With about four and a half hours remaining, the #9 Pfaff Porsche got its brief (and only) taste of the lead. Several laps of tight racing between Matt Campbell in the Porsche, Nick Catsburg in a Corvette and Nick Yellowly in a BMW proved tantalizing—but ultimately, the Porsche fell behind.
Focused preparation (and a bit of balance of performance help prior to the race) made the twisty Sebring track happy hunting ground for Corvette. At the checkered flag, Corvette edged Lamborghini for the class win. The fastest lap times for the pair of GTD Pro Porsches were around a second off the leaders.
Image Source: Porsche AGThe #9 Pfaff Porsche had a scare with about 3 hours remaining when the #74 LMP3 made contact. The LMP3 car limped away with damaged radiators, but the sturdy Porsche continued. The #9 spent most of the race stuck in the middle of the GTD Pro pack and finished in 5th place, a lap off the leader. Campbell led the way, setting 32 of the Pfaff Porsche’s fastest 50 laps.
Image Source: Porsche AGThe #79 WeatherTech Porsche quietly ran just behind the Pfaff Porsche for the majority of the race. It never caused a caution or got caught in others’ misfortune. While the #79 stayed on the lead lap for most of the race, it fell a lap down towards the finish and finished 6th in class. Julien Andlauer set the pace, logging 39 of the car’s fastest 50 laps.
Image Source: Porsche AGRobichon started on GTD pole for the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche, but the early promise dissipated quickly. Mechanical issues in the left rear sent Robichon and his Porsche back to the paddock before a quarter of an hour elapsed. Repairs cost 40 minutes and nearly 20 laps. Robichon rejoined but raced for pride rather than podium glory.
Heylen earned a drive-through penalty later in the race after contact with the #93 Acura, but the Porsche maintained good pace and otherwise had a relatively uneventful run to the end. The #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche finished its 2022 12 Hours of Sebring in 10th place in class, 16 laps off the lead.
Image Source: Porsche AGTeam Hardpoint started at the back of the GTD grid and went down two laps in the early hours. They were able to stabilize the gap and run a race without incident, but they spent the majority of the race mired towards the back of the GTD field. Lap times were consistently a second or two off the leaders, a likely consequence of how little time they had to refine their backup car.
Legge was the standout driver for the team, setting 35 of the car’s fastest 50 race laps. The #99 Porsche finished the race in 8th place in GTD, 3 laps off the class lead. The racing gods rewarded their efforts to make the start with an undamaged car at the end, which is rare at Sebring.
Image Source: Porsche AGWhile Porsche did not play a role in the result, the GTD class was hard fought to the end. Ferraris took first and third, sandwiching a Mercedes AMG between them for second.
Despite a difficult day, the Pfaff Motorsport left Sebring with a finish and the points lead. The IMSA schedule heads next to Long Beach, then Laguna Seca, Mid-Ohio, and Detroit for sprint races before the six hour enduro at Watkins Glen.
