Yes, it was another Porsche Penske Motorsport 1–2 with the 7 ahead of the 6, and the GTP pecking order was more or less unchanged from Daytona, but it was a bit more of a dogfight this time. Both cars had their incidents — including the 6 breaking its nose on the back of the 31 Cadillac under safety car, which would have amused me if I didn't always want the 31 to win — but they recovered through typically flawless Penske execution. Intriguingly, what decided the finishing order was actually a rather brazen on-track pass.

With just over an hour remaining in the race, the team called in a position swap because the 6 car, with Kevin Estre driving, was on fresher tires. Seven minutes later, Felipe Nasr in the 7 pounced on him in the G-loaded last corner and took the lead back, which Estre said happened because he was dutifully following team orders and Nasr was not. That is amusing to me. Good on you, Felipe. Way to get Porsche its 20th overall win at Sebring.

Porsche’s only serious challenge in GTP was again from Cadillac, with the 31 starting on pole and having the pace (and the Jack Aitken) to stay a threat, but in a heartening development for Caddy fans, the Wayne Taylor cars were finally in contention this time as well. There was a Cadillac three-ship running together late in the race that looked pretty dangerous. In fact, the 10 finished on the podium, but it was taken away in post-race tech for excess camber, which gave P3 to the 31. It is great to see WTR up there, though. They hadn’t really been pulling their weight.

There are no Porsches in LMP2, of course, but the equivalents last weekend were the United Autosports cars, who also finished 1-2. They did get a race from Spike, who was back in purple, but the AO Racing dragon-car got caught out by the timing of a full-course yellow. Tower had a pretty good race, too — which isn’t the greatest of looks for Sébastien Bourdais, who recently quit the team — but they got outdone by United on a restart. There was also some spectacularly bad driving in LMP2, most of it well within LMP2 stupidity norms, but Parker Thompson, driving the #52 in his second-ever LMP2 race, brutally murdered the DragonSpeed Corvette for absolutely no reason.

In GTD Pro, it was more Porsche, but not at all in a boring way. The winner was the Manthey #911, a truly remarkable showing even for Manthey. To swoop down upon U.S. racing like they did and then win their first Sebring is an incredible display of execution, but to do it with Nick Tandy hounding you all day in the AO Racing #77 — the People’s Porsche in this country — is all the more unlikely. So that was the other class with a Porsche 1–2. The GTD Porsches were not as dominant — particularly the Manthey #912 — but the Wright Motorsports #120 did make the podium with two overtakes in the last two laps. All that plus a superb debut of the new Carrera Cup car? Pretty good weekend for Porsche.

As for the other debutante, the Lamborghini Temerario GT3, it didn’t instantly turn around Pfaff’s fortunes, but it did finish the race! I can’t wait to see how they go on a less turbulent track.

But. The legendary GT3 drive of the weekend was that of the #21 AF Corse Ferrari. That Tony Fire cannot be stopped. After taking their lumps in drive-through penalties for racing… you know, hard, Antonio Fuoco absolutely tore the field apart to win the #21’s second IMSA race of the last three. Lilou Wadoux drove in both of those races, of course, and she was unstoppable as well. I have a new favorite Ferrari 296.

Even so, there is another GTD car upon which I urge readers not to sleep. The #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage of Zacharie Robichon, Tom Gamble, and pole winner and Formula 1 offspring Eduardo Barrichello just went back-to-back on the podium, taking P2 in class at Sebring. “Dudu,” as Barrichello insists on being called, now leads the drivers’ championship.

In summary, IMSA racing rules.

Good examples to look out for this year: Pfaff Motorsports will introduce the Lamborghini Temerario GT3 to the world after having one last crack in the Huracán in Daytona, and yes, it will be dressed in plaid. AO Racing will bring Roxy — the pink one — to her first endurance race. And Porsche Penske Motorsport has bedecked its Porsche 963s in Mobil 1 liveries harkening back to the swirly livery of the Porsche 911 GT1 in 1996 — not the most attractive livery to my eye, but a pretty famous one nonetheless.

One other, less heralded debut at Sebring this week is the new Porsche 911 Cup car. Porsche Carrera Cup North America will run its first two 40-minute races with the Type 992.2 car, which also has a brand new Pirelli tire. There are 27 entries for Sebring. I know a lot of people don’t watch single-make series, but this is a pretty big upgrade for the Cup car, and c’mon, you gotta watch a new race car at least once.

What makes up for it is that Mustang Sampling is back with JDC-Miller MotorSports, who ran the Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R that won the 12 Hours of Sebring in 2021. This will be the livery for the rest of the season (bye bye, banana boat), and they have switched the number from 85 to 5, the classic Mustang Sampling IMSA number.

It would be fun to see some solid results for the Huracan in the year when the Temerario is rolling out. Pfaff Motorsports — Mapelli’s team for his IMSA endurance outings — will be debuting its Temerario at the 12 Hours of Sebring March 18–21, their goal being simply to finish the famously bumpy race.

When I first saw this news, I was worried the whole championship had been renamed, and I hated that. Nothing worse than an automotive sponsor being replaced by something irrelevant. But now that I understand that it’s actually creating a new sub-competition endurance-focused teams can target — a dynamic I find works really well in the WeatherTech championship — I have come around completely. It adorably connotes the idea of traveling to these four rounds and renting a place to stay, which is something I heartily encourage people to do.