There will be fifty-three cars on the grid when IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship starts the second round of the 2022 season at Sebring International Raceway.
As always, there’s a little decrease compared to the opening round at Daytona, but it’s still more than 2021 with only thirty-seven cars.
The DPi category still has seven cars, but not necessarily the same drivers from last time.
Ryan Hunter-Reay got a call-up from Cadillac Racing #01, where he will replace Scott Dixon due to a coincidence with NTT IndyCar Series and their race in Texas. In the team’s #02 there’s suddenly a vacant spot after Kevin Magnussen’s return to Formula 1. That hole isn’t filled yet.
Meyer Shank Racing Acura #60 has taken Stoffel Vandoorne as a replacement for Helio Castroneves, who also drives in Indycar.
We lost two cars in LMP2, but the question is if we’ll ever see them again this season. The two G-Drive Racing cars are not on the starting list after all the sanctions against Russia and the Russian sponsors have taken place.
Furthermore, there are more changes in two of the LMP2 cars, where Duncan Tappy is the new third driver in United Autosports #22, replacing Will Owen and Phil Hanson. The two will drive the FIA World Endurance Championship on the same track, and choose to focus on that task. Guy Smith and Jim McGuire will continue in the car.
In DragonSpeed USA #81, Sebastian Montoya will be in the car with his dad Juan Pablo, while Henrik Hedman remains to be the Bronze-rated driver. Sebastian tested for the team in Bahrain under the FIA WEC rookie test, where the team was convinced that the youngster would do the job well, and thus open the way for another father-son combination in sportscar.
Mikkel Jensen will be on board PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports #52 once again, with Scott Huffaker and Ben Keating, while High Class Racing #20 comes with Dennis Andersen, Anders Fjordbach and Fabio Scherer.
Photo Courtesy of IMSA / Brett Farmer
In the LMP3 category, the list grows with one more car. Mühlner Motorsports America has pulled out their only car, but there will be a new car each from JR III Racing #30 and FastMD Racing #40. Malthe Jakobsen will continue at Sean Creech Motorsports #33, where he shares the car with Joao Barbosa and Lance Willsey.
There are eleven cars in GTD Pro, even though there are some driver changes. Corvette Racing only shows up with their #3, since the second car will debut in the FIA WEC at the same weekend. On the other hand, KCMG will not be there as it has always been their plan to only drive at Daytona. We don’t have Proton Racing Mercedes #15 in the field either, but there are still both WeatherTech Racing cars – Porsche #79 and Mercedes #97 respectively.
Racers Edge Motorsports with WTR Acura #93 is a new team, that shows up in GTD Pro for the first time. Tom Long and Kyle Marcelli will share the car with Aston Harrison-Henry, who’s one of the two women in the field beside Katherine Legge.
The GTD field has gone down from 22 to 17, which is the biggest change in a category.
TR3 Racing Lamborghini #19, GMG Racing Porsche #34, Team TGM Porsche #64, T3 Motorsport North America Lambo #71, Sun Energy 1 Mercedes #75, and Northwest AMR #98 will not be present. However, Paul Miller Racing #1 is ready with their brand new BMW M4 GT3, after having to skip Daytona over since the car hadn’t been delivered yet at that time.
The 12 hours of Sebring will be run on Saturday, 19 March 2022.
