IMSA, the International Motor Sports Association ended its 36 Hours of Florida on Saturday, March 15, 2025, having conducted first the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway the final weekend of January and now this 73rd Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring on the tough and bumpy Sebring International Raceway for the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Both Florida races were won by the No. 7 Penske Porsche GTP 963, giving finishing driver Nick Tandy an historic sweep of the Big Three: Daytona, Sebring and Le Mans. The No. 6 Porsche from Penske Porsche came in second and was 2.239 seconds behind its teammate, while the No. 93 Acura ARX-06 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian GTP finished third, all of them completing 353 laps of the 3.74-mile Sebring racetrack. The first six cars – all GTP prototypes – finished on the lead lap, with the final three lead-lap cars taking the checkers in that class were the early leaders No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R, BW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 and the No. 5 Proton Competition Porsche 963 completing that sextet.
While BMW’s No 24 car took the pole, it had an immediate infraction when it moved side to side at the start, ending BMW’s hope of earning victory as it celebrates 50 years competing in United States racing. The No. 24 eventually finished 44th of 56 entries; the lowest-finishing GTP car belonged to Automobili Lamborghini Squadra Corse, which was 48th on the day, completing 256 laps.
The race was punctuated by eight caution periods, taking up just under two hours of the 12-hour competition, with the final one coming with less than a half-hour to spare before the checkered flags. That changed the completion for the large GTD class, with former GTD PRO champion Jack Hawksworth of Vasser Sullivan’s RC F GT3 Lexus team falling 3.265 seconds behind the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AG GT3 machine. This GTD win for Winward marked their second consecutive of the 2025 season after also taking victory at Daytona.
In GTD PRO the win went to the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3, aka “Rexy” for its green wrap with a front end painted as spiked teeth. After racing with the leaders all afternoon and into the evening, German racer Laurin Heinrich held off a pair of super-fast Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVOs that it had been competing with for most of this half-day’s duration. Thus Rexy scored its first endurance race finishing the race in 20th overall position, completing 329 laps and netting 4.371 seconds ahead of the No. 48 BMW.
In LMP2 competition, the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition squad earned its first IMSA class victory as a standalone tram, after partnering with PR1 Mathiesen Motorsports prior to this year. This car finished 347 laps, and was a scant 1.117 seconds ahead of the similar No 8 ORECA LP2 07 car from Tower Motorsports. The top six LMP2 cars were on their class leader’s lap.
Even before the winning car completed 1,320.220 miles around this difficult and bumpy track on a hot and humid afternoon whose cooling evening temperatures allowed Porsche to retain its late race lead, IMSA had information about next season, producing another 11-race schedule for its 2026 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. By making this announcement even before the second race of the season was contested, IMSA showed both its WeatherTech and Michelin Pilot Challenge classes are healthy and relish the consistency with which IMSA plans its scheduling.
Both the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will carry its 11-race schedule forward and Michelin’s Pilot Challenge series will have another 10-race schedule with the same venues where it competes this season, IMSA did place a new race to the five-contest Michelin Endurance Cup, as Road America’s race date will be a six-hour enduro next year, with Motul as its title partner. Motul also sponsors the season-closing Motul Petit Le Mans each year. Indianapolis Motor Speedway is hosting this year’s fifth endurance race, the TireRack.co Battle on the Bricks September 19-21, the 2025 schedule’s penultimate contest.
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