12 Hours of Sebring 2012: The Aftermath + Photo Gallery

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

12 Hours of Sebring 2012: The Aftermath + Photo Gallery

If you thought Audi's victory at the 60th anniversary running of the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring was akin to "clubbing baby seals," as one friend suggested, it may make you even sadder to learn that, after taking a day off to stretch—and polish the trophies—Audi was back at Sebring and hard at it Monday. The company was testing not one but two new prototype race cars that will debut soon in Europe, then race at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The three cars that ran at Sebring? Antiques. More than a year old. Time to send them out to pasture.

The good news for the American Le Mans Series is that this is the last time we'll see these all-dominating Audis this year, as they move offshore to contend for the new World Endurance Championship, of which Sebring is the only U.S. event.

The bad news: The Audis are pretty damn compelling to watch, and being in the presence of the absolute best, most sophisticated sports cars ever built is sobering. They will be missed. But at least the other ALMS-only LMP1 entries can fight for victories among themselves from here on out and not against mere leftovers from Audi or Peugeot. And Peugeot, coincidentally, was the only true competition for Audi until its abrupt and unexpected withdrawal from sports-car racing. (How abrupt and unexpected? The 2012 Peugeots were already on the ground at Sebring for preseason testing and the drivers were on airplanes en route, when everyone got a phone call that essentially said, "Thanks for your hard work: You're fired.")

Audi came to Sebring primarily to test for Le Mans, and secondarily to win the race. It took the win as well as second place, while its third car finished 16th after encountering problems. So, as often happens in such cases, the eyes of the crowd turned to what car was running best in its class. There were a lot of classes. The ALMS itself has five classes: LMP1 (the fastest cars); LMP2 (they look like LMP1 cars, but are not quite as fast); LMPC (a spec class with only Oreca Cars); GT (Chevrolet Corvettes, Ferraris, Porsche 911s), and GTC (nothing but Porsche 911s, running against each other).

Complicating matters was that the WEC, using Sebring as the season-opener for its global challenge, brought roughly 30 entrants (out of 63) that would only run Sebring, then take the battle overseas. And it had its own four classes: LMP1, LMP2, a GTE Pro class (all pro drivers), and a GTE Am class (at least one amateur driver). Those four classes were essentially running against themselves, not the ALMS cars.

Meaning that if we figure each class has three podium finishers, Sebring potentially had 27 cars in the top three in their classes. Granted, there was a lot of exciting racing, but even the announcers often had trouble figuring out who was racing whom.

Confusing? It gets worse. We know that in the LMP1 class, for WEC, Audi took first and second. But what of the LMP1 winner in the ALMS class? You'd have to go all the way down to eighth overall to find the winner in ALMS's top class and the Dyson Lola-Mazda, which finished eight laps down to the winning Audi. But they took home first-place trophies, and are at the top of the points heading into the next ALMS race, at Long Beach.

Meanwhile, that "whooshing" sound you may be hearing this week from Sebring International Raceway is the new Audis testing, in search of even more speed. The team is bringing out the old car that won Saturday night just for grins, but the new stuff is awfully compelling: The R18 Ultra is a comparatively straightforward diesel-powered, rear-drive racer like the "old" car, and the R18 e-tron Quattro is also diesel-powered, but uses electric motors to power the front wheels, too. Yep, Audi Quattro is back at the racetrack. (More info on the cars here.)

Of course, we won't see either car here for at least another year. Is that good or bad for sports-car racing in the U.S.? Yes.