Aitken Paces Opening Hour at Sebring

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Jack Aitken led the opening hour of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring from pole, although the field was reset following an early race full course caution.

Aitken, in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, took the restart with 58 minutes on the clock leading the No. 93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 of Renger van der Zande, who made up considerable ground in the pit lane.

Kevin Estre, who was pressuring Aitken for the lead prior to the caution, for debris in Turn 5 with 40 minutes completed, dropped to third, with Tom Blomqvist and Sheldon van der Linde completing the top-five for MSR and BMW Team WRT, respectively.

PJ Hyett assumed the lead in LMP2 after setbacks for several of his competitors.

Hyett got out ahead of the class pole-sitting No. 52 Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen Oreca 07 Gibson of Misha Goikhberg.

It came after at least three incidents during green flag running by other LMP2 cars, including a spin by Jon Field, who had contact from the No. 18 Era Motorsport Oreca of Naveen Rao.

Rao was served with a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility, and later went off course in Turn 6 on his own.

Daniel Goldburg in the No. 22 United Autosports entry also had a spin, while George Kurtz missed his pit box during the yellow pit stop sequence.

The sister No. 2 United entry of Phil Fayer, meanwhile, was handed a two pit lane penalties, along with an improperly serviced emergency service stop for Kurtz that resulted in a stop plus ten-second penalty.

John Farano, meanwhile, spun his No. 8 Tower Motorsport Oreca twice on the restart.

Quick pit work by Manthey Racing put Ricardo Feller out front in the No. 911 Porsche 911 GT3 R after pole-sitter Jack Hawksworth led the way in the opening stanza.

Kyle Kirkwood, who replaced Hawksworth in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, ran second, with Dean MacDonald third in the RLL McLaren 720S GT3 Evo.

The No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of newly installed Simon Mann led GTD after co-driver Antonio Fuoco passed class pole-sitter Eduardo Barrichello for the class lead prior to the yellow.

Winward Racing’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Philip Ellis lost considerable time in the pits as the team had to re-align the car in order for the fuel hose to reach to the GTD-contending car.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John