GTP Anticipation Reaches to Highest Levels as Rolex 24 Approaches
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Whelen Cadillac Wins Wild Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring
March 20, 2023
March 17, 2023
Brazilian Leads 1-2 Sweep Cadillac Sweep as he Goes for Fourth Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Victory
By Holly Cain
SEBRING, Fla. – Pipo Derani continued an impressive streak of front row starting positions at the historic Sebring International Raceway, earning the Motul Pole Award Friday for Saturday’s 71st Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring with fast a lap of 1:45.836 around the 3.74-mile Sebring circuit.
Derani’s effort in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing V-Series.R GTP entry was a slight .087-seconds faster than fellow Cadillac driver Sebastien Bourdais’s quick lap in the No. 01 Cadillac Racing car fielded by Chip Ganassi Racing. It marks the third consecutive year the three-time Sebring winner Derani will start the renowned IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race from the front row at Sebring. He also won pole in 2021 and was on the outside pole last year.
Despite the introduction of the GTP cars to Sebring this year, Derani said his Cadillac has been fast all week.
“I think first of all, we’ve been having a fantastic week so far,’’ Derani said. “Pretty much we rolled out on the track with a very competitive car, so the changes have been pretty small from practice to practice therefore we keep evolving quicker than if we were trying to find bigger lap times.
“(It was) a very competitive qualifying session. I think we came from Daytona a little behind some of our competitors but we’ve been able to work really hard together between Action Express and Ganassi to continue to develop the Cadillac and it’s normally a strong track for Cadillac.’’
The eight-car GTP qualifying session – the first in IMSA’s hybrid-powered class history at the historic Sebring track – was cut short by about five minutes after Matt Campbell in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports Porsche 963 had a hard impact in the Turn 1 wall. Several other cars were on track to post their fast laps in the closing minutes of the session but did not get the chance because of the red flag.
After leading most of the session, Ricky Taylor ended up third fastest in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06, followed by the No. 6 Penske Porsche.
Derani said he was optimistic his lap would have held up should the session have continued, however.
“I was confident with the lap,’’ Derani said. “I think comparing to WEC (1000 Miles of Sebring race), it’s more or less where we needed to be. Perhaps someone could have gone a little bit quicker, perhaps not, but I knew I extracted what I could from the car at that moment and if someone went quicker, they would have done a good job.’’
The season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona-winning No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 will start fifth, alongside the BMW M Team RLL’s BMW M Hybrid V8.
The No. 7 Porsche Penske car that ended the qualifying session had turned the seventh fastest lap before the incident. The team was still examining the damage after the qualifying session. The No. 25 BMW M Team RLL car will roll off eighth.
Despite the unique challenges that the Sebring circuit presents the new prototypes, there was a lot of optimism and high expectations for the race from teams and drivers.
“I think Daytona we came with a bigger question mark because it was a 24-hour race,’’ Derani allowed. “Here you are evolving and learning and improving on the car. Sebring is only a 12-hour race but is so demanding on the machine itself because of the nature of the track.
“But it’s always good to be back at Sebring,’’ Derani said with a smile. “It’s a place that I really enjoy. Being on pole doesn’t mean much for the race, but for us as a team coming from a difficult 2022, it means a lot that we were able to get back on track and show the potential we have as a team.’’
