2020 Cadillac Grand Prix of Sebring

Track map of Sebring International Raceway

The 2020 Cadillac Grand Prix of Sebring was a sports car race sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). The race was held at Sebring International Raceway in Sebring, Florida on July 18, 2020. This race was the third round of the 2020 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and the second round of the 2020 WeatherTech Sprint Cup.

The race was won by the #31 team of Pipo Derani and Felipe Nasr, while the LMP2 class victory was taken by Patrick Kelly and Spencer Pigot, who were awarded the win after the #81 entry was disqualified for failing to meet drive time limits. The GTLM class was won by the #4 entry for Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin, while Jack Hawksworth and Aaron Telitz secured their second consecutive class victory in GTD. ^[1]

Background

Sebring International Raceway, where the race was held.

The race was just the second for the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship after returning from the pandemic-induced hiatus. The race was added to the schedule in May due to said pandemic, becoming the second race of the season at Sebring alongside the rescheduled 12-hour race. ^[2] Similarly to the previous round at Daytona, a limited number of fans were announced to be allowed into the track for the event. In late June, Cadillac was announced as the title sponsor of the event. ^[3] The race marked the beginning of the LMP2 overall championship, as their only previous race (the 24 Hours of Daytona) counted for the Michelin Endurance Cup exclusively. Similarly, the GTD class only scored points towards the WeatherTech Sprint Cup in this race, not the overall GTD championship. ^[4]

On July 10, 2020, IMSA released the latest technical bulletin regarding Balance of Performance for the race. However, no changes were made to any cars taking part in the event. ^[5]

Before the race, Oliver Jarvis and Tristan Nunez led the DPi Drivers' Championship with 64 points, ahead of Ryan Briscoe and Renger van der Zande, and Jonathan Bomarito and Harry Tincknell with 60 points. ^[6] Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor led the GTLM Drivers' Championship with 64 points, ahead of Antonio García and Jordan Taylor with 63 points. ^[6] In GTD, Jack Hawksworth led the GTD Drivers' Championship with 57 points, ahead of Aaron Telitz with 54 points. Cadillac, BMW, and Lamborghini were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Mazda Motorsports, Porsche GT Team, and AIM Vasser Sullivan each led their own Teams' Championships. ^[6] LMP2 drivers and teams would be scoring their first championship points of the season due to the 24 Hours of Daytona only counting towards the Michelin Endurance Cup championship.

Entries

Further information: 2020 IMSA SportsCar Championship § Entries

A total of 29 cars took part in the event, up from 26 cars in the previous round, thanks in part to the inclusion of the LMP2 class which was absent from the Daytona race. ^[7] There were 8 cars in the DPi class, 8 cars in the LMP2 class, 6 cars in the GTLM class, and 10 cars in the GTD class. The DPi field was unchanged in terms of entries from the previous event, although Felipe Nasr returned after missing the previous race due to testing positive for COVID-19. Stephen Simpson also replaced Chris Miller in the #85. Patrick Kelly replaced Simon Trummer in the #52 due to travel restrictions, and Gustavo Menezes was announced to run in the #81, making his first IMSA start since 2018. The two Meyer Shank Racing Acuras were absent from the event due to the round only scoring points towards the WeatherTech Sprint Cup. ^[8]

Practice

There were two practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, one on Friday and one on Saturday morning. The first session on Friday night lasted one hour and the second on Saturday morning lasted 75 minutes. ^[9]

Practice 1

The first practice session took place at 6:00 pm ET on Friday and ended with Renger van der Zande topping the charts for Konica Minolta Cadillac, with a lap time of 1:51.152. ^[10] Gustavo Menezes set the fastest time in LMP2. ^[11] The GTLM class was topped by the #912 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Laurens Vanthoor with a time of 1:59.501. Jordan Taylor in the #3 Corvette Racing entry was second and Oliver Gavin rounded out the top 3. ^[12] The GTD class was topped by the #76 Compass Racing McLaren 720S GT3 of Paul Holton with a time of 2:06.012. ^[13]

Pos.	Class	No.	Team	Driver	Time	Gap
1	DPi	10	Konica Minolta Cadillac	Renger van der Zande	1:51.152	_
2	DPi	85	JDC-Miller MotorSports	Stephen Simpson	1:51.368	+0.216
3	DPi	31	Whelen Engineering Racing	Pipo Derani	1:52.596	+1.444
Sources: [14] [15]

Practice 2

The second and final practice session took place at 10:00 am ET on Saturday and ended with Pipo Derani topping the charts for Whelen Engineering Racing, with a lap time of 1:46.940. ^[16] Gustavo Menezes set the fastest time in LMP2. ^[17] Frédéric Makowiecki set the fastest time in GTLM with a time of 1:56.754. ^[18] The GTD class was topped by the #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 of Toni Vilander with a time of 2:02.358. ^[19]

Pos.	Class	No.	Team	Driver	Time	Gap
1	DPi	31	Whelen Engineering Racing	Pipo Derani	1:46.940	_
2	DPi	5	JDC-Mustang Sampling Racing	Sébastien Bourdais	1:47.212	+0.272
3	DPi	7	Acura Team Penske	Hélio Castroneves	1:47.348	+0.408
Sources: [20] [21]

Qualifying

Pipo Derani (pictured in 2019) took the overall pole position for Whelen Engineering Racing.

Saturday's afternoon qualifying was broken into three sessions, with one session for the DPi and LMP2, GTLM, and GTD classes, which lasted for 15 minutes each, and a ten minute interval between the sessions. ^[9] The rules dictated that all teams nominated a driver to qualify their cars, with the Pro-Am (LMP2/GTD) classes requiring a Bronze/Silver Rated Driver to qualify the car. The competitors' fastest lap times determined the starting order. IMSA then arranged the grid to put DPis ahead of the LMP2, GTLM, and GTD cars. ^[22]

The first was for cars in GTD class. Frankie Montecalvo qualified on pole for the class driving the #12 car for AIM Vasser Sullivan. ^[23]

The second session was for cars in the GTLM class. Jordan Taylor qualified on pole driving the #3 car for Corvette Racing, beating Oliver Gavin the sister #4 Corvette Racing entry by over three tenths of a second. ^[24]

The final session of qualifying was for cars in the LMP2 and DPi classes. Pipo Derani qualified on pole driving the #31 car for Whelen Engineering Racing, beating Juan Pablo Montoya in the #6 Acura Team Penske by over two tenths of a second. ^[25] Patrick Kelly set the fastest time in LMP2 driving the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports car. ^[24]

Qualifying results

Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by ‡.

Pos.	Class	No.	Team	Driver	Time	Gap	Grid
1	DPi	31	Whelen Engineering Racing	Pipo Derani	1:46.733	_	1‡
2	DPi	6	Acura Team Penske	Juan Pablo Montoya	1:46.949	+0.216	2
3	DPi	10	Konica Minolta Cadillac	Renger van der Zande	1:47.110	+0.377	3
4	DPi	77	Mazda Motorsports	Tristan Nunez	1:47.200	+0.467	4
5	DPi	5	JDC-Mustang Sampling Racing	Sébastien Bourdais	1:47.276	+0.543	5
6	DPi	7	Acura Team Penske	Hélio Castroneves	1:47.425	+0.692	6
7	DPi	85	JDC-Miller MotorSports	Stephen Simpson	1:47.824	+1.091	7
8	DPi	55	Mazda Motorsports	Jonathan Bomarito	1:47.856	+1.123	8
9	LMP2	52	PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports	Patrick Kelly	1:51.526	+4.793	9‡
10	LMP2	81	DragonSpeed USA	Henrik Hedman	1:52.085	+5.352	10
11	LMP2	38	Performance Tech Motorsports	Cameron Cassels	1:52.681	+5.948	11
12	LMP2	8	Tower Motorsports by Starworks	John Farano	1:54.938	+8.205	13 1
13	LMP2	18	Era Motorsport	Dwight Merriman	1:55.012	+8.279	12
14	GTLM	3	Corvette Racing	Jordan Taylor	1:55.634	+8.901	14‡
15	GTLM	4	Corvette Racing	Oliver Gavin	1:56.015	+9.282	15
16	GTLM	911	Porsche GT Team	Frédéric Makowiecki	1:56.079	+9.346	16
17	GTLM	912	Porsche GT Team	Laurens Vanthoor	1:56.398	+9.665	17
18	GTLM	24	BMW Team RLL	Jesse Krohn	1:56.620	+9.887	18
19	GTLM	25	BMW Team RLL	Bruno Spengler	1:56.909	+10.176	19
20	GTD	12	AIM Vasser Sullivan	Frankie Montecalvo	2:01.190	+14.457	20‡
21	GTD	14	AIM Vasser Sullivan	Aaron Telitz	2:01.257	+14.524	21
22	GTD	63	Scuderia Corsa	Cooper MacNeil	2:02.069	+15.336	22
23	GTD	96	Turner Motorsport	Robby Foley	2:02.098	+15.365	23
24	GTD	76	Compass Racing	Corey Fergus	2:02.203	+15.470	24
25	GTD	74	Riley Motorsports	Gar Robinson	2:02.371	+15.638	25
26	GTD	16	Wright Motorsports	Ryan Hardwick	2:02.729	+15.996	26
27	GTD	22	Gradient Racing	Till Bechtolsheimer	2:03.227	+16.494	27
28	GTD	30	Team Hardpoint	Robert Ferriol	2:04.343	+17.610	28
29	GTD	44	GRT Magnus	John Potter	2:04.424	+17.691	29
Source: [26] [27]

• ¹ The No. 8 Tower Motorsport by Starworks entry was moved to the back of the LMP2 field as per Article 40.1.4 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires). ^[22]

Race

Post-race

In DPi, Briscoe and van der Zande moved to first after being second coming into Sebring. Jarvis and Nunez dropped from first to second while Derani advanced from seventh to fifth. ^[28] Since it was the season's first points paying race, Kelly and Pigot led the LMP2 Drivers' Championship with 35 points. ^[28] As a result of winning the race, Gavin and Milner advanced from sixth to fourth in the GTLM Drivers' Championship. Jordan Taylor and Antonio García moved to first after being second coming into Sebring while Bamber and Vanthoor dropped from first to second. ^[28] GTD drivers, teams, and manufactures did not score full season points due to the event only counting towards the WeatherTech Sprint Cup. Cadillac kept their advantage in the DPi Manufactures' Championship while Chevrolet took the lead of the GTLM Manufactures' Championship. ^[28] Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R and Corvette Racing took the lead of their respective Teams' Championships while PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports became the leaders of the LMP2 Teams' Championship with eight rounds remaining. ^[28]

Results

Class winners are denoted in bold and ‡.

Pos	Class	No.	Team	Drivers	Chassis	Laps	Time/retired
					Engine
1	DPi	31	Whelen Engineering Racing	Felipe Nasr Pipo Derani	Cadillac DPi-V.R	83	2:40:36.181‡
					Cadillac 5.5L V8
2	DPi	10	Konica Minolta Cadillac	Renger van der Zande Ryan Briscoe	Cadillac DPi-V.R	83	+36.432
					Cadillac 5.5L V8
3	DPi	5	JDC-Mustang Sampling Racing	João Barbosa Sébastien Bourdais	Cadillac DPi-V.R	83	+56.144
					Cadillac 5.5L V8
4	DPi	77	Mazda Motorsports	Oliver Jarvis Tristan Nunez	Mazda RT24-P	83	+56.632
					Mazda MZ-2.0T 2.0L Turbo I4
5	DPi	55	Mazda Motorsports	Jonathan Bomarito Harry Tincknell	Mazda RT24-P	83	+1:27.300
					Mazda MZ-2.0T 2.0L Turbo I4
6	DPi	6	Acura Team Penske	Dane Cameron Juan Pablo Montoya	Acura ARX-05	83	+1:29.280
					Acura AR35TT 3.5L Turbo V6
7	DPi	7	Acura Team Penske	Hélio Castroneves Ricky Taylor	Acura ARX-05	83	+1:30.667
					Acura AR35TT 3.5L Turbo V6
8	DPi	85	JDC-Miller MotorSports	Stephen Simpson Tristan Vautier	Cadillac DPi-V.R	82	+1 Lap
					Cadillac 5.5L V8
9	LMP2	52	PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports	Patrick Kelly Spencer Pigot	Oreca 07	81	+2 Laps‡
					Gibson GK428 V8
10	LMP2	38	Performance Tech Motorsports	Cameron Cassels Kyle Masson	Oreca 07	80	+3 Laps
					Gibson GK428 V8
11	LMP2	18	Era Motorsports	Dwight Merriman Kyle Tilley	Oreca 07	80	+3 Laps
					Gibson GK428 V8
12	GTLM	4	Corvette Racing	Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	77	+6 Laps‡
					Chevrolet 5.5L V8
13	GTLM	3	Corvette Racing	Antonio García Jordan Taylor	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	77	+6 Laps
					Chevrolet 5.5L V8
14	GTLM	912	Porsche GT Team	Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche 911 RSR-19	77	+6 Laps
					Porsche 4.2L Flat-6
15	GTLM	25	BMW Team RLL	Bruno Spengler Connor De Phillippi	BMW M8 GTE	77	+6 Laps
					BMW S63 4.0L Turbo V8
16	GTLM	24	BMW Team RLL	Jesse Krohn John Edwards	BMW M8 GTE	77	+6 Laps
					BMW S63 4.0L Turbo V8
17	GTLM	911	Porsche GT Team	Nick Tandy Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 911 RSR-19	77	+6 Laps
					Porsche 4.2L Flat-6
18	GTD	14	AIM Vasser Sullivan	Aaron Telitz Jack Hawksworth	Lexus RC F GT3	75	+8 Laps‡
					Lexus 5.0L V8
19	GTD	63	Scuderia Corsa	Cooper MacNeil Toni Vilander	Ferrari 488 GT3	75	+8 Laps
					Ferrari F154CB 3.9L Turbo V8
20	GTD	96	Turner Motorsport	Robby Foley Bill Auberlen	BMW M6 GT3	75	+8 Laps
					BMW 4.4L Turbo V8
21	GTD	74	Riley Motorsport	Gar Robinson Lawson Aschenbach	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	75	+8 Laps
					Mercedes-AMG M159 6.2L V8
22	GTD	12	AIM Vasser Sullivan	Frankie Montecalvo Townsend Bell	Lexus RC F GT3	75	+8 Laps
					Lexus 5.0L V8
23	GTD	76	Compass Racing	Corey Fergus Paul Holton	McLaren 720S GT3	74	+9 Laps
					McLaren M840T 4.0L Turbo V8
24	GTD	22	Gradient Racing	Till Bechtolsheimer Marc Miller	Acura NSX GT3 Evo	74	+9 Laps
					Acura 3.5L Turbo V6
25	GTD	30	Team Hardpoint	Rob Ferriol Spencer Pumpelly	Audi R8 LMS Evo	73	+10 Laps
					Audi 5.2L V10
26	GTD	16	Wright Motorsports	Ryan Hardwick Patrick Long	Porsche 911 GT3 R	71	+12 Laps
					Porsche 4.0L Flat-6
27	LMP2	8	Tower Motorsport by Starworks	John Farano Ryan Dalziel	Oreca 07	49	+34 Laps
					Gibson GK428 V8
28	LMP2	81	DragonSpeed USA	Henrik Hedman Gustavo Menezes	Oreca 07	81	Disqualified [N 1]
					Gibson GK428 V8
29 DNF	GTD	44	GRT Magnus Racing Team	John Potter Andy Lally	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	40	Differential
					Lamborghini 5.2L V10
Sources: [29] [30]

Notes

1. The No. 81 DragonSpeed Oreca was disqualified for failing to meet minimum drive time thresholds.

Standings after the race

DPi Drivers' Championship standings [28] Pos. +/– Driver Points 1 1 Ryan Briscoe Renger van der Zande 92 2 1 Oliver Jarvis Tristan Nunez 92 3 1 Sébastien Bourdais João Barbosa 90 4 1 Jonathan Bomarito Harry Tincknell 86 5 2 Pipo Derani 85

LMP2 Drivers' Championship standings [28] Pos. Driver Points 1 Patrick Kelly Spencer Pigot 35 2 Cameron Cassels Kyle Masson 32 3 Dwight Merriman Kyle Tilley 30 4 John Farano Ryan Dalziel 28 5 Henrik Hedman Gustavo Menezes 26

GTLM Drivers' Championship standings [28] Pos. +/– Driver Points 1 1 Antonio García Jordan Taylor 95 2 1 Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor 94 3 John Edwards Jesse Krohn 86 4 2 Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner 85 5 1 Frédéric Makowiecki Nick Tandy 85

GTD Drivers' Championship standings [28] Pos. +/– Driver Points 1 Jack Hawksworth 57‡ 2 Aaron Telitz 54‡ 3 Andy Lally John Potter 54‡ 4 Ryan Hardwick Patrick Long 52‡ 5 Townsend Bell Frankie Montecalvo 51‡

• ‡: Points count towards WeatherTech Sprint Cup championship only.
• Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.

DPi Teams' Championship standings [28] Pos. +/– Team Points 1 1 #10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R 92 2 1 #77 Mazda Motorsports 92 3 1 #5 Mustang Sampling Racing / JDC-Miller MotorSports 90 4 1 #55 Mazda Motorsports 86 5 2 #31 Whelen Engineering Racing 85

LMP2 Teams' Championship standings [28] Pos. Team Points 1 #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports 35 2 #38 Performance Tech Motorsports 32 3 #18 Era Motorsport 30 4 #8 Tower Motorsport by Starworks 28 5 #81 DragonSpeed USA 26

GTLM Teams' Championship standings [28] Pos. +/– Team Points 1 1 #3 Corvette Racing 95 2 1 #912 Porsche GT Team 94 3 #24 BMW Team RLL 86 4 2 #4 Corvette Racing 85 5 1 #911 Porsche GT Team 85

GTD Teams' Championship standings [28] Pos. +/– Team Points 1 #14 AIM Vasser Sullivan 57‡ 2 #44 GRT Magnus 54‡ 3 #16 Wright Motorsports 52 4 #12 AIM Vasser Sullivan 51‡ 5 #86 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian 51‡

• ‡: Points count towards WeatherTech Sprint Cup championship only.
• Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.

DPi Manufacturers' Championship standings [28] Pos. +/– Manufacturer Points 1 Cadillac 102 2 Mazda 99 3 Acura 90

GTLM Manufacturers' Championship standings [28] Pos. +/– Manufacturer Points 1 1 Chevrolet 100 2 1 Porsche 96 3 2 BMW 95 4 Ferrari 28

GTD Manufacturers' Championship standings [28] Pos. +/– Manufacturer Points 1 Lamborghini 59‡ 2 Lexus 59‡ 3 Acura 57‡ 4 Porsche 56‡ 5 Ferrari 56‡

• ‡: Points count towards WeatherTech Sprint Cup championship only.
• Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.

References

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16. Dagys, John (July 18, 2020). "Derani Paces Practice 2 as Times Tumble at Sebring". sportscar365.com. Retrieved July 29, 2023.
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22. "2020 IMSA SPORTING REGULATIONS and SERIES SUPPLEMENTARY REGULATIONS" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on December 22, 2023. Retrieved December 26, 2023.
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External links

IMSA SportsCar Championship
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