Back about 1993, Maxwell became the go-to guy for Ford, called into service every time the company was working on Mustang performance models. He’s still the go-to guy, but most recently it wasn’t for the Mustang, but for the new Ford GT. Maxwell, working with Multimatic Motorsports in Canada, was among the first to drive that car, and he’s one of the reasons why the racing version of the Ford GT was so fast out of the box.

So what? So if you are in a race and a Ford Mustang is out front, there’s a good chance Scott Maxwell is either driving or helped develop the car. On Friday, he was the driver – his No. 60 KohR Mustang, which he shares with Jade Buford, won the Visit Sebring 120 by a healthy 2.58 seconds over the No. 69 Pfaff McLaren GT4 driven by Chris Green and Jesse Lazare. Third was the No. 77 C360R McLaren GT4 of Mathew Keegan and Nico Rondet.

Fourth was the No. 35 Porsche GT4 driven by Damien Faulkner and Russell Ward, and fielded by CJ Wilson Racing, owned by the former major league baseball player. It was the highest-finishing Porsche Cayman GT4, after that model took the top four spaces at the season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway in January.

Trent Hindman and Cameron Cassels, who won the season-opener at Daytona in the No. 12 Bodymotion Porsche Cayman GT4, finished a disappointing 25th overall and 11th in class at Sebring.

At the next Continental Tire Challenge race, scheduled for May 13 at Circuit of The Americas in Texas, the Grand Sport class is expected to introduce the new, just-approved Chevrolet Camaro GT4 to the series.

Maxwell is ready. “Chevrolet joining the series is going to be great,” Maxwell said. “They’ll be strong, but we have a car we can challenge them with.”

While Spencer Pumpelly may not have quite as many laps around a racetrack as Scott Maxwell, he has had his share, and no one is surprised he drove the No. 17 RS1 Porsche Cayman to victory in the Street Tuner class in a nail-biting finish.

A caution bunched the field with 15 minutes to go, leaving Pumpelly in third, behind the leading No. 56 Murillo Racing/Mosing Motorcars Cayman of Eric Foss, followed closely by Owen Trinkler in the No. 44 CRG/I Do Borrow Nissan Altima. With only a few minutes to go in the two-hour race, Trinkler and Foss drove into a corner side-by-side, with Foss getting the worst of it, spinning out of the lead. Trinkler was also off-line for the corner, allowing the veteran Pumpelly to dive past both cars.

Trinkler, who shares the Altima with Sarah Cattaneo, dogged Pumpelly all the way home. “Some races you win by a half a lap, and just drive the car home – this race was not one of them. I had to work right up until the last corner.”

Had Trinkler and Foss not made contact, Pumpelly said he isn’t sure he could have gotten by. But once he was out front, he never gave Trinkler an opening.

So Trinkler and Cattaneo, who started the race first in ST, finished second, while Foss rallied back to third in the Porsche he shares with Jeff Mosing. Fourth was Mat Pombo and Derek Jones in the No. 73 JCW Mini Cooper that won in the ST class in the Daytona season opener.

Ford Chip Ganassi Racing’s quest for the ultimate trifecta in sports car endurance racing – three straight victories in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Rolex 24 At Daytona and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida – looks entirely within reach after GT Le Mans (GTLM) qualifying Friday afternoon at Sebring International Raceway.

One of Ganassi’s Ford GTs, won its class at the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans on the 50th anniversary of the original Ford GT’s overall victory there. The same car, wearing its familiar No. 66 in WeatherTech Championship competition rather than the No. 68 it sported at Le Mans, also won the 2017 Rolex 24 At Daytona with the same driver lineup – regulars Joey Hand and Dirk Mueller, helped on the longer races by IndyCar driver Sebastien Bourdais.

While that winning driver lineup returns at Sebring, it was the No. 67 Ford GT driven by Ryan Briscoe, that won the GTLM pole with a lap of 1 minute, 55.939 seconds. Both GT Le Mans and GT Daytona set records for qualifying times at Sebring.

Briscoe was just a little quicker than teammate Mueller in the No. 66 – Mueller’s best lap was 1:56.175. The third Ford GT, the No. 68, qualified by Stefan Mucke, was less than a half-second off Briscoe’s pace, but that put him back in fifth. Ford Chip Ganassi Racing brought four Ford GTs to Le Mans and Daytona, but there are only three at Sebring.

“The track was so fast in qualifying,” Briscoe said. “I don’t think anyone was expecting those lap times.” Briscoe – who shares the car with Richard Westbrook and, for longer races like Sebring, IndyCar champ Scott Dixon – said Sebring is one of his favorite races. “I love the challenges that come with it.” The key to winning? “You have to keep your nose clean.”

Qualifying third, with a lap time of 1:56.252, was the No. 4 Corvette Racing C7.R driven by Tommy Milner. But the car was found to have an illegal ride height in post-qualifying inspection, and will have to start last in the GT category behind all GTLM and GT Daytona (GTD) cars. That elevates the fourth-fastest car, the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR qualified by Kevin Estre at 1:56.319, to third. Surprisingly uncompetitive was the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 qualified by Giancarlo Fisichella with the best lap of 1:57.175, the slowest in the field. 

As in the GTLM class, the top qualifiers in GTD also set a Sebring record. The polesitter may be a surprise: Tristan Vautier, the former IndyCar driver, set a fast lap of 1:59.738 and was the only GTD car to qualify under two minutes. A bigger surprise: Vautier drives the No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, a brand-new team headed by owner and co-driver Kenny Habul, teamed with veteran racer Boris Said.

The team’s debut at the Rolex 24 At Daytona resulted in a finish of 18th in class, so this pole has to be a shot in the arm for the SunEnergy1 team.

Second was the No. 29 Montaplast Audi R8 LMS GT3 of Connor De Phillippi, with a lap of 2:00.490, followed by the No. 16 Change Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3, which Corey Lewis qualified at 2:00.967.

Quicker than expected was the fourth- and fifth-fastest qualifiers, the pair of 3GT Racing Lexus RC F GT3s – the No. 15, driven by Robert Alon, had a best lap of 2:00.998, with teammate Scott Pruett close behind, turning a lap of 2:01.158 in the No. 14 Lexus.

The new Acura NSX GT3 two-car team, fielded by Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian, qualified 11th and 14th in the 21-car GT Daytona field.

Vautier was very pleased with his qualifying performance, but he knows the SunEnergy1 Racing team will need some luck to turn the front-row start into a GTD class win.

“Pit stops could be a challenge,” he said, “because our team is less experienced than some. It’s all about execution, and not making mistakes, and be there for the last two hours.”

So far in this young IMSA SportsCar Championship season, it’s been all Cadillac. The three new Cadillac DPi cars have dominated the Prototype class, first winning the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona after qualifying on the pole.

When the Prototype cars arrived in Sebring, it appeared Cadillac would dominate again after posting the fastest lap in three of the four pre-qualifying practice sessions.

However, Cadillac didn’t capture the pole for tomorrow’s 65th Annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida. The qualifying session on Friday afternoon saw record-breaking speeds in three of the four WeatherTech Championship classes, including Prototype, with the fastest lap of 1 minute, 48.178 seconds, set by Neel Jani, driving the No. 13 Rebellion Racing Gibson-powered ORECA P2.

The Rebellion team comes to Sebring hoping to erase the memory of Daytona, which was “a disaster,” Jani said. The team started third but ended up eighth in class and 50 laps off the lead after suffering from a variety of problems.

Jani’s lap at Sebring was just slightly ahead of the fastest Cadillac, the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R. Driver Christian Fittipaldi’s best lap was 1:48.273, and he was followed by teammate Eric Curran in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi, with a lap of 1:48.314.

The third Cadillac, the No. 10 Konica Minolta DPi, qualified sixth. That’s the car that won at Daytona, with driver Ricky Taylor squeezing past Filipe Albuquerque in the closing stages, making a full-contact pass that caused the No. 5 to spin out in Turn 1. It will be interesting to watch when Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor are on the track at the same time on Saturday.

Qualifying in fourth was Jose Gutierrez in the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Ligier P2 car, and fifth was Brendon Hartley aboard the No. 22 Tequila Patron ESM Nissan DPi. The two Mazda DPi cars, after some promising results in pre-qualifying practice sessions, ended up eighth and 10th in the 11-car Prototype field. JDC-Miller Motorsports’ ORECA, the only non-Cadillac to finish atop a practice leaderboard this week, qualified seventh with Stephen Simpson at the wheel.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was that the No. 2 Tequila Patron ESM DPi – with a driver lineup that includes Pipo Derani, the hero of last year’s Rolex 24 and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, as he drove that car to a win in both races last year – encountered issues in qualifying and subsequently lost all times after the team worked on the car in the pits after the qualifying session had begun, which is against IMSA rules.

After qualifying, Rebellion driver Jani seemed surprise by winning the pole.

“We didn’t expect it, to be honest,” he said, due to some issues they’ve had with the car. Jani said Sebring’s unique character – mostly defined by the bumpiest, most abrasive surface on the WeatherTech Championship schedule – means that a driver has to “improvise every lap. There is no ideal lap at Sebring. It’s too bumpy.”

Clearly, Jani improvised Rebellion’s way onto the pole, but there may be no track where qualifying is less important than at the historic, 3.74-mile, 17-turn track. All that matters is the last lap.

And that’s clearly at the top of the mind of Gustavo Yacaman, who was the fastest qualifier in the Prototype Challenge (PC) class, which is running its last race at Sebring as the class is being retired at the end of the season. That has resulted in a smaller field, but there are four PC cars at Sebring that qualified closely and should put on their own show.

Yacaman, driving the No. 26 BAR1 Motorsports Chevrolet-powered ORECA, had a best lap of 1:53.506, edging out the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports car qualified by James French, whose best lap was 1:53.575. The No. 38 car won the Rolex 24 by 22 laps, and Yacaman and the BAR1 team know they have their work cut out for them.

“We’re just going to try to stay out of trouble,” he said. Sebring is “one of the toughest races, especially at night. It’s pitch black out there.” This race, he said. “is a lot harder to win than Daytona.”

So what did we learn about the all-new Prototype field at the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona in January?

In brief, that they are good looking, with a purposeful, means-business profile. But they’re also fast. The premier class in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship was won by the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi V.R, which clocked its fastest lap at 1 minute, 36.394 seconds, which is more than a 132-mph average on the 3.56-mile road course. More impressive still, that wasn’t even the fastest Prototype lap turned during the race.  

But how any of this translates to Sebring International Raceway, for the 65th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida endurance race, is anyone’s guess. Only one thing is for sure: A lot of the cars, after 12 hours on one of the roughest, most challenging tracks in the world, won’t be so pretty for long.

Certainly, the No. 10 car, with a driver lineup of Ricky Taylor, his brother Jordan and newcomer Alexander Lynn from Great Britain, has to be a favorite, even minus NASCAR champ Jeff Gordon, who raced with the team at Daytona, and longtime pro Max Angelelli, who retired after the Rolex 24. Most of Lynn’s résumé contains open wheel experience, as a test driver in Formula 1 and as the winner of the GP3 title in 2014. But if team owner Wayne Taylor didn’t think Lynn wouldn’t fit in with his two sons, he wouldn’t be here.

It was lost on few fans at Daytona that the Prototype win went to a new Cadillac DPi, followed by another Cadillac DPi, the No. 5 Mustang Sampling entry of regulars Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi, with help from Filipe Albuquerque, who happened to be leading the race until the final few minutes when he and Ricky Taylor made contact in Turn 1, with the No. 5 car getting the worst of it. Those same three drivers are back for Sebring, and you have to wonder what will happen when those two cars are side-by-side.

The other Cadillac team, the No. 31 Whelen Engineering car of regulars Dane Cameron and Eric Curran, with help from Michael Conway and Seb Morris, finished a disappointing 14^th at Daytona, but they were often in contention for the lead. All three Cadillacs had fast laps in the 1 minute, 36 second range, the only Prototypes to go that fast.

However, some of the other Prototypes think the tough Sebring race will fall in their favor. The pair of Tequila Patrón ESM Nissan-powered Prototypes will be looking for an improved outing, after finishing fourth and 17^th at Daytona, a race they won last year – and then went on to win Sebring, too. The No. 2 car, with Ryan Dalziel, Scott Sharp and Pipo Derani should be strong, as should the No. 22 team car with Ed Brown, Johannes van Overbeek, Bruno Senna and Brendan Hartley.

Needing a good outing at Sebring are the Mazda Prototypes, which were fast at Daytona, but suffered mechanical problems, dropping them to 40^thand 46^th overall. The cars have the pace, they just need the luck – which has eluded the Mazdas since they dove into the Prototype pond in 2014.

While its lap times weren’t exceptional, the No. 90 Visit Florida Multimatic/Riley P2 car of Marc Goossens, Renger Van der Zande and Rene Rast finished third at Daytona, an example of how just plugging away and not making mistakes can net you a podium finish.

The European team of Rebellion Racing finished just 31^st at Daytona, but the team is much faster than such a finish suggests. The No. 13 ORECA P2 car should be fast, especially because co-drivers Sebastien Buemi, Nick Heidfeld and Neel Jani are as good as any Prototype drivers, anywhere. Don’t rule them out.

The two other Prototype teams – the JDC-Miller ORECA and the PR1/Mathiasen Ligier – are still learning, having just stepped up from the Prototype Challenge (PC) class.

And speaking of PC, the class is making its final appearance around the circuit, as it will not be back for 2018. The field, not surprisingly, is smaller than usual, with four entries for Sebring.

There’s no reason not to pick the No. 38 Performance Tech team, as they handily won Daytona by 22 laps. Drivers for Sebring are James French, Patricio O’Ward and Kyle Masson – those last two both broke the record as being the youngest winners for the race in history. A Sebring win definitely would prove Daytona wasn’t a fluke.