Cadillac Leads IMSA GTP Grid Into Sebring Endurance War

STARTING LINEUP

Cadillac will lead the field to green for the 74th running of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, but the tone of the weekend in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s headline Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class has already been set by a fierce, multi-manufacturer fight that promises to define Saturday’s endurance classic.

The defending race-winning Porsches showed early speed in practice at Sebring International Raceway’s notoriously bumpy 3.74-mile circuit, yet it was Jack Aitken who delivered when it mattered most. The Cadillac Whelen driver put the No. 31 Cadillac V-Series.R on pole with a lap of 1 minute, 46.153 seconds (126.835 mph), earning his third career Motul Pole Award and the 21st for Action Express Racing.

For Aitken, the moment carried a hint of redemption. He was fastest in qualifying for January’s Rolex 24 At Daytona, only to be sent to the rear of the field after a post-qualifying technical violation. This time, there was no such drama — only clean execution and the opportunity to lead the 11-car GTP field and full 55-car grid to the green flag.

When asked about the Daytona setback, Aitken smiled and suggested the team’s qualifying efforts this season still count as “a pole and a half.”

“I think it’s going to be fairly inconsequential,” Aitken conceded of starting up front in the historically competitive round-the-clock Sebring event, where he captured his first IMSA victory in 2023. “But it’s lovely to be on pole. It’s nice to show how the team is working, putting out a good car, to get the bragging rights on some points.

“At the end of the day, we started last in ’25 because of an issue, and we were into the lead in less than two hours with the help of yellows and stuff. It’s kind of neither here nor there. We saw a lot of cars further down the grid were very quick in night practice and over longer runs yesterday.

“Fully expect they’re going to make their way through,” he added, referring to the Porsche contingent.

The 15-minute qualifying session was as intense as expected in the ultra-competitive prototype category, with the lead changing more than half a dozen times. Tom Blomqvist ultimately secured the front-row starting spot alongside Aitken in the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06, just 0.109 seconds adrift. Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing’s Filipe Albuquerque qualified third, sharing the second row with the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963.

Meanwhile, the defending race-winning No. 7 Porsche will roll off sixth — a reminder that starting position often tells only part of the story in a 12-hour contest where traffic, strategy and nightfall routinely reshuffle the order.

“Definitely we’re aware of how strong some of the other cars are,” Aitken said. “They don’t show any signs of dropping out of the fight. If anything, they tend to somehow get quicker as the weekend goes on. I’m not taking much stock from what we’ve just seen in qualifying.

“I believe they’ll be right there from quite early in the race. We’ve got some homework to do still to find what we need to win this thing. That’s all we can do.”

While the spotlight remains firmly on the GTP showdown, qualifying in the production-based GTD PRO category also produced a headline performance. Jack Hawksworth broke his own Sebring GT qualifying record to claim pole in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3, circling the circuit in 1:58.480 (113.639 mph). Rolex 24 class winner Neil Verhagen will start alongside in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO.

“It was a clean lap; there were no errors or mistakes, and I was pretty happy with it,” Hawksworth said. “It’s not as if it was lairy or flashy or anything like that. I was just able to get every corner 99 percent right. The car was phenomenal, and there’s no better place to start than at the front.

“Track records are always nice, and it’s super cool to be starting my 100th race with Lexus from the pole,” he continued. “But I still put race wins above poles, so let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”

Elsewhere, Misha Goikhberg earned his first IMSA pole in LMP2, while Eduardo “Dudu” Barrichello secured his maiden series pole in the GTD class in his first qualifying appearance.

In total, 55 cars across four classes will take the green flag at 10:10 a.m. ET Saturday for one of endurance racing’s most demanding tests — a race where early pace in the GTP ranks suggests the battle for overall honors could be as bruising as Sebring’s concrete surface itself.

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