SEBRING, Fla.—The Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring has been red-flagged due to lightning after just under three hours of racing.
The race started in dry conditions but a weather system moved in ninety minutes after the start, growing increasingly severe until driving became impossible. After three cautions due to cars sliding off the wet track, the race was red-flagged.
The rain was accompanied by lightning; track officials had to order fans to evacuate the metal stands for their own safety.
There were a total four caution periods in the three hours of racing. The first came before the rain, when At 11:36 am (55m) Bill Sweedler in the#11 Change Racing GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 stopped in Turn Ten with mechanical problems.
The same car was responsible for the second caution. Shortly after the rain started, Townsend Bell in the #11 Change Racing Lamborghini slid off the track at Turn 17.
The rain eased up, race officials sent out a dryer truck and the race resumed after 31 minutes.
Ten minutes later Andrea Bertolini in the #68 Scuderia Corsa GTLM Ferrari F488 GTE stopped on track at Turn Ten. His car was retrieved and the race resumed after an eight-minute caution.
The next stretch of racing lasted 16 minutes, then Dirk Müller’s #66 GTM Ford GT slid into the tires at Turn One. The race was red-flagged after this caution.
Most cars pitted for wet-weather tires after the second caution. The two Action Express cars, the #5 Coyote-Corvette of Christian Fittipaldi and the #31 Coyote-Corvette of Dane Cameron got back on track ahead of Oswaldo Negri in the #60 Shank Racing Ligier-Honda.
When the red flag wavewd the running order in the Prototype calss was the #5 AXR, the #31 AXR, followed by Jordan Taylor in the #10 WTR Dallara-Corvette.
In GT-Le Mans the Porsche North America 911 RSRs ran 1–2, with Nick Tandy in the #911 leading Earl Bamber in the #912.
Stephen Simpson in the #85 JDC-Miller Oreca FLM 09 led Prototype Challenge and Mario Farnbacher in the Team Seattle/AJR Porsche 911 GT3 R led GT Daytona.
The race will resume as soon as weather permits.
