Images by Kris Eshenour
Sebring
Sebring International Raceway has been the home of the WRL Eastern Championship for many years and with good reason. Called the “Birthplace of American Endurance Racing” Sebring has been instrumental in defining global endurance racing across it’s 75 year history and in 2026 we added more names to the annals of this historic place.
Constructed on a 1940s Army bomber training facility, Sebring boasts some of the greatest elevation gain in the country - elevation gain thats dished out 1” at a time, over and over again. This track is, and always has been, the ultimate test of mechanical reliability and once again WRL teams were poised for 15 hours of true “endurance” racing. No where else on the WRL calendar do drivers and teams face the unique challenges that Sebring presents, and that includes weather patterns that can best be described as “Florida”. Thursday’s load-in wrapped up under an incredible sunset that followed a successful day of Max Track Time testing setting the stage for what would be another unforgettable WRL Eastern Championship finale.
Qualifying commenced on Friday and quickly set a high bar for the Championship weekend with incredibly close results typical of the 2026 WRL Season. GTO / GTU qualifying saw GTU take the overall pole with a blistering 2:17.606 followed by a GTO top-3 separated by just 0.4 seconds and top-10 separated by under 2 seconds - that’s just 1%! The General Production classes answered back with pole decided by just .367 seconds with the top-5 covered by just 1 second. GP2 saw fantastic performance from the polesitter as the rest of the class worked to find pace throughout the day on Friday.
Qualifying
GTU and overall pole was secured by James French in the #148 Forty48 Competition NP01 with a 2:17.606. Close behind in GTO, Ashley Freiberg in the #119 AE Victory Racing Supra GT4 secured pole by just .05 seconds with a 2:17.964, besting teammate Hannah Grisham in the #120 who qualified P2.
GP1 official pole was secured by Vaughn Beesley in the #64 Open Throttle E92 M3 with a 2:29.023 with Kenny Hendrick just .4 seconds behind in the #5 All Star Racing E46 M3.
GP2 official pole was secured by #83 Palomar Racing E36 entry with a 2:32.073 driven by Nik Romano.
Race 1
Race 1 saw early fireworks as the green flag flew over a stacked field, with the #120 AE Victory entry jumping out to an immediate advantage on lap 1 before Nicholas Shaeffer in the #776 HM Road and Race took over the point on lap 5. The opening hour saw a relentless dogfight between the #119 and #120 sister cars, trading the lead through rapid pit cycles. Behind them, the #678 STAK by Racers Edge machine piloted by Kevin Madsen was quietly laying down the fastest lap of the entire race—a blisteringly quick 2:17.649 on lap 125—to vault into podium contention. Meanwhile, Jason Marks in the #87 Stoic Racing was playing the long game, running consistently inside the top 3 and managing tire wear and fuel burn to strike when it counted most. Marks pounced on lap 159 to claim the lead, and while Freiberg momentarily snatched the point back on lap 180 during the final service window, a mandatory splash-and-go for the #119 led to Marks overtaking on lap 185 taking the checkered flag for the overall win by just 16.781 seconds.
GP1 was an absolute war of attrition and strategy as we often see at Sebring International Raceway. Johan Schwartz in the #5 All Star Racing laid down an early marker, slicing into the lead by lap 2 and commanding the opening 52 laps before terminal mechanical heartbreak took them out of contention. That handed the spotlight to the #38 Palomar Racing entry, where Matt Million, Nik Romano, and Ryan Keeley controlled 117 laps through the middle and late stages of the contest. The #48 El Diablo crew refused to make it easy, using sharp pit strategy under driver Scott Smith to swipe the lead on laps 118 and 148. Million answered back with an emphatic pass on lap 150 to lock down the GP1 victory. Vaugh Beesley in the #64 Open Throttle Racing M3 laid down the single fastest GP1 flyer of the day at 2:26.333, but late-race drama sidelined early frontrunner #46 Ginger Racing with under two hours remaining, promoting Shaun Bailey and the #112 TC Kline Racing squad onto the final podium step.
GP2 proved once again that reliability and racecraft win races at Sebring. Benym Abernathy, Max Stallone, and Kyle Koh in the #83 Palomar Racing put on an absolute masterclass, surviving the grueling desert conditions while their class rivals ran into catastrophic early trouble. Turning a best lap of 2:32.451, the #83 completed 174 laps—not only securing an unchallenged GP2 victory over the sidelined #260, #216x, and #55, but finishing 13th overall to beat the majority of the GP1 field across the line. In GTU, James French and Adam Kroener wheeled the solo #148 entry on a blistering pace, turning a 2:17.698 that matched top-tier GTO machinery before retiring after 165 laps of hard running.
SEE BELOW FOR SECTOR1 RACE 1 POST-RACE ANALYSIS
Race 2
Sunday’s 7 hour race brought a fresh slate and a dramatically different narrative across the board. In GTO, Christopher Stone in the #776 HM Road & Race Porsche GT4RS Clubsport and Nick D'Orlando in the #97 GridSeat F82 M4 GT4 traded blows during the opening 10 laps showing exceptional pace and racecraft. The #119 AE Victory Supra GT4 commanded 146 of the 175 laps, pulling out a healthy gap over the field. Endurance racing is never over until the checkered flag drops: with just 12 minutes on the clock, Sarah Montgomery in the #119 AE Victory machine required a splash-and-go to make it to the finish, securing P2, while Hannah Grisham in the #120 AE Victory car, in maximum fuel saving mode herself, took the overall win on (literal) fumes. Further back, Race 1 winner #87 Stoic Racing suffered an early mechanical retirement after 33 laps, clearing the way for a frantic three-car sprint for the final podium spot. Kevin Madsen in the #678 STAK by Racer's Edge entry fended off Rob Jackowitz in the #99 GTR99 G82 M4 GT4 by just 16.5 seconds, with Tom Long in the #246 TCB Racing Supra GT4 finishing just 4.5 seconds behind Jackowitz in 5th.
GP1 delivered sweet redemption for the #5 All Star Racing crew. After Saturday’s premature exit, Kenny Hendrick, Johan Schwartz, and Stanton Barrett executed a (nearly) flawless race. While Vaugh Beesley set the class pace on lap 7 with a 2:25.875 in the #64 Open Throttle Racing car to lead the first half of the race, the #5 All Star Racing E46 M3 would grab the lead on lap 102 that they’d hold on to until the end. Nik Romano in the Race 1-winning #38 Palomar Racing machine made a valiant charge in the final 10 laps, taking nearly eight seconds out of the lead as Kenny Hendrick managed a broken shifter with the car stuck in 4th gear to cross the stripe with 21.175 seconds in hand. Shaun Bailey and the #112 TC Kline team capped off an extraordinarily consistent weekend by claiming their second GP1 podium in 3rd.
GP2 saw the #83 Palomar Racing crew complete a clean weekend sweep. Max Ocaranza in the #55 AOA Racing car turned heads early by setting the fastest GP2 lap of the day with a 2:35.517 on lap 41, but attrition once again struck the class hard. Benym Abernathy and the #83 Palomar Racing squad kept their nose clean, racking up 150 laps to take the class win and finish P18 overall, ahead of the #216x Skip Barber Racing, #55 AOA Racing, and #260 Apex Xperience entries.
SEE BELOW FOR SECTOR1 RACE 2 POST-RACE ANALYSIS
Word On The Grid:
AE Victory Racing #120 Clinches the 2026 GTO East Championship with a decisive 20-point lead over team car #119.
Open Throttle Racing #62 Clinches the 2026 GP1 East Championship by just 5 points over El Diablo Motorsports #48
Skip Barber Racing School #216 Clinches the 2026 GP2 East Championship by just ONE point over the Palomar Racing #83
Forty48 Competition #148 Clinches the 2026 GTU West Championship with a decisive 50-point lead over Roberts Motorsports #109
Weekend Sweep for Palomar Racing: The #83 Palomar Racing squad executed a near-flawless weekend in GP2, sweeping both rounds and continually mixing it up inside the top 15 overall against GP1 machinery.
All Star Racing wins in 4th: Kenny Hendrick brought home a huge victory on Sunday for the #5 All Star Racing E46 M3 stuck in 4th gear after an earlier shifter failure. His ability to maintain pace with a single-speed gearbox to fend off the always-fast Palomar Racing #38 in the closing stint was one of the biggest stories of the weekend.
Fast Chassis (re)enter the Chat: The #776 HM Road And Race Porsche GT4RS Clubsport and the #97 GridSeat F82 M4 both showed great pace and promise at Sebring. Porsches have been less prevalent in WRL after a dominant run from 2020-2022 and most of the F82 cars have been replaced by G-variants. This great performance and show of parity gives us a tremendous amount of faith and pride in development of the proprietary WRL APV table.
Team GridSeat Leads Sebring on WRL Debut: Nick D’Orlando jumped to the front early in the race leading 7 laps early in Race 2 before their first pit stop. This is a phenomenal showing for a new-to-WRL team on their first outing.
Podium Consistency for TC Kline Racing: Tony Roma, Alexander MacDonald, Dave Spitzer, and Shaun Bailey in the #112 TC Kline C8 Corvette GP1 entry were the model of endurance reliability in GP1, bringing home a pair of hard-fought 3rd-place trophies across two extremely demanding races.
Complete event results on RedMist Timing: Sebring ‘26 Results on Redmist.racing
Have a story you’d like to share during or after the race? Shoot it to race@racewrl.com and we’ll get your story added to this recap!
Behind the Scenes:
COTA Confirmed for 2027: WRL has secured an exclusive 2027 date ensuring that the biggest weekend in pro/am motorsports will stay intact with the 2027 US Endurance Championship at COTA marking the 11th consecutive WRL US Endurance Championship. Also confirmed - the 2027 USEC will be a single long-format race finishing under the lights for the first time in WRL history.
2027 WRL 25h with GRIDLIFE at Thunderhill: In a landmark announcement and one of the biggest motorsports collaborations in recent history, WRL and GRIDLIFE are coming together to co-host a massive event to celebrate the return of 25 hour racing to Willows, California. GRIDLIFE will run their normal sprint, time attack and drift programming ahead of the WRL 25 hour running under the WRL ruleset. Once the green flag flies on the WRL endurance race, GRIDLIFE programming will run well into the night bringing new life this historic format.
2027 Event Format & Pricing: Format and pricing for the 2027 season is in process, as always WRL focuses on sustainability and value, basic detail on two premier WRL events can be found above with the rest to be announced in the coming weeks.
COTA US Endurance Championship is sold out and the waitlist is open - with just 4 cars currently waitlisted now is the time to get on the list!
Have questions, suggestions, ideas or feedback? We want to hear from you! Email race@racewrl.com with any inquiries.
championship chess:
National Overall Championship - #120 AE Victory Racing and #83 Palomar racing are tied headed into COTA with 149 points - #148 Forty48 Competition is just 7 points back meaning all three teams are very much in play headed into COTA.
GP1 National Championship - 18 points separate the top-3 in GP1 with #48 El Diablo in the lead, an incredible 37 car field means this will easily be the most difficult race of the year. This huge turnout means maximum bonus points are in effect - paired with the championship round bonus this means the 2027 GP1 championship is still very much up in the air.
WRL Points for all championships can be found here: WRL Championship Standings
broadcast Links:
Friday Qualifying Broadcast: WRL Sebring 2026 Qualifying
Saturday Race 1 Broadcast: WRL Sebring 2026 Saturday
Sunday Race 2 Broadcast: WRL Sebring 2026 Sunday
SATURDAY RACE 1 rESULTS
GTO - rACE 1
p1 - #87 Stoic Racing
Alex Wright | Vic Vaitkus | Jason Marks
P2 - #119 AE Victory Racing
Sarah Montgomery | Ashley Freiberg | Brenna Schubert
p3 - #120 AE Victory Racing
Hannah Grisham | Michele Abbate | Alana Carter
GP1 - RACE 1
P1 - #38 Palomar Racing
Nik Romano | Matt Million | Ryan Keeley | Kyle Koh
P2 - #48 El Diablo Motorsports
Scott Smith | Lance Boicelli | Svilen Kanev |
Sonny Rao
P3 - #112 TC Kline Racing
Shaun Bailey | Tony Roma | Alexander MacDonald |
Dave Spitzer | TC Kline
GP2 - rACE 1
p1 - #83 Palomar Racing
Ryan Keeley | Max Stallone | Benym Abernathy | Kyle Koh
p2 - #260 Apex Xperience
Zachary Staat | Landon Weaver | David Martin II
P3 - #216x Skip Barber Racing School
Dylan Weber | Ryan Emami | Saverio Striglia
SUNDAY rACE 2 rESULTS
GTO - rACE 2
p1 - #120 AE Victory Racing
Hannah Grisham | Michele Abbate | Alana Carter
P2 - #119 AE Victory Racing
Sarah Montgomery | Ashley Freiberg | Brenna Schubert
p3 - #678 STAK Racing by Racers Edge
Kevin Madsen | Adrian Kunzle | Anik Patel
GP1 - RACE 2
P1 - #5 All Star Racing
Kenny Hendrick | Johan Schwartz | Stanton Barrett
P2 - #38 Palomar RAcing
Nik Romano | Matt Million | Ryan Keeley | Kyle Koh
P3 - #112 TC Kline Racing
Shaun Bailey | Tony Roma | Alexander MacDonald |
Dave Spitzer | TC Kline
GP2 - RACE 2
P1 - #83 Palomar racing
Ryan Keeley | Max Stallone | Benym Abernathy | Kyle Koh
P2 - #216x Skip Barber Racing School
Dylan Weber | Ryan Emami | Saverio Striglia
p3 - #55 AOA Racing
Fernando Navarrete | Max Ocaranza | Andrew Gardner
