An incident-filled night practice closed out a busy Thursday at the iconic Sebring International Raceway for the IMSA side of the Super Sebring Weekend. The #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac topped the time sheets with a fastest lap of 1:48.820 ahead of tomorrow mornings qualifying for Saturday’s 12 hours of Sebring.
Almost right as the green flag came up, the red flag came out to stop the session after the #92 Kelly-Moss GTD entry found its way into the turn three tire barriers. The car was not seriously damaged so once it was recovered, it was able to continue turning laps in the session.
With its first appearance still fresh in the mind, the red flag once again flew, but this time for the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura. The #60 has had a rollercoaster of a Sebring weekend and its FP3 was cut short after mechanical issues stopped Colin Braun on track twice in one lap.
The session resumed but then was shortly stopped for the third time following a rouge right front tire coming off the #66 Gradient Racing Acura with Marc Miller behind the sticks.
With a little over half an hour left in the session, the red flag once again flew through the hot Florida air, this time for the other Acura GTP effort. The #10 Wayne Taylor Racing entry stopped on track in an incredibly similar fashion to its sister car the #60. With Filipe Albuquerque in the cockpit, the runner-up from the Rolex 24 parked it at turn three after a mechanical issue.
Near the sharp end of the session, the Kelly-Moss Racing team’s weekend did not get much better. The #91 Kelly-Moss machine took a massive shunt with Kay van Berlo on the sticks into the sunset corner. The Porsche made heavy contact with the tire barrier and put a question mark on the state of the car and its ability to run for the rest of the weekend. Van Berlo walked away unscathed but made FP3 a session to forget for the Wisconsin-based Kelly-Moss outfit.
With three minutes left, the green flag came out once more and final flying laps began. The #10 Wayne Taylor machine was able to get back on track and ran third behind the second-place #6 Porsche Penske car.
The #35 TDS Racing topped LMP2 with a 1:51.54, and on top of LMP3 stood the #30 Jr III Racing machine with a 1:56.59. In the GT ranks, the #3 Corvette factory effort lead the GT field and the GTD Pro grid with a 2:01.29. In GTD, the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes lead close behind the #3 with a 2:01.36 to top the class.
Qualifying for the IMSA 12 hours of Sebring kicks off at 9:15 EST tomorrow morning before the WEC 1000 Miles of Sebring, which goes green at 12pm EST.
