No. 7 Porsche 963 Wins First Two IMSA Races, “36 Hours of Florida” Two Years in a Row
For Porsche Penske Motorsport, the unofficial “36 Hours of Florida” now has been made the “72 Hours of Florida” covering two different IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship seasons.
In the 74th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, with Roger Penske giving the command to start engines, the pair of Porsche 963 cars captured their second straight race to start the IMSA season for a second year in a row.
The only difference today was which Porsche 963 finished up front in both Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) and overall, and that came down to the wire in the final hour.
The No. 7 Porsche 963 has captured all four of those wins over two years, with the trio of Felipe Nasr, Julien Andlauer and Laurin Heinrich following up their 64th Rolex 24 At Daytona triumph with the win in Saturday’s 74th running of the second Florida endurance classic. They led a Porsche 1-2 ahead of the sister No. 6 car shared by Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Matt Campbell.
Nasr has secured his third Sebring win – all overall (2019, 2025) – with Heinrich adding an overall win to his 2025 Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) win with AO Racing and Andlauer capturing his first Sebring triumph. Nasr is also the first driver to win the the “36 Hours of Florida” overall back-to-back.
The two Penske Porsches led 273 of 343 around Sebring’s challenging yet iconic 3.74-mile, 17-turn circuit. Combined with the two Penske Porsches leading 521 of 705 laps at Daytona – these two Porsches have led 794 of 1,048 in these two races to start the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) season. With JDC-Miller MotorSports also leading 46 laps in Daytona, all Porsche 963 cars have led 840 of 1,048 laps this season.
This win came after a roller coaster ride of lead changes between the No. 7 Porsche 963 and sister No. 6 Porsche 963 of Estre. While Estre had the lead on the pit sequence, then Nasr regained it on another one, two more on-track lead changes on-track culminated with Nasr’s bold inside pass of Estre going into Turn 17 with 64 minutes remaining.
Estre then needed to defend from Jack Aitken’s No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R and Sheldon van der Linde’s No. 24 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 to keep second, while Nasr was able to build a lead north of five seconds prior to the final pit stops inside the final 50 minutes.
Nasr held the gap once the cycle completed and after a final restart with just under 15 minutes remaining and drove his car home to the flag by 1.515 seconds over Estre. With the No. 31 and 24 cars fading late, the No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R snuck a podium with Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque and Will Stevens.
Just as Porsche finished 1-2 in GTP, Porsche did the same in GTD PRO with two different teams.
Manthey, renowned for its global GT success and celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2026, now has its first IMSA win on the scoreboard with its iconic ‘Grello’ livery adorning its No. 911 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992). Klaus Bachler now adds his third Sebring GTD PRO win in four seasons – with three different Porsche teams (Pfaff Motorsports, AO Racing) – alongside Thomas Preining and Ricardo Feller, who both won their first IMSA races.
AO came up just short of going back-to-back at Sebring, in the Michelin Endurance Cup race debut of its “Roxy” pink dinosaur livery variant of the No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992). Alessio Picariello finished second alongside Nick Tandy and Harry King.
It was Preining’s pass around the outside of King at Turn 1 for the lead with 79 minutes to go that made the difference and delivered the win for Manthey. Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports finished third with its No. 4 Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Tommy Milner in his 20th Sebring start, Nicky Catsburg and Nico Varrone.
The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) battle saw another 1-2 in the fight among ORECA LMP2 07s, with United Autosports USA delivering its first IMSA 1-2 finish. On this evening, Mikkel Jensen, Philip Fayer and Hunter McElrea shared the winning No. 2 ORECA over the sister car, the Paul Di Resta, Daniel Goldburg and Rasmus Lindh No. 22 ORECA, which survived multiple run-ins with on-track signage and tape. Tower Motorsports’ Tristan Vautier finished third in the No. 8 ORECA he shared with John Farano and Sebastian Alvarez.
The GTD battle came down to an Aston Martin versus Ferrari fight, with a fast but frantic drive from the No. 21 Af Corse USA Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO overcoming a clean run by the polesitting No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.
Antonio Fuoco delivered a furious comeback charge in the final 15 minutes to go from seventh to the win on the final lap in his No. 21 Ferrari he shared with Lilou Wadoux and Simon Mann. Fuoco made the move on Tom Gamble’s No. 27 Aston Martin through the esses at the top of the course, past Turn 10 into the Turns 11 and 12 complex. Gamble shared his car with Eduardo “Dudu” Barrichello and Zacharie Robichon.
Fuoco’s last hour included a penalty assessed for incident responsibility contacting another GT Ferrari and a warning for failure to adhere to controlled powertrain parameters. Neither setback ended his charge.
After a frenetic final hour, the WeatherTech Championship heads next to the streets of Long Beach, Calif. for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, April 17-18. The GTP and GTD classes will be in action.
