With Sebring potentially set to open the rescheduled Season 9 of the FIA World Endurance Championship, now is perhaps fitting to look back at the very first time the Florida circuit hosted an opening round of the WEC.
Held in March 2012, the Twelve Hours of Sebring was the curtain raiser for the newly created World Endurance Championship and was held in conjuction with the American Le Mans Series. The race was won by the newly introduced Audi R18 TDI, driven by the trio of Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello, while AF Corse took the first GTE Pro victory.
Audi led the way into a new era of international sportscar racing 
BMW Team RLL battling with Aston Martin. The #56 would go on to win the ALMS GT class, while Aston Martin came third in GTE Pro 
Rebellion was there for WEC’s first race, entering a pair of Toyota-powered Lolas but missing out on the podium 
Aston Martin entered a single Vantage in GTE Pro for Stefan Mucke, Darren Turner and Adrian Fernandez 
David Brabham, Karun Chandhok and Peter Dumbreck partnered up in the debuting HPD ARX-03a 
The #4 Corvette en route to a podium finish in the ALMS GT class 
The lone factory Vantage chased by BMW and a star-studded GTE Pro Porsche from Proton 
Bernhard, Dumas and Duval would finish second overall, four laps down 
Andrea Bertolini, Olivier Beretta and Marco Cioci won the first ever GTE Pro race in WEC history for AF Corse 
The two factory ALMS Corvettes split by one of Larbre’s GTE Am WEC entries 
Gulf Racing Middle East entered two Lolas, but neither fared particularly well 
Future Indy 500 winner Simon Pagenaud raced in LMP1, but would not see the chequered flag 
Pushing track limits has always been a dangerous game at Sebring 
Long time partners and current WEC racers Chris Dyson and Guy Smith took the P1 victory in ALMS 
ALMS’ PC class provided plenty of entries 
Capello, Kristensen and McNish en route to WEC win #1 
The headline pretty much says it all…
