Sebring 2000 12 hour race

Made its racing debut at Sebring 2000, the Cadillac Northstar LMP

First victory for Audi at Sebring. The second-placed R8 with starting number 77; here at the Goodwood Festival of Speed 2009

Had no chance against the manufacturer LMP racing car; the Lola B2K / 10

The 48th Sebring 12 Hours of Sebring , also The 48th Annual Superflo 12 Hours of Sebring presented by Dodge, Sebring International Raceway , took place on March 18, 2000 at the Sebring International Raceway and was the first race of the ALMS season 2000 .

Before the race

With the season of 2000 the American Le Mans Series entered its second year. The 1999 ALMS season had ended for the drivers with the overall victory of Elliot Forbes-Robinson (LMP and overall), Olivier Beretta (GTS) and Cort Wagner (GT). Panoz secured the overall ranking of manufacturers . As in the previous year, the race in Sebring was the first race of the season.

The race

Cadillac's entry into international motorsport generated great interest in the US media . The Cadillac Northstar LMP made its racing debut at Sebring. At General Motors , those responsible decided that, unlike the Corvette program, no completely new vehicles should be built in the first few years of competition. Instead, they started with an already established chassis and used their own engine. For this purpose, they turned to Riley & Scott and the designers of the successful Riley & Scott Mk III chassis. GM used the basic chassis of the MK III, but developed an independent body.

A heavily developed 650 bhp (478 kW) version of the Northstar engine was initially used by the GM racing department for the Indy Racing League from 1995; from 2000 he was employed in the Northstar LMP program. The two engines were 4.0 liter, but the version for Northstar LMP had two turbochargers. The engine for the Northstar LMP was based on a smaller 4.0 liter variant of the Northstar, which was used in Cadillac production vehicles, the code number L47 and was installed in the Oldsmobile Aurora . It was adapted to the requirements of racing in the Indy Racing League as early as 1995, but has now been carefully revised so that not only the maximum performance increased, but also stability. McLaren supported GM in the development of the new racing machine, and IHI supplied the two turbochargers, which should improve the power output.

In the race, the Cadillac cars had no chance against the LMP vehicles from Audi and BMW . Only the Panoz LMP-1 Roadster S , which was driven by David Brabham , Pierre-Henri Raphanel and Jan Magnussen and was even in the lead twice in the initial phase, was able to keep up with technical problems. Two Audi R8s and two BMW V12 LMRs fought a race-long duel for overall victory, which ended with an Audi one-two thanks to perfect pit stops.

Results

Final ranking

Item	class	No.	team	driver	vehicle	Round
1	LMP	78	Audi Sport North America	Frank Biela Tom Kristensen Emanuele Pirro	Audi R8	360
2	LMP	77	Audi Sport North America	Rinaldo Capello Allan McNish Michele Alboreto	Audi R8	360
3	LMP	42	BMW Motorsport	JJ Lehto Jörg Müller	BMW V12 LMR	359
4th	LMP	43	BMW Motorsport	Bill Auberlen Jean-Marc Gounon Steve Soper	BMW V12 LMR	358
5	LMP	27	Doran Lista Racing	Didier Theys Mauro Baldi Fredy Lienhard	Doran Special	337
6th	LMP	19th	Team Cadillac	Eric van de Poele Wayne Taylor Max Angelelli	Cadillac Northstar LMP	331
7th	GTS	91	Viper Team Oreca	Olivier Beretta Karl Wendlinger Dominique Dupuy	Dodge Viper GTS-R	327
8th	GTS	92	Viper Team Oreca	David Donohue Tommy Archer Marc Duez	Dodge Viper GTS-R	326
9	GTS	93	Viper Team Oreca	Jean-Philippe Belloc Ni Amorim Anthony Beltoise	Dodge Viper GTS-R	321
10	GT	5	Dick Barbour Racing	Dirk Müller Lucas Luhr	Porsche 911 GT3-R	313
11	GT	70	Skea Racing International	Johnny Mowlem David Murry	Porsche 911 GT3-R	308
12	GTS	33	Konrad Motorsport	Franz Konrad Charles Slater John Paul junior	Porsche 911 GT2	307
13	GT	03	Reiser Callas Racing	Craig Stanton Hurley Haywood Joel Reiser	Porsche 911 GT3-R	306
14th	GT	07	RWS Motorsport	Luca Riccitelli Philipp Peter Dieter Quester	Porsche 911 GT3-R	302
15th	GT	41	Team LR organization	Christophe Bouchut Angelo Zadra	Porsche 911 GT3-R	302
16	GTS	4th	Corvette Racing	Andy Pilgrim Kelly Collins Franck Fréon	Chevrolet Corvette C5-R	300
17th	GT	71	Skea Racing International	Grady Willingham Lloyd Hawkins Rohan Skea	Porsche 911 GT3-R	284
18th	GT	87	MCR Nygmatech	Ian James Tim Robertson João Barbosa	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	276
19th	GT	66	The Racers Group	Kevin Buckler Robert Nagel Mike Fitzgerald	Porsche 911 GT3-R	266
20th	GT	89	MCR Nygmatech	Dave Dullum James McCormick Kurt Baumann	Porsche 911 GT3-R	258
21st	LMP	37	Intersport Racing	Jon Field Dale Whittington Don Whittington	Lola B98 / 10	181
22nd	GT	88	MCR Nygmatech	Peter Baron Tony Kester Leo Hindery	Porsche 911 GT3-R	147
Failed
23	GT	51	Dick Barbour Racing	Sascha Maassen Bob Wollek	Porsche 911 GT3-R	251
24	LMP	1	Panoz Motor Sports	David Brabham Pierre-Henri Raphanel Jan Magnussen	Panoz LMP-1 Roadster S.	249
25th	GT	23	MCR Aspen Knolls	Shane Lewis Cort Wagner Bob Mazzuoccola	Porsche 911 GT3-R	229
26th	GTS	3	Corvette Racing	Ron Fellows Chris Kneifel Justin Bell	Chevrolet Corvette C5-R	201
27	LMP	38	Champion Racing	James Waever Dorsey Schroeder Ralf Kelleners	Lola B2K / 10	165
28	LMP	31	Motorola DAMS	Emmanuel Collard Éric Bernard	Cadillac Northstar LMP	163
29	GT	30th	White Lightning Racing	Rod McLeod Gunnar Jeannette Michael Lauer	Porsche 911 GT3-R	143
30th	GT	6th	Prototype Technology Group	Boris Said III Johannes van Overbeek Hans-Joachim Stuck	BMW M3 E46	141
31	GTS	08	Roock Motorsport North America	Vic Rice Claudia Hürtgen Hubert Haupt	Porsche 911 GT2	125
32	LMP	06	Multimatic Motorsport	Scott Maxwell David Empringham John Graham	Lola B98 / 10	124
33	GT	10	Prototype Technology Group	Peter Cunningham Brian Cunningham Darren Law	BMW M3 E36	106
34	GT	52	Seikel Motorsport	Philip Collin Kurt Mathewson Tony Burgess	Porsche 911 GT3-R	105
35	LMP	9	Team Cadillac	Franck Lagorce Andy Wallace	Cadillac Northstar LMP	87
36	LMP	2	Panoz Motor Sports	Johnny O'Connell Hiroki Kato	Panoz LMP-1 Roadster S.	79
37	GTS	09	Roock Motorsport North America	Zak Brown Manfred Jurasz Stephen Earle	Porsche 911 GT2	76
38	LMP	36	Johansson Matthews Racing	Stefan Johansson Guy Smith Jim Matthews	Reynard 2KQ	65
39	GT	23	Alex Job Racing	Randy Pobst Bruno Lambert Mike Conte	Porsche 996 GT3-R	59
40	LMP	0	Team Rafanelli SRL	Pierluigi Martini Domenico Schiattarella Didier de Radiguès	Lola B2K / 10	52
41	LMP	74	Robinson Racing	Jack Baldwin George Robinson Irv Hoerr	Reynard 2KQ	38
42	LMP	02	Pole team	Norman Simon Günther Blieninger Mark Simo	Riley & Scott Mk III	38
Not started
43	GT	6T	Prototype Technology Group	Mark Simo Boris Said III Bill Auberlen	BMW M3 E36	1

¹ not trained

Only in the entry list

Here you will find teams, drivers and vehicles that were originally registered for the race but did not take part for a variety of reasons.

Item	class	No.	team	driver	chassis
44	LMP	8th	Philip Creighton Motorsport Ltd.	Scott Schubot Henry Camferdam	Lola B2K / 10
45	LMP	29	Intersport Racing		Riley & Scott Mk III
46	LMP	32	Motorola DAMS	Christophe Tinseau Marc Goossens	Cadillac Northstar LMP
47	LMP	39	Johansson Matthews Racing	Jim Matthews	Reynard 2KQ
48	GT	69	Kyser Racing	Kye Wankum Greg Doff Rudy Bartling	Porsche 911 GT3-R
49	GT	75	Gunnar Porsche Racing	Michael Lauer Mike Brockman Gunnar Jeannette	Porsche 911 GT3-R
50	LMP	79	Sezio Florida Racing Team	Patrice Roussel John Macaluso	Norma M-2000-01
51	GT	94	Trinkler Motorsports	Owen Trinkler	Chevrolet Corvette C5

Class winner

class	driver	driver	driver	vehicle	Placement in the overall ranking
LMP	Frank Biela	Tom Kristensen	Emanuele Pirro	Audi R8	Overall victory
GTS	Olivier Beretta	Karl Wendlinger	Dominique Dupuy	Dodge Viper GTS-R	Rank 7
GT	Dirk Mueller	Lucas Luhr		Porsche 911 GT3-R	Rank 10

Racing data

• Registered: 51
• Started: 42
• Valued: 22
• Race classes: 3
• Spectator: unknown
• Race day weather: warm and windy
• Route length: 5.955 km
• Driving time of the winning team: 12: 02: 00.160 hours
• Total laps of the winning team: 360
• Total distance of the winning team: 2143.646 km
• Winner's average: 178.141 km / h
• Pole position: Frank Biela - Audi R8 (# 78) - 1: 48.825 = 196.980 km / h
• Fastest race lap: Frank Biela - Audi R8 (# 78) - 1: 50.286 = 194.370 km / h
• Racing series: 1st run for the 2000 ALMS season

literature

• JA Martin and Ken Welles: Prototypes - the History of the IMSA GTP Series . Bull Publishing, Phoenix 2000, ISBN 1-893618-01-3 .

Web links

• Race results at Racing Sports Cars

Previous race 2:45 hour Las Vegas 1999

American Le Mans Series

Succession Race 2: 45-hour race at Charlotte in 2000