The 64th Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh from Florida was an endurance sports car racing event held at Sebring International Raceway near Sebring, Florida, from 16 to 19 March 2016. The event was the second round of the 2016 IMSA SportsCar Championship, as well as the second round of the North American Endurance Cup. It was the final time that the original Daytona Prototypes participated in the race, as, for 2017, they were replaced with the new DPi cars.

The race was won by Tequila Patrón ESM's Honda HPD-Ligier JS P2 driven by Scott Sharp, Johannes van Overbeek, Ed Brown, and Pipo Derani after completing a pass for the lead in the final moments of the race. It was the first overall 12 Hours of Sebring win for both ESM and Honda. The Prototype Challenge class was won by the No. 54 CORE Autosport entry driven by Colin Braun, Mark Wilkins, and Jon Bennett. GT Le Mans was won by the No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R from Corvette Racing, driven by Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner, and Marcel Fässler. The GT Daytona class was won by the No. 63 Ferrari 488 GT3 from Scuderia Corsa, driven by Christina Nielsen, Alessandro Balzan, and Jeff Segal. The race saw a stoppage of roughly two hours and 15 minutes due to heavy rain and lightning just before the halfway-point of the event.

Background

International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) president Scott Atherton confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2016 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in August 2015. It was the third consecutive year the event was held as part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and the 64th 12 Hours of Sebring. The 12 Hours of Sebring was the second of twelve scheduled automobile endurance races of 2016 by IMSA, and the second in the four round North American Endurance Cup (NAEC). It was held at the 17-turn, Sebring International Raceway in Sebring, Florida on March 19, 2016.

Before the race, Ed Brown, Pipo Derani, Johannes van Overbeek, and Scott Sharp were leading the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 36 points. With 36 points, Misha Goikhberg, Kenton Koch, Chris Miller, and Stephen Simpson led the PC Drivers' Championship. GTLM was led by Marcel Fässler, Oliver Gavin, and Tommy Milner with a three-point advantage over Antonio García, Jan Magnussen, and Mike Rockenfeller. In GTD, the Drivers' Championship was led by Andy Lally, John Potter, René Rast, and Marco Seefried with 36 points. Honda, Chevrolet, and Audi were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Tequila Patrón ESM, JDC-Miller MotorSports, Corvette Racing, Magnus Racing each led their own Teams' Championships.

Practice There were four practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, three on Thursday and one on Friday. The first two one-hour sessions were on Thursday morning and afternoon. The third held later that evening ran for 90 minutes; the fourth on Friday morning lasted an hour.

Practice 1 The first practice session took place at 10:00 am ET on Thursday and ended with Dane Cameron topping the charts for Action Express Racing, with a lap time of 1:52.447. ClassTeamDriverTime1P31Action Express RacingDane Cameron1:52.447_2P5Action Express RacingScott Pruett1:53.226 +0.7793P2Tequila Patrón ESMJohannes van Overbeek1:53.312 +0.865Source:

Practice 2 The second practice session took place at 2:25 pm ET on Thursday and ended with Christian Fittipaldi topping the charts for Action Express Racing, with a lap time of 1:53.850. ClassTeamDriverTime1P5Action Express RacingChristian Fittipaldi1:53.850_2P31Action Express RacingScott Pruett1:54.283 +0.4333P24Alegra MotorsportsDaniel Morad1:54.334 +0.484Source:

Night Practice The night practice session took place at 7:30 pm ET on Thursday and ended with Filipe Albuquerque topping the charts for Action Express Racing, with a lap time of 1:52.832. ClassTeamDriverTime1P5Action Express RacingFilipe Albuquerque1:52.832_2P55Mazda MotorsportsJonathan Bomarito1:53.882 +1.0503P10Wayne Taylor RacingJordan Taylor1:54.088 +1.256Source:

Final Practice The fourth and final practice session took place at 10:15 am ET on Friday and ended with Dane Cameron topping the charts for Action Express Racing, with a lap time of 1:52.135. ClassTeamDriverTime1P31Action Express RacingDane Cameron1:52.135_2P5Action Express RacingFilipe Albuquerque1:52.228 +0.0933P60Michael Shank Racing with Curb/AgajanianOlivier Pla1:53.067 +0.932Source:

Qualifying In Friday afternoon's 90-minute four-group qualifying, each category had separate 15-minute sessions. Regulations stipulated that teams nominate one qualifying driver, with the fastest laps determining each class' starting order. IMSA arranged the grid to put Prototypes ahead of the PC, GTLM and GTD cars.

Qualifying results Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by . All Prototype and Prototype Challenge cars were grouped together on the starting grid, regardless of qualifying position. ClassTeamDriverTime1P60 Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian Olivier Pla1:51.217_1 2P2 Tequila Patrón ESM Pipo Derani1:51.391 +0.17423P31 Action Express Racing Dane Cameron1:51.943 +0.72634P5 Action Express Racing Christian Fittipaldi1:52.205 +0.98845P55 Mazda Motorsports Tristan Nunez1:52.951 +1.73456P90 VisitFlorida Racing Marc Goossens1:53.185 +1.96867P70 Mazda Motorsports Tom Long1:53.513 +2.29678P10 Wayne Taylor Racing Rubens Barrichello1:53.576 +2.35989P81 DragonSpeed Nicolas Minassian1:54.171 +2.954910P24 Alegra Motorsports Daniel Morad1:54.193 +2.9761011P0 Panoz DeltaWing Racing Andy Meyrick1:54.274 +3.0571112PC54 CORE Autosport Colin Braun1:54.910+3.6931213PC52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Tom Kimber-Smith1:55.843 +4.6261314PC20 BAR1 Motorsports Johnny Mowlem1:56.661 +5.4441415PC38 Performance Tech Motorsports James French1:57.189 +5.9721516PC8 Starworks Motorsport Alex Popow1:57.241 +6.0241617P50 Highway to Help Jim Pace1:57.422 +6.2051718PC85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Misha Goikhberg1:57.630 +6.4131819PC88 Starworks Motorsport Sean Johnston1:58.218 +7.0011920GTLM25 BMW Team RLL Bill Auberlen 1:58.402+7.1852021GTLM100 BMW Team RLL John Edwards1:58.592 +7.3752122GTLM68 Scuderia Corsa Daniel Serra1:58.637 +7.4202223GTLM67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Richard Westbrook1:58.708 +7.4912324GTLM3 Corvette Racing Antonio García1:58.856 +7.6392425GTLM4 Corvette Racing Oliver Gavin1:58.878 +7.6612526GTLM911 Porsche North America Patrick Pilet1:59.009 +7.7922627GTLM62 Risi Competizione Toni Vilander1:59.020 +7.8032728GTLM66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Dirk Müller1:59.053 +7.8362829GTLM912 Porsche North America Frédéric Makowiecki1:59.170 +7.9532930GTD63 Scuderia Corsa Jeff Segal2:02.350+11.1333031GTD33 Riley Motorsports Jeroen Bleekemolen2:02.386 +11.1693132GTD96 Turner Motorsport Jens Klingmann2:02.660 +11.4433233GTD23 Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing Mario Farnbacher2:03.037 +11.8203334GTD22 Alex Job Racing Leh Keen2:03.241 +12.0243435GTD73 Park Place Motorsports Patrick Lindsey2:03.284 +12.0673536GTD51 Spirit of Race Raffaele Giammaria2:03.340 +12.1233637GTD16 Change Racing Spencer Pumpelly2:03.455 +12.2383738GTD97 Turner Motorsport Markus Palttala2:03.625 +12.4083839GTD21 Konrad Motorsport Christopher Zöchling2:03.822 +12.6053940GTD9 Stevenson Motorsports Lawson Aschenbach2:03.856 +12.6394041GTD11 Change Racing Townsend Bell2:03.861 +12.6444142GTD27 Dream Racing Fabio Babini2:03.933 +12.7164243GTD98 Aston Martin Racing Paul Dalla Lana2:04.204 +12.9874344GTD48 Paul Miller Racing Bryce Miller2:04.260 +13.0434445GTD28 Konrad Motorsport Christopher Brück2:04.302 +13.0854546GTD44 Magnus Racing John Potter2:04.857 +13.6404647GTD540 Black Swan Racing Tim Pappas2:07.095 +15.8784748GTD45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Tracy Krohn2:07.338 +16.1214849GTD6 Stevenson MotorsportsNo Time Established49Source:

Race

Start and early hours

Afternoon

Sunset to finish

Post-race

Race results Class winners are denoted in bold. P stands for Prototype, PC (Prototype Challenge), GTLM (Grand Touring Le Mans) and GTD (Grand Touring Daytona).

+Final race classificationClassTeamDriversChassisTireTime/Retired Engine 1 P 2 Tequila Patrón ESM Scott Sharp Ed Brown Johannes van Overbeek Pipo Derani Ligier JS P2 238 12:00:59.881 Honda HR35TT 3.5 L V6 Turbo 2 P 31 Action Express Racing Dane Cameron Eric Curran Scott Pruett Corvette Daytona Prototype 238 +2.926 Chevrolet 5.5 L V8 3 P 5 Action Express Racing João Barbosa Christian Fittipaldi Filipe Albuquerque Corvette Daytona Prototype 238 +3.940 Chevrolet 5.5 L V8 4 P 81 DragonSpeed Henrik Hedman Nicolas Lapierre Nicolas Minassian Oreca 05 238 +4.339 Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8 5 P 90 VisitFlorida Racing Marc Goossens Ryan Dalziel Ryan Hunter-Reay Corvette Daytona Prototype 238 +18.078 Chevrolet 5.5 L V8 6 P 55 Mazda Motorsports Jonathan Bomarito Tristan Nunez Spencer Pigot Mazda Prototype 238 +29.735 Mazda MZ2.0T 2.0 L I4 Turbo 7 DNF P 60 Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian John Pew Oswaldo Negri Jr. Olivier Pla Ligier JS P2 237 Rear Suspension Honda HR35TT 3.5 L V6 Turbo 8 P 70 Mazda Motorsports Tom Long Joel Miller Ben Devlin Keiko Ihara Mazda Prototype 237 +1 Lap Mazda MZ2.0T 2.0 L I4 Turbo 9 PC 54 CORE Autosport Jon Bennett Colin Braun Mark Wilkins Oreca FLM09 236 +2 Laps Chevrolet LS3 6.2 L V8 10 PC 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Tom Kimber-Smith José Gutiérrez Robert Alon Oreca FLM09 236 +2 Laps Chevrolet LS3 6.2 L V8 11 GTLM 4 Corvette Racing Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner Marcel Fässler Chevrolet Corvette C7.R 235 +3 Laps Chevrolet 5.5 L V8 12 GTLM 25 BMW Team RLL Bill Auberlen Dirk Werner Bruno Spengler BMW M6 GTLM 235 +3 Laps BMW 4.4 L Turbo V8 13 GTLM 912 Porsche North America Earl Bamber Frédéric Makowiecki Michael Christensen Porsche 911 RSR 235 +3 Laps Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6 14 GTLM 62 Risi Competizione Giancarlo Fisichella Toni Vilander Davide Rigon Ferrari 488 GTE 235 +3 Laps Ferrari F154CB 3.9 L Turbo V8 15 GTLM 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook Scott Dixon Ford GT 235 +3 Laps Ford 3.5 L EcoBoost V6 16 GTLM 100 BMW Team RLL John Edwards Lucas Luhr Kuno Wittmer BMW M6 GTLM 235 +3 Laps BMW 4.4 L Turbo V8 17 PC 8 Starworks Motorsport Alex Popow Renger van der Zande David Heinemeier Hansson Oreca FLM09 233 +5 Laps Chevrolet LS3 6.2 L V8 18 GTLM 68 Scuderia Corsa Alessandro Pier Guidi Daniel Serra Andrea Bertolini Ferrari 488 GTE 233 +5 Laps Ferrari F154CB 3.9 L Turbo V8 19 PC 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Misha Goikhberg Chris Miller Stephen Simpson Kenton Koch Oreca FLM09 232 +6 Laps Chevrolet LS3 6.2 L V8 20 PC 38 Performance Tech Motorsports James French Kyle Marcelli Josh Norman Oreca FLM09 231 +7 Laps Chevrolet LS3 6.2 L V8 21