Starting lineup grid for Twelve Hours of Sebring: Pipo Derani puts Cadillac on pole Detroit Supercross by the numbers: Eli Tomac aims for fourth straight Ford Field win

Pipo Derani led 1-2 on the front row of Cadillac Racing in the starting lineup draw for the 71st Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

Derani completed the lap in 1 minute 45.836 seconds in the No. 31 Cadillac prepared by Action Express, while Sébastien Bourdais qualified second in the No. 01 Cadillac fielded by Chip Ganassi Racing at the 3.74-mile Sebring International Raceway Turn 17.

This is the first pole position for Cadillac in the new Grand Touring Prototype category, which this year introduced hybrid engines in its main prototype class. This is the first pole position since the 2021 season finale for Derani, who drives a Cadillac V-Series R alongside Alexander Sims and Jack Aitken.

STARTING GRID: Click here to view the lineup of Twelve Hours of Sebring l Lineup by vehicle number

FULL QUALIFICATION RESULTS: Click here for Friday speeds.

HOW TO WATCH TWELVE HOURS SEBRING: Schedules, start times, participant lists

“It shows that we’ve been hard at work since Daytona,” Brazilian Shi Adamu of IMSA Radio said. “We showed promise there, but we may have fallen a bit behind some of our rivals. Getting here with a very competitive package is fantastic. It’s good to be on pole. It’s been a long time.

“We are returning from a very difficult season last year, slowly, step by step, returning to what Action Express knows how to do. We are very happy to be on pole for the second race of the season. Enjoy the moment, it’s a long race but it’s good to be on pole.”

Derani has four wins at Sebring, most recently in 2020, and he believes a half-day on a bumpy track could be a tougher second run for the LMDh prototypes than 24 hours at Daytona International Speedway.

Here are your @Motul Pole Award Winners for @Mobile1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.#IMSA | @sebringraceway | @WhelenMTRS | @CadillacVSeries | @PR1Motorsports | @FollowAndretti | @TeamChevy | @RacersEdgeMS | @WayneTaylorRcng pic.twitter.com/E2ivuxYCJv

— #IMSA (@IMSA) March 17, 2023

“It’s a really tough track for man and machine,” he said. “Despite the fact that I raced the 24 hour race at Daytona, I think it’s really demanding on the car to the point where we can experience something new throughout the race just because of the nature of the track. We expect that we will continue to learn about our cars. They are very new and there are things we are constantly developing. It’s going to be one of those races where you find yourself in the middle and think, “Oh, I didn’t think about that.” We could use one tool or another.”

“Cars are so technologically advanced that sometimes you have five tools to solve the same problem. Those are the learning curves we have and this is the second race for these cars. As for the competitive side, this is a very difficult race. We’ll try to keep our cool.”

Ricky Taylor was third in the Acura for Wayne Taylor Racing, who beat No. 60 ARX-06 Meyer Shank Racing. Mathieu Jaminet was fifth in the No. 6 Porsche 963 Porsche Penske Motorsport and Augusto Farfus was the best BMW M Team RLL driver in fifth with the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8.

There were two post-qualification violations:

Car #57 in the GTD does not meet the minimum ground clearance and starts from behind.

Car number 79 in GTD Pro does not meet the minimum ride height and starts from behind.

Here are the pole sitters in other categories for a classic endurance race on a 3.74-mile road course with 17 turns:

LMP2: Ben Keating, no. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA, 1:51.780

LMP3: Glenn van Berlo, no. 36 Andretti Motorsport Ligier JS P320, 1:55.215

GTD Pro: Antonio Garcia, No. 3 Corvette Racing Corvette C8.R, 1:59.315

GTD: Kyle Marchelli, No. 93 Racers Edge Motorsports with WTR Acura NSX GT3 Evo, 1:59.714

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QUALIFICATION

Results

Class results

Fastest Lap by a Racer

Driver’s fastest lap after qualifying

Fastest lap by driver and class after qualifying

The best time of the sector

Fastest Lap Sequence

PRACTICAL RESULTS: Session I l Session II l Session III l Session IV

Looking at the Detroit Supercross numbers, Eli Tomac has four wins in his last five races at Ford Field, but Cooper Webb has a red plate after a wild night in Indianapolis.

The Pontiac Silverdome held the first Supercross race in Detroit, where Marty Smith won the four-bike overall. He won two of these features on his way to the top rung. From 1976 to 2005, the Silverdome hosted 46 premier races, still ranked third of any venue behind Angel Stadium in Anaheim and the indoor track at Daytona International Speedway.

Ford Field has hosted Supercross since 2002, with nine more races added to the list.

Until last year, only one Detroit winner took the title until Tomac made them two last year. Tomac’s win last year was his 42nd, giving him sole possession of fifth place on that leaderboard.

Tomac has the last three wins at Ford Field, but as the series missed that spot in 2018 and 2020, they have drifted apart a bit. Last year’s win was part of an incredible five-fight win streak that started in Arlington, Texas and ended in Seattle.

Last year, Tomac was followed across the line by Malcolm Stewart and Justin Barcia.. Meanwhile, his two closest rivals in the 2023 championship were on hiatus, with Cooper Webb eight laps behind the pace in 20th and Chase Sexton finishing 22nd.

At Indy, on a heavily battered track, Hunter Lawrence took his ninth win of 250, placing him 22nd on the all-time win list. If he wins this week in Detroit, he’ll tie with his brother Jett Lawrence and move up to 17th.

Nate Thrasher also achieved double figures in Indy. Having finished second, he is now in the top five in the 250 class with 23 starts. It is noteworthy that 17 of his attempts were in the top 10.

Last week’s third-place finisher, Jordon Smith, might have had something to say about Lawrence’s victory. In 2017, he took first place in this race and is Detroit’s only winner in this area.

Duplicating stats from the 450 class, only two 250 Ford Field winners have claimed the championship, and like in the senior division, Jett Lawrence joined Tomac last year.

Last five Indianapolis winners

450 s
2022: Eli Tomac
2019: Eli Tomac
2017: Eli Tomac
2016: Jason Anderson
2015: Eli Tomac

250 s
2022: Jett Lawrence
2019: Austin Forkner
2017: Jordon Smith
2016: Malcolm Stewart
2015: Justin Bogle

By numbers

Indianapolis
daytona
Arlington
Auckland
Tampa
Houston
Anaheim 2
San Diego

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