Sebring

Sebring was without a doubt my low point of the year, and that includes Road America. Because Kevin did Road America to himself, Sebring was done to him.

I had a lot of resentment toward the team as a whole in the long gap between Sebring and Long Beach, to the point where if I hadn’t been taking a trip with family and friends to Long Beach, I might not have gone. 

But that isn’t really about Sebring and this is supposed to be about Sebring. 

Sebring was the first of four special livery weekends that PPM ran in 2026, and also the one that hurts the most to look at. They partnered with Mobil 1 to do throwbacks to a 911 GT1 Mobil 1 livery, with Car 6 running a blue fin and Car 7 running a red fin.

Even counting the 2023 Le Mans “butterfly” livery, this was the first time the PPM 963’s had really looked different. And they looked great. My nails for this race probably are my favorite set of all, because they matched the car almost perfectly.

I continued a wild journey of getting drivers to take a picture of me holding their helmet, and got Laurin Heinrich to do it. I was also able to get a PPM hat from Laurin that I told him I would troll Kevin with by wearing at a race Kevin did that he didn’t. Obviously that plan did not work out. But it still got the hat. 

The end of Sebring was probably a turning point for the team. And was certainly a turning point for me. I’m not sure I even pretended to be a fan of the team after that point. I was a fan of Car 6. And that was it. I think I might have congratulated Laurin on the win after the race, but that’s not what I remember. What I remember is the look in Kevin’s eyes, and the fact that Larry had to take a moment before he even wanted to talk. Well that and the fact that Matt Campbell didn’t even care. 

If I had to find a high point of Sebring it would be meeting Dave Hunt. Dave is Scott McLaughlin’s spotter in IndyCar and a spotter for Vasser Sullivan in IMSA. By the end of the IndyCar season he became my favorite spotter (Sorry Jesse but you retired) and had one singular race where that made Scotty Mac’s car my top non-Ganassi car. Scotty won that race. 

I asked drivers to describe Sebring without saying “bumpy” which led to my single favorite piece of content from the year, the confused Dries Vanthoor image. But again, compared to what was coming, it was a bit of a boring question. 

Sebring probably broke BOP, seemingly broke the team, and definitely broke me. Nothing was really the same after that race. I think, in the dark of the paddock, that was the moment I gave up on a win. The priority was clear, and it was not my car. 

Podium #2 for Cadillac (though which one it was changed after a post race penalty). Podium # 2 for PPM.

Long Beach

Enter the 1100 kilogram car. The heaviest car to ever run under IMSA GTP or WEC Hypercar regulations. An attempt to balance performance after back to back wins, or punishment for the embarrassment of publicly failed team orders at the end of Sebring? The remainder of the season would go on to show it was likely the latter.

IMSA also decided to split the BOP of the 963 with JDC running an older spec of the car, and therefore getting better BOP, so they were not 1100 KG but instead were only 1060, in line with the rest of the field. 

Long Beach was also Laurin Heinrich’s first race on his very interesting side quest, sprint rounds with JDC in the 2025 spec Porsche 963. 

Long Beach was a special Apple Music livery and the car was mostly white with some pink and red, and so were my nails. This was actually my favorite livery of the season. Something about the almost completely white car just worked. 

I asked drivers about their favorite activity to do at the beach. Long Beach is when my questions for drivers series became silly questions for drivers. After this I tried to come up with questions that I didn’t think they would have been asked before. 

Because of the joint IndyCar weekend, things ran a little different at Long Beach. I couldn’t get onto the grid before the race and I couldn’t get to the podium. Not that I thought I would need to with the 1100 kg monstrosity running around out on track. I was wrong.

Somehow Larry and Kévin pulled off a podium finish. I watched the podium from some stands across the track and then RAN back to the paddock to try to see Kévin and maybe do another trophy photo like we did at COTA. Even if he had his trophy with him at Sebring, I wouldn’t have asked, so this was my first shot. 

Kévin didn’t have the trophy with him (he said the team took it) but we took a selfie and he gave me his Michelin podium hat. That was cool. I wish I would have appreciated the podium more at the time, because the next one was a long painful wait. 

This was also the first race where I started getting recognized a decent amount. I was very awkward and hated it. But it showed me that at least some people were paying attention to this journey. 

Podium #3 for Cadillac, Podium #3 for PPM. (The end of this synchronization)