| Fifty-Three Cars Entered for 70th Running March 9, 2022 By Mark Robinson IMSA Wire Service  DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – History will be in the making for the second consecutive IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race with the 70th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts on March 19. It comes seven weeks following the 60th running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona that opened the 2022 season. Fifty-three cars are entered – an increase of 16 cars from a year ago – in the 12-hour race that also serves as the second round of the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup. WeatherTech Championship action at Sebring International Raceway begins Thursday, March 17 with three practice sessions for the five classes. Qualifying is set for Friday, March 18, with the race commencing the morning of Saturday, March 19. Here’s the information you need to know for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. Sebring International Raceway – Sebring, Florida March 17-19, 2022 Fast Facts Race Day/Time: Saturday, March 19 – 10:10 a.m. ET Peacock Streaming Coverage: LIVE – Flag-to-flag beginning at 10 a.m. NBC Sports Coverage: USA from 3:30-10:30 p.m. IMSA.com/TVLive Live Qualifying Stream: Friday, March 18 – 9:15 a.m. IMSA Radio: All sessions live on IMSA.com and RadioLeMans.com; SiriusXM live race coverage begins March 19 at 9:45 a.m. (Sirius channel 216, XM 207, Web/App 992) Circuit Type: 3.74-mile, 17-turn road course Race Length: 12 hours Track Social Media: Twitter/Instagram: @SebringRaceway; Facebook: @SebringInternationalRaceway Event Hashtags: #IMSA, #Sebring12, #RespectTheBumps Entry List (Click Here) WeatherTech Championship Track Records Qualifying: DPi: Pipo Derani, Cadillac DPi-V.R, 1:45.354 / 127.797 mph, March 2021 LMP2: Gustavo Menezes, ORECA LMP2, 1:49.645 / 122.796 mph, July 2020 LMP3: Rasmus Lindh, Ligier JS P320, 1:56.001 / 116.067 mph, March 2021 GTD PRO: none (new class in 2022) GTD: Jack Hawksworth, Lexes RC F GT3, 1:59.247 / 112.908 mph, March 2021 2021 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts Winners: DPi: Tristan Vautier/Loic Duval/Sebastien Bourdais, No. 5 Mustang Sampling/JDC-Miller MotorSports Cadillac DPi V.R LMP2: Ben Keating/Mikkel Jensen/Scott Huffaker, No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07 LMP3: Jonathan Bennett/George Kurtz/Colin Braun, No. 54 CORE autosport Ligier JS P320 GTD PRO: new class in 2022 GTD: Zacharie Robichon/Laurens Vanthoor/Lars Kern, No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R Storylines Championship Chases Continue and Start: All five WeatherTech Championship classes will race for the second time this year, but for two classes – Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) and Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) – this will be the first race of the season that counts toward the season championship. The other three classes – Daytona Prototype international (DPi), GTD PRO and GT Daytona (GTD) – each earned championship points in the season opener, the Rolex 24 At Daytona. Jarvis Aims for Grand Slam: Oliver Jarvis, co-driver of the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura ARX-05, is seeking to become the first driver to win all four IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup races in succession. The Brit won the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen and the Motul Petit Le Mans last year driving for Mazda Motorsports. He started 2022 with his new team, Meyer Shank Racing, with the overall victory at the Rolex 24 At Daytona. Father-and-Son Team: Juan Pablo Montoya, the 2019 Daytona Prototype international (DPi) champion, races for the first time this season in the No. 81 DragonSpeed USA ORECA LMP2 07. He’ll be joined in the lineup by his 16-year-old son, Sebastian, making his WeatherTech Championship debut. Auberlen’s 500th for BMW: Bill Auberlen, the all-time leading winner in IMSA’s top series with 64 victories, will make his 500th start in a BMW in the race. A three-time winner at Sebring, he’ll share the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 with co-drivers Robby Foley and Michael Dinan. IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup: The second race of the WeatherTech Championship season also marks the second event counting toward the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup, where separate points are accumulated at different junctures of the endurance races. For Sebring, those junctures are the four-, eight- and 12-hour marks. Leading in each class following the Rolex 24 are: in DPi, the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura; in LMP2, the No. 29 Racing Team Nederland ORECA; in LMP3, the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320; in GTD PRO, the No. 2 KCMG Mercedes-AMG GT3 (not entered at Sebring); and in GTD, the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R. Who’s Hot? Jarvis and Whoever’s with Him: If Oliver Jarvis is to complete his sweep of endurance races, it will be with one driver who helped at Daytona and a newcomer to the Meyer Shank team. Tom Blomqvist is Jarvis’ full-season teammate in the No. 60 Acura. With Rolex 24 teammates Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud unavailable due to a conflict with their IndyCar Series schedule, the team called on former Formula One driver Stoffel Vandoorne to fill in as the third driver for this historic quest. No. 74 Riley Motorsports LMP3: Coming off a 2021 season that saw the car win five races and the inaugural LMP3 championship, the No. 74 kept the momentum rolling by winning for the second straight year at the Rolex 24. Sebring was one of only two races last season where the Riley effort was not victorious. No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche: After winning at Sebring and taking the GTD championship in 2021, the No. 9 moved to the GTD PRO class this year and picked up where it left off by capturing the class at the Rolex 24. Drivers Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet, part of that winning effort at Daytona, were also victorious last year at Sebring driving for the No. 79 WeatherTech Porsche team in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class. Who’s Good Here? Can You Say Bourdais: Sebastien Bourdais collected his third Sebring win last year in a masterful drive to the finish with a damaged car. He’s changed teams this year to Chip Ganassi Racing, where he looks to change the fortunes of the team whose lone Sebring triumph came in 2014. PR1 Mathiasen and Huffaker: PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports is the two-time defending LMP2 champion at Sebring and Scott Huffaker is the driver constant in both wins. Ben Keating and Mikkel Jensen also return from the 2021 winner. Porsche of the Century: By winning in both GTLM and GTD a year ago at Sebring, the German manufacturer reached 100 class wins at the track, the first coming in 1955. That’s more Sebring wins than all the other current WeatherTech Championship manufacturers combined. Previous Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts Winners in 2022 Field (40) Bill Auberlen (3): GTS-2 – 1995; GTS-3 – 1997; GT3 – 1998 Jonathan Bennett (3): PC – 2014, 2016; LMP3 – 2021 Sebastien Bourdais (3): GT2 – 2006; P – 2015; DPi – 2021 Colin Braun (3): PC – 2014, 2016; LMP3 – 2021 Pipo Derani (3): P – 2016, 2018; DP – 2019 Antonio Garcia (3): GT1 – 2009; GTLM – 2015, 2017 Ian James (3): P2 – 2004, 2005; GTD – 2015 Joao Barbosa (2): P2 – 2012; P – 2015 Loic Duval (2): P1 – 2011; DPi – 2021 Mario Farnbacher (2): GTD – 2015, 2017 Scott Huffaker (2): LMP2 – 2020, 2021 Ben Keating (2): GTD – 2017; LMP2 – 2021 Cooper MacNeil (2): GTC – 2013; GTLM – 2021 Earl Bamber (1): GTLM – 2020 Jonathan Bomarito (1): DPi – 2020 Mirko Bortolotti (1): GTD – 2019 Matt Campbell (1): GTLM – 2021 Ryan Dalziel (1): WEC P2 – 2012 Ryan Hardwick (1): GTD – 2020 Jan Heylen (1): GTD – 2020 Mathieu Jaminet (1): GTLM – 2021 Oliver Jarvis (1): P1 – 2013 Mikkel Jensen (1): LMP2 – 2021 Lars Kern (1): GTD – 2021 George Kurtz (1): LMP2 – 2021 Andy Lally (1): GTD – 2014 Corey Lewis (1): GTD – 2018 Alex Lynn (1): P – 2017 Felipe Nasr (1): DP – 2019 John Potter (1): GTD – 2014 Alex Riberas (1): GTD – 2015 Zacharie Robichon (1): GTD – 2021 Mike Rockenfeller (1): GTLM – 2017 Bryan Sellers (1): GTD – 2018 Madison Snow (1): GTD – 2018 Jordan Taylor (1): P – 2017 Ricky Taylor (1): P – 2017 Laurens Vanthoor (1): GTD – 2021 Tristan Vautier (1): DPi – 2021 Richard Westbrook (1): GT – 2013 Previous Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts Pole Winners in 2022 Field (13) Bill Auberlen (4): GTU – 1994; GTS-3 – 1997; GT3 – 1998; GTLM – 2016 Colin Braun (2): LMPC – 2013; PC – 2016 Antonio Garcia (2): GTLM – 2020, 2021 Tristan Vautier (2): GTD – 2017; P – 2018 Sebastien Bourdais (1): P – 2014 Connor De Phillippi (1): GTLM – 2018 Pipo Derani (1): DPi – 2021 Jan Heylen (1): GTD – 2020 Andy Lally (1): GTC – 2013 Rasmus Lindh (1): LMP3 – 2021 Daniel Serra (1): GTD – 2018 Ricky Taylor (1): DPi – 2020 Steven Thomas (1): LMP2 – 2021 Previous Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts Winning Teams in 2022 Field (16) Corvette Racing (11): GTS – 2002, 2003, 2004; GT1 – 2006, 2007, 2008 2009; GT – 2013; GTLM – 2015, 2016, 2017 CORE autosport (4): LMPC – 2012; PC – 2014, 2016; LMP3 – 2021 PR1 Mathiasen (4): LMPC – 2013; PC – 2015; LMP2 – 2020, 2021 Action Express/Whelen Engineering Racing (2): P – 2015; DP – 2019 BMW Team RLL (2): GT – 2011, ALMS GT – 2012 Performance Tech (2): PC – 2017; LMP2 – 2019 AF Corse (1): WEC GT – 2012Chip Ganassi Racing (1): P – 2014 JDC-Miller MotorSports (1): DPi – 2021Magnus (1): GTD – 2014 Paul Miller Racing (1): GTD – 2018 Pfaff Motorsports (1): GTD – 2021 Riley Motorsports (1): GTD – 2017 Wayne Taylor Racing (1): P – 2017 WeatherTech Racing (1): GTLM – 2021Wright Motorsports (1): GTD – 2020 Previous Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts Winning Manufacturers in 2022 Field (9) Porsche – 100 Chevrolet – 40 Ferrari – 37 BMW – 7 Acura – 3 Aston Martin – 3 Cadillac – 3 Lamborghini – 2 Mercedes – 2 |
