Sebring, FL —Nick Boulle and team members: Patrick Long and Patrick Lindsey are gearing up for the Sebring 12 Hours in the GT Daytona class. The Park Place Motorsports #73 Porsche races this weekend with the green flag at 9:40AM CST, and the checkered flying the same day 12-hours later at 9:40PM.
This will mark Boulle’s first time running of the famed endurance racing classic around the treacherous and bumpy Sebring International Raceway. The #73 Porsche GT3R comes off a successful one-day test where Boulle, Lindsey and Long each turned fast laps to set up the car and run through operations for this important round of the Michelin Endurance Cup.
Racing festivities include both a race for the World Endurance Championship (WEC) and IMSA. On Friday, the WEC LMP1, LMP2, and GTE cars will battle to cross the line first after 1,000 miles and then IMSA activities will kick off again Saturday morning for the Sebring 12 Hours. Sebring marks the second round of the Michelin Endurance Cup and is an important race for endurance championship points.
Sebring Racing History
Sebring is one of the oldest continuously operating race circuits in the U.S., with its first race in 1950. The Sebring 12 Hour is one of the world’s most prestigious classic endurance races. The raceway occupies a portion of Sebring Regional Airport, an active airport for private and commercial traffic. Originally built as Hendricks Army Airfield, a World War II training base for the U.S. Army Air Forces, the airfield was a training base for B-17 pilots from 1941 to 1946. After the war, aeronautical engineer, Alec Ulmann, sough sites for converting military aircraft space to civilian use. Ulmann discovered potential in Hendricks’ runways to stage a sports car endurance race similar to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
This year’s field includes just under 50 cars spread across the four classes of competition: Daytona Prototype international (DPi)- for factory-supported prototype sports cars, teams and drivers; Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2)- for Pro-Am driver lineups; GT Le Mans (GTLM)- the most competitive form of GT racing in the world with factory teams, drivers and race cars; and GT Daytona (GTD)- ultra-fast GT cars built to international GT3 technical specifications. 20 GTD entries will vie for the win at North America’s second round of the Michelin Endurance Cup.
Many of the world’s most respected and famous sports car racers will be in the driver’s seats for the endurance race, and they will compete in both the Sebring 1000 Miles as well as the Sebring 12 Hours. Senna, Alonso, Hartley, Button and Buemi will all be racing with their eyes on the prize.
Race coverage will start with qualifying on Friday morning, March 15th, from 8:45AM CST through 10:00AM CST on IMSA.tv.
CNBC will then continue coverage on Saturday morning, March 16th, starting at 9:30AM CST to 12:00PM CST.
NBC Sports will take over from 12:00PM CST to 3:00PM CST.
NBC Sports Network will then cover the final run to the checkered from 2:00PM CST to 10:00PM CST.
IMSA ON NBCSPORTS.COM AND THE NBC SPORTS APP
NBC Sports Group’s live streaming product for desktops, mobile devices, tablets, and connected TVs via NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app — will provide live streaming coverage of the 2019 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Series via “TV Everywhere,” giving consumers additional value to their subscription service, and making high quality content available to MVPD customers both in and out of the home and on multiple platforms.
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