Connect with us

IMSA

‘Super Sebring’ Delivers All-Time Track Attendance Record

Ticket sales, camping at Sebring increases by more than 40 percent this year…

Photo: IMSA

Last weekend’s 67th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring has been deemed a tremendous success both on and off the racetrack by IMSA.

The four-day event, billed as ‘Super Sebring’ with the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge’s Alan Jay 120, the one-hour, 45-minute IMSA Prototype Challenge race and the addition of Friday’s inaugural 1,000 Miles of Sebring FIA World Endurance Championship race set an all-time Sebring International Raceway attendance record.

Track officials have not released specific attendance numbers since the facility’s acquisition by IMSA in 2012.

Ticket sales and camping, meanwhile, increased by more than 40 percent from 2018 to 2019.

Event merchandise sales reached unprecedented levels this year, more than double what was considered an impressive sales figure in 2018.

U.S. television viewership of the Twelve Hours of Sebring on CNBC and NBCSN saw a 46 percent increase over 2018.

On the track, three of the four classes in the Twelve Hours saw margins of victory under three seconds.

That included an all-time record margin of victory overall of 1.030 seconds by the winning No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R of Felipe Nasr, Pipo Derani and Eric Curran over the second-place No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi co-driven by Jordan Taylor, Renger van der Zande and Matthieu Vaxiviere.

“We could not be prouder of what we collectively accomplished last weekend at Sebring,” said IMSA President Scott Atherton.

“Two world-class endurance sports car races were flawlessly organized and executed, garnering rave reviews from fans, media, competitors and stakeholders.

“After 12 hours of intense racing, much of it occurring in challenging wet conditions, the margin of victory was just one second. The bottom line is, I am not aware of any other motorsports event that has generated this level of record-setting performance and year-over-year growth.”

Both Atherton and WEC CEO Gerard Neveu have given strong indications that the event will continue next year, although is awaiting final confirmation.

The latest news, photos and video features from the trusted Sportscar365 web staff.

Click to comment
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

More in IMSA