The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will be in Sebring, Fla. this week for their second biggest race of the year, 12 hours around a former air force base. 54 teams are entered for the event in five classes.
The GTP class has eight entries, down from nine in Daytona. The sole car that is not entered is Chip Ganassi Racing’s No. 02 Cadillac. This car is still in Sebring because it is Ganassi’s full-time entrant in the FIA World Endurance Championship. In other words, you’ll see it race Friday.
Otherwise, changes are limited in the class. All 24 drivers entered in the race were with their teams at Daytona.
There are eight LMP2 teams, down from 10 at Daytona. The two teams that are not entered are the two European part-time entries from Proton Competition and AF Corse.
Nolan Siegel, who is racing full-time in Firestone Indy NXT this year, has joined Crowdstrike Racing by APR alongside Colin Braun and George Kurtz. Siegel impressed a lot of onlookers with his pace for Inter Europol Competition last month during the Asian Le Mans Series season. This will mark Siegel’s IMSA debut in the LMP2 class, having previously raced in LMP3.
Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin is back for another go-around with Tower Motorsports, something that was not confirmed back when Frontstretch talked with him in Daytona. By all indications, McLaughlin greatly enjoyed his experience with the team and compared racing LMP2 cars in endurance events to events like the Bathurst 1000.
The LMP3 class has 10 teams entered, an increase of one from Daytona. FASTMD Racing has also not entered the event, meaning that there are two new entrants. The first is Jr III Racing’s No. 30. Ari Balogh and Garret Grist will drive the car for the remainder of the season. They’ll be joined in Sebring by Dakota Dickerson.
The other is Ave Motorsports, which has raced LMP3 cars for years, but has never entered one in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. They will field a Ligier JS P320-Nissan for Trenton Estep, Tonis Kasemets and Seth Lucas.
For Lucas, Sebring will mark his IMSA debut. Previously, Lucas raced for Hattori Motorsports in SRO America and is currently confirmed to race in Fanatec GT World Challenge America full-time. Estep raced for MDK Motorsports in Daytona, while Kasemets has a couple of previous starts.
At Performance Tech Motorsports, the team announced Monday that Tristan Nunez will join the team for Sebring, along with Robert Mau. They’ll be joined by Christopher Allen, who raced with the team in Daytona.
MRS-GT Racing’s No. 43 is entered in the race, but there are no drivers listed on their car. The listed sponsors include the Vogel Group, which is Alex Vogel‘s company, though.
GTD Pro has eight entries, down from 10 in Daytona. TeamTGM’s Aston Martin wasn’t expected to show up, but MDK Motorsports is not entered either.
MDK Motorsports was planning to run the full season. However, the Porsches in general were way off the pace in Daytona due to an air restrictor that rendered the new 992-based Porsche 911 GT3 R uncompetitive in a straight line. Team owner Mark Kvamme chose to withdraw his entry for Sebring in response.
The only major change of note is at Risi Competizione, where Gabriel Casagrande will be in the No. 62 Ferrari alongside Ferrari factory drivers Davide Rigon and Daniel Serra. Casagrande, who will be making his IMSA debut, is best known as the 2021 champion of the Stock Car Pro Series in Brazil.
GTD has 20 entries, down from 23 in Daytona. The teams that are not entered are Iron Lynx (No. 19), NTe/SSR and SunEnergy1 Racing. Of that group, the only surprise is the NTe/SSR team, which has struggled with sponsorship.
Driver changes in the class are fairly minimal, mostly based around the three-driver maximum. AO Racing’s Porsche will look significantly different this weekend as they unveiled their regular scheme, named “Rexy,” on Monday.
IMSA WEATHERTECH SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP MOBIL 1 12 HOURS OF SEBRING ENTRY LIST
The race is scheduled to go green at 10:10 a.m. ET Saturday morning. The first six hours and change will be exclusive to Peacock. USA picks up coverage at 4:30 p.m. ET and will go through the finish.
About the author
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.
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