Sebring 12 Hours
Jonny Edgar and AO Racing Leave Sebring with Top 10 Finish Despite Early Setback
Cumbria-based racing driver Jonny Edgar and the iconic AO Racing squad scored another top 10 finish with seventh place at the second round of the IMSA Endurance Cup season, despite an accident early on in the race which set the team back.
Last year, the Sebring 12 Hours was the setting for Jonny’s best weekend, results wise, in the IMSA series, having taken fourth place in the LMP2 class after a sensational final stint. Jonny was aiming for another good result this time round in Florida and race week started perfectly. Under glorious sunshine, Jonny and the team looked to have hit the ground running with Jonny in particular setting impressive times, making their Oreca LMP2, affectionately known as “Spike the Dragon”, third quickest in the second practice session. Following a positive night practice, the team went into Friday’s qualifying session confident of a good result.
Jonny’s teammate, PJ Hyett got the team a fantastic result in qualifying, setting the second fastest time of the session, putting Spike on the front row of the grid in the LMP2 class. There were no further practice sessions for Jonny on Friday but he enjoyed a busy autograph session with the thousands of fans who had made the annual trip to one of America’s classic endurance races.
Saturday’s race started off well for the team, PJ took the start and kept the car out of trouble, but as the race approached the two hour mark, PJ had a collision at turn one with another LMP2 car whilst battling over fourth place. PJ was able to bring the car back to the pits but the team took time to make sure the car would be able to continue for the rest of the race.
Jonny jumped in for his first stint of the 2025 Sebring 12 Hours once the repairs were finished. With 10 hours to go, the team was then hit with a penalty for the incident, meaning the D Tolson & Sons supported driver would end up serving a drive through penalty. Despite the bad news, Jonny pushed on and his first stint went well. After nearly two hours in the car, Jonny handed Spike back to PJ, having got the team up to 10th in class and made a recovery in the overall standings, passing the majority of the GTD PRO entries.
As the sun began to set at Sebring, Jonny was back in the car and through clever strategy by the team and smart driving from the BRDC Superstar and his teammates, they were now up to ninth position, but more importantly, only one lap down on the class leader. In darkness, Jonny navigated the last of his stints well and handed Spike over to Dane Cameron to finish the race in seventh place, having worked their way back onto the lead lap of their class in the final stages of the race.
Jonny: “It was a positive weekend for us in terms of speed. We were at the front and in the top five for most of the time we were here at Sebring, the race just didn’t go according to plan unfortunately. I thought the team did a great job to get us back out there and we gave it our all to make sure we could still salvage the best result possible. In the end I think to get a P7 finish in a race where the car was at one point in the barrier, is something to be proud of. I am grateful to everyone on the team for their hard work and to all the fans who came out to watch the race and cheer us on. The amount of support we got especially during the autograph session was incredible.
I also want to say congratulations to the sister car at AO Racing, Rexy, on taking the GTD Pro Class win and Lauren Heincrich, Klaus Bachler and Alessio Picariello. Any win in IMSA is a great accomplishment but to win here is very impressive. I hope we will be able to take Spike to victory lane at some point this season”
Jonny’s 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship season resumes at Imola next month on 20th April, where the Motorsport UK Academy Team UK driver will be looking to cement his and the TF Sport Corvette team’s lead in the LM GT3 standings following their sensational win at the first round of the season in Qatar.
The FIA World Endurance Championship is broadcast live on TNT Sports in the United Kingdom, Eurosport in Europe and can be watched via subscription on www.fiawec.tv.
