The 2020 Cadillac Grand Prix of Sebring was a sports car race sanctioned by the

International Motor Sports Association The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) is a North American sports car racing sanctioning body based in Daytona Beach, Florida under the jurisdiction of the ACCUS arm of the FIA. It was started by John Bishop, a former executive direc ...

(IMSA). The race was held at

Sebring International Raceway Sebring International Raceway is a road course auto racing facility in the southeastern United States, located near Sebring, Florida. Sebring Raceway is one of the oldest continuously operating race tracks in the U.S., its first race being run i ...

Sebring, Florida Sebring ( ) is a city in the south-central Florida and is the county seat of Highlands County, Florida, United States, nicknamed "The City on the Circle", in reference to Circle Drive, the center of the Sebring Downtown Historic District. As of t ...

on July 18, 2020. This race was the third round of the

2020 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship The 2020 IMSA SportsCar Championship was the 50th racing season sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) (which traces its lineage back to the 1971 IMSA GT Championship). This was also the seventh United SportsCar Champio ...

, and the second round of the 2020 WeatherTech Sprint Cup. The race was won by the #31 team of

Pipo Derani Pipo is a masculine given name. Notable people with the name include: * Pipo (actor) (1933-1998), Mexican actor * Pipo Nguyen-duy (born 1962), Vietnamese photographer * Pipo of Ozora (1369–1426), Italian soldier * Pipo (footballer, born 1992), P ...

and

Felipe Nasr Luiz Felipe de Oliveira Nasr (born 21 August 1992) is a Brazilian racing driver. He is the 2018 IMSA Sportscar champion and won the 2019 12 Hours of Sebring. After a year as the official test driver for Williams in 2014, he joined Sauber a ...

, while the LMP2 class victory was taken by Patrick Kelly and

Spencer Pigot Spencer James Pigot (born September 29, 1993) is an American racing driver who currently drives in the IMSA SportsCar Championship. Personal life Pigot was born in Los Angeles and raised Pasadena, California, and Orlando where he graduated from ...

, who were awarded the win after the #81 entry was disqualified for failing to meet drive time limits. The GTLM class was won by the #4 entry for

Tommy Milner Tommy Milner (born January 28, 1986), is an American GM factory racing and test driver, also currently employed full-time in Corvette Racing. He is also the co-owner of Team Hype Sim. He was featured in 2011 racing video game Shift 2: Unleashed ...

and

Oliver Gavin Oliver Benjamin Gavin (born 29 September 1972), is a British racing driver who joined Corvette Racing in 2002. He has won five American Le Mans Series class championships, five 24 Hours of Le Mans class wins, five 12 Hours of Sebring class win ...

, while

Jack Hawksworth Jack W. Hawksworth (born 28 February 1991) is a British professional racing driver from Bradford, West Yorkshire. , he competes in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for AIM Vasser Sullivan. He has also raced in the Star Mazda Championsh ...

and

Aaron Telitz Aaron Telitz (born December 13, 1991) is an American race car driver. He currently competes full-time in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, driving for AIM Vasser Sullivan. Career Born in Birchwood, Wisconsin, Telitz began his racing caree ...

secured their second consecutive class victory in GTD.

Background

The race was just the second for the

WeatherTech SportsCar Championship The IMSA SportsCar Championship, currently known as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship under sponsorship, is a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada and organized by the International Motor Sports Association (IMS ...

after returning from the

pandemic A pandemic () is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. A widespread endemic (epidemiology), endemic disease wi ...

-induced hiatus. The race was added to the schedule in May due to said pandemic, becoming the second race of the season at Sebring alongside the rescheduled 12-hour race. Similarly to the previous round at

Daytona Daytona refers to the city of Daytona Beach, Florida, or things named after it. Daytona may also refer to: Locations * Daytona Beach Shores, Florida * South Daytona, Florida * The Daytona Beach metropolitan area * Halifax area, also known as Da ...

, a limited number of fans were announced to be allowed into the track for the event. In late June,

Cadillac The Cadillac Motor Car Division () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM) that designs and builds luxury vehicles. Its major markets are the United States, Canada, and China. Cadillac models are distributed i ...

was announced as the title sponsor of the event. The race marked the beginning of the LMP2 overall championship, as their only previous race (the

24 Hours of Daytona The 24 Hours of Daytona, also known as the Rolex 24 At Daytona for sponsorship reasons, is a 24-hour sports car endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is run on the Sports Car Course layou ...

) counted for the Michelin Endurance Cup exclusively. Similarly, the GTD class only scored points towards the WeatherTech Sprint Cup in this race, not the overall GTD championship. On July 10, 2020, IMSA released the latest technical bulletin regarding Balance of Performance for the race. However, no changes were made to any cars taking part in the event.

Entries

A total of 29 cars took part in the event, up from 26 cars in the previous round, thanks in part to the inclusion of the

LMP2 A Le Mans Prototype (LMP) is the type of sports prototype race car used in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA SportsCar Championship, European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series. Le Mans Prototypes were create ...

class which was absent from the

race. There were 8 cars in the

DPi A Daytona Prototype International (DPi) was a type of sports prototype racing car developed specifically for the International Motor Sports Association's WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, as their top class of car, acting as a direct replacemen ...

class, 8 cars in the

class, 6 cars in the GTLM class, and 10 cars in the GTD class. The DPi field was unchanged in terms of entries from the previous event, although

returned after missing the previous race due to testing positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Stephen Simpson Stephen Simpson (born 8 January 1984) is a South African-American professional racing driver currently competing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and previously in the A1 Grand Prix, Champ Car Atlantic Championship and the Indy Pr ...

also replaced Chris Miller in the #85. Patrick Kelly replaced

Simon Trummer Simon Trummer (born 8 June 1989 in Frutigen, Canton of Bern) is a racing driver from Switzerland. Career Karting Trummer began his motorsport career in karting back in 2003, finishing second in the Swiss Junior Championship. He also finished 21 ...

in the #52 due to travel restrictions, and

Gustavo Menezes Gustavo Menezes (born 19 September 1994) is an American racing driver, currently racing for Peugeot Sport in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Career Karting Menezes began karting in 2002, but took his first championship in 2005 in the IKF ...

was announced to run in the #81, making his first IMSA start since 2018. The two

Meyer Shank Racing Meyer Shank Racing (formerly Michael Shank Racing) is an American auto racing organization that competes in the IndyCar Series and IMSA SportsCar Championship. History Atlantic Championship Michael Shank as an owner of Michael Shank Racing, he ...

Acura Acura is the luxury vehicle, luxury and performance division of Japanese automaker Honda, based primarily in North America. The brand was launched in the United States and Canada on March 27, 1986, marketing luxury and performance automobiles. It ...

s were absent from the event due to the round only scoring points towards the WeatherTech Sprint Cup.

Qualifying

Qualifying results

Pole position In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the rac ...

s in each class are indicated in bold and by .

Results

Class winners are denoted in bold and . Notes

References

External links

{{United SportsCar Championship races Cadillac Grand Prix of Sebring Cadillac Grand Prix of Sebring Cadillac Grand Prix of Sebring