The Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring entry list has spiked with a car count increase of more than 40 percent for the second round of the 2022 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Series.
There are 53 cars entered for the 70th edition of the prestigious endurance race March 19 at Sebring International Raceway, up from 37 last season. The biggest class jump came in the realigned GT categories, which now race on the same GT3 platform specs and are separated by driver classifications.
Between GTD (17) and GTD Pro (11), there are a combined 28 cars, a double-digit increase over last year (when there were 5 in GTLM and 13 in GTD). There also were modest increases in LMP2 (eight cars, up from five last year) and LMP3 (10, up from six in 2021) with the premier DPi class remaining level at seven cars. Sebring continues the trend from the season-opening Rolex 24, which also enjoyed an influx in car count.
ENTRY LIST: Who will be racing in the 2022 Twelve Hours of Sebring
The three Frenchmen who were the overall winners of last year’s Twelve Hours of Sebring return but on two teams. Sebastien Bourdais, who drove a memorable closing stint on the 17-turn, 3.74-mile road course last year to put the No. 5 Cadillac in victory lane, will be in the No. 01 Cadillac of Chip Ganassi Racing while former teammates Tristan Vautier and Loic Duval will be back (with Richard Westbrook) in JDC Miller MotorSports’ defending winner entry.
Kicking off the 1️⃣2️⃣ days of #Sebring12 with last years overall winner, @JDCMotorSports 🏆🏁#IMSA / @sebringraceway pic.twitter.com/XiVXu59lSX
— #IMSA (@IMSA) March 7, 2022
Bourdais will be teamed with full-time teammate Renger van der Zande and 2014 Indy 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay, who will be making his first IMSA start since winning the 2020 Twelve Hours of Sebring with Mazda.
With the NTT IndyCar Series racing March 20 at Texas Motor Speedway, none of the 12 IndyCar drivers who raced the Rolex 24 will be driving at Sebring. Jimmie Johnson will be replaced on the No. 48 Ally Cadillac by Jose Maria Lopez, who also raced with Mike Rockenfeller and Kamui Kobayashi at Daytona International Speedway.
After winning the Rolex 24 at Daytona with IndyCar teammates Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud as co-drivers in the No. 60 Acura, Meyer Shank Racing’s Oliver Jarvis and Tom Blomqvist will be joined by Stoffel Vandoorne at Sebring.
In the GTD Pro class, Corvette Racing will enter only the No. 3 C8.R as its No. 64 will be racing in the FIA WEC 1000 Miles of Sebring that will be held Friday. Corvette drivers Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy are racing the full World Endurance Championship season, which will be opening its six-round season with its only U.S. stop.
The Twelve Hours of Sebring will begin at 10:10 a.m. ET on March 19 with live flag-to-flag coverage on Peacock starting at 10 a.m. The race will be broadcast from 3:30-10:30 p.m. on USA. Qualifying will begin at 9:15 a.m. ET on March 18.
Click here for the entry list in the 2022 Twelve Hours of Sebring.