The IMSA contingent descends upon the city of Sebring, Fla., population 10,729 (as of the 2020 Census) this weekend for the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring. Unlike the past couple of years, it is now an IMSA-only weekend.
Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring
For Saturday’s 12-hour classic on the bumpy 3.74-mile circuit, there are 58 teams entered in the four IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship classes. This is up five entries from last year.
In the GTP class, there are 11 teams entered, up one from Daytona. The one new entry is a big one.
Iron Lynx, under the team name Lamborghini Iron Lynx, will race the new Lamborghini SC63 in its American debut. The SC63 will be shared by Matteo Cairoli, Andrea Caldarelli and Romain Grosjean. All three drivers drove GT3 cars at Daytona.
There are a couple other changes in the GTPs as well. Julien Andlauer will drive the No. 5 Porsche 963 for JDC-Miller MotorSports alongside Gianmaria Bruni and Alessio Picariello. Andlauer drove in the GTD class for Kellymoss with Riley in Daytona and will be making his first GTP start.
Frederic Makowiecki will be in Penske Porsche Motorsport’s No. 6 this weekend. In Daytona, he drove for Wright Motorsports in GTD.
LMP2 has 13 entries, the same as in Daytona. Likely the most notable change here is that Malthe Jakobsen moves from CrowdStrike Racing by APR to DragonSpeed alongside Rasmus Lindh in a new driver lineup. A third driver has not been announced as of yet.
Charlie Eastwood will drive the No. 8 ORECA 07-Gibson for Tower Motorsport alongside John Farano and Michael Dinan. The ORECA will be his regular ride this season. Back in Daytona, he drove for Andrew Wojteczko Autosport in their No. 17 Corvette.
The GTD Pro class has 12 cars entered, down one from Daytona. The sole team from Daytona that is not entered is SunEnergy1 Racing, which only planned to run Daytona.
The team with the biggest change is Iron Lynx’s No. 60 Lamborghini. The changes are due to the fact that the aforementioned SC63 is racing. Both Cairoli and Grosjean were in the No. 60 in Daytona.
Replacing the factory duo will be Leonardo Pulcini, a past champion in both Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe and International GT Open for Oregon Team. Sebring will be Pulcini’s IMSA debut.
In GTD, there are 22 teams entered, down one from Daytona. The sole entrant from Daytona that is not entered is Kellymoss with Riley’s No. 92 Porsche. This team was originally supposed to run two cars for the full season, but has not fielded the No. 91 Porsche since Indianapolis last September.
The team did run the No. 92 in Daytona with Andlauer, David Brule, Trent Hindman and Alec Udell. They finished 11th in class, 34th overall.
Outside of the absence of Kellymoss with Riley, there are no major changes among drivers in the class. The drivers that aren’t entered from Daytona were those that were only signed to race Daytona.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring Entry List
The Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring is scheduled to go green at 9:40 a.m. ET Saturday morning. Coverage of the race will start at 9:30 a.m. ET on Peacock. Peacock will have flag-to-flag coverage of the event, while USA Network will join in at 4 p.m. ET and stay through the finish
Alan Jay Automotive Network 120
For the second race of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge season, there are 39 teams entered in the two classes, down three from last year. The Grand Sport class has 27 teams entered, down one from Daytona.
Five different teams that competed in Daytona aren’t entered this week. They are Smooge Racing, Hattori Motorsports and Team ACP by Random Vandals. The Smooge and Hattori entries represented all four Toyotas on the grid in Daytona, but the Supra will still be represented.
A new team, CDR Valkyrie, will make their debut with a Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO for Amir Haleem and Brian Lock. The Valkyrie squad previously raced Porsches in Pirelli GT4 America SprintX.
Czabok-Simpson Motorsport is expanding to two cars this weekend with a second Porsche Cayman GT4 RS CS for Gordon Scully and Jackson Lee. Scully co-drove the team’s No. 67 Porsche in Daytona, but Lee will be making his Michelin Pilot Challenge debut.
Lee drove the car in the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge season opening races at Daytona during the ROAR Before the 24 in January, earning finishes of seventh and sixth in the two races. He is coming off of a pair of second-place finishes Saturday in St. Petersburg while driving an Aston Martin for van der Steur Racing.
Thaze Competition returns to the grid with Marc Miller and Josh Green in their green Mercedes. The team was unable to get their new chassis delivered and prepped in time to run the four-hour enduro in Daytona, but plans to run the rest of the season.
Finally, NOLAsport returns with their Porsche for longtime teammates Matt Travis and Jason Hart. The team ran full-time last year with Adam Adelson and Elliott Skeer, who are now in WeatherTech, but chose to skip Daytona.
Skip Barber Racing School was originally on the entry list with their Aston Martin for Ken Fukuda and Will Lambros, but has since withdrawn. Fukuda was involved in a crash during a practice session in Daytona back in January.
As you can see above, the incident hurt the Aston Martin significantly. It resulted in the car being withdrawn from the season-opening BMW M Endurance Challenge.
In TCR, there are only 14 teams entered, down from 17 in Daytona. Among the teams not listed on the pre-event list were all three of the Victor Gonzalez Racing Team entries from Daytona. Frontstretch talked to team owner Victor Gonzalez Jr. back in Daytona and he noted that the Honda entry shared by Clay Williams and Colton Reynolds was a one-off. The two Hyundais were regular cars. Neither of the Hyundais were listed, despite driver Tyler Gonzalez posting Monday about how he’s looking forward to racing this weekend in Sebring.
On the official entry list released Wednesday morning, the VGRT cars have been added to make for 14 TCR entries. There is a change in the No. 80 Hyundai as Chase Jones will replace Julian Santero alongside Morgan Burkhard.
Rockwell Automotive Development is not entered with their Audi. They had only declared their intention to enter Daytona and nothing beyond that. Racers Edge Motorsports is also not entered, along with Deily Motorsports.
The new team on the grid is StarCom Racing. The former NASCAR Cup Series team, still run by 1990 Daytona 500 winner Derrike Cope, will field a Hyundai Elantra N TCR for Andy Lally and Nick Tucker.
Unlike the press release issued in February, the team will use No. 12 instead of No. 00. Tucker owns Nitro Motorsports, a team best known for their time in Trans-Am, which is helping the new effort out.
IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Alan Jay Automotive Network 120 Entry List
The Alan Jay Automotive Network is scheduled to go green at 3:15 p.m. ET Friday afternoon. Coverage will air live on Peacock starting at 3:10 p.m. ET.
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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