GTLM (11 cars)
3 Jan Magnussen / Antonio Garcia / Ryan Briscoe Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R (Michelin)
4 Oliver Gavin / Tommy Milner / Robin Liddell Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R (Michelin)
17 Wolf Henzler / Bryan Sellers / Marco Holzer Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 RSR (Falken)
55 Bill Auberlen / Andy Priaulx / Joey Hand BMW Team RLL BMW Z4 GTE (Michelin)
56 Dirk Müller / John Edwards / Dirk Werner BMW Team RLL BMW Z4 GTE (Michelin)
57 Tracy Krohn / Nic Jonsson / Andrea Bertolini Krohn Racing Ferrari F458 Italia (Michelin)
62 Gianmaria Bruni / Matteo Malucelli / Giancarlo Fisichella Risi Competizione Ferrari F458 Italia (Michelin)
91 Dominik Farnbacher / Marc Goossens / Ryan Hunter-Reay SRT Motorsports SRT Viper GTS-R (Michelin)
93 Robert Bell / Jonathan Bomarito / Kuno Wittmer SRT Motorsports SRT Viper GTS-R (Michelin)
911 Nick Tandy / Richard Lietz / Patrick Pilet Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR (Michelin)
912 Patrick Long / Michael Christensen / Jörg Bergmeister Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR (Michelin)
It’s 11 cars in an almost exclusively epic GTLM class – Plus one and minus another from the Daytona line-up.
The no show is the factory Aston Martin, AMR were profoundly unhappy with their Balance of Performance at Daytona and, since then, have had a pleasant surprise or two on the Le Mans entry list – Priorities may have shifted as a result, and a pre-Sebring weight break is now no news at all.
The addition is a very welcome one indeed as 2013 Petit Le Mans winners Falken Tire return with their brand spanking new Porsche 911 RSR, the first current spec car in private hands.
The team have tested at Sebring but this will be a very new car for them, at perhaps one of the most challenging events of the year – They’ll be up for the fight, and to get their TUSCC season off to a flier, but there’s a mountain to climb.
The Falken car will share the factory Porsche’s reduced fuel load as IMSA act to reduce stint lengths across the class, the 911 RSR down from 110 litres to 99.
The Porsche North America team meanwhile are on a roll, after a Daytona win and good form in testing their confidence will be high, and the 911 RSR seems to be one of those cars that is either nowhere, or unbeatable! And with the 2014 car looking like a big step on from the already pretty darn good ’13 effort the pendulum seems to swing to the positive end of the performance envelope more often.
One of the longest lasting intermarque duels in sportscar racing is the Ferrari vs Porsche storyline and there’s at least a possibility of a battle along those lines here.
It won’t be with the #57 Krohn Racing car though, and certainly not over a full race distance – Tracy Krohn has been a staunch supporter of the sport but a Pro-Am line up in this company is akin to Sean Connery’s classic line from The Untouchables – Bringing a knife to a gun fight!
Mind you that was mere seconds before the knifeman’s partner in crime prayed Connery with a Tommy Gun, and Krohn’s stablemate is indeed the more convincingly armed.
Risi Competizione have though had a very busy time since Daytona, the original #62 Ferrari comprehensively written off in the accident that befell Mtteo Malucelli and Memo Gidley.
They’re ready for the race week, but it’s been very hard work indeed, and with no time for pre race testing. That leaves one of the fan favourites with their hands full to overflowing with challenges. The addition of FIA WEC World Champion Gianmaria Bruni to the full season duet of Giancarlo Fisichella and Malucelli will help, but much will depend on their run in to the race being productive and untroubled. The Ferraris meanwhile get their fuel load reduced from 110 litres to just 94.
BMW next and the Z4s looked to be nowhere until the very closing stages at Daytona, and then suddenly were very, very close indeed, luck, judgement, strategy and reliability all played a part.
What they fundmentally didn’t have though was enough raw pace and it’s the Z4 that gets the most wide ranging BoP changes, allowed to use modified door sills and an extra 10 mm Gurney for its rear wing, an increase from 15 mm to 25. Will that be enough, well the BMWs have looked quick at Sebring, on the Marmite scale it edges into the ‘love’ side of things – They’ll be there.
That leaves the double duo of American big bangers.
SRT’s Vipers first, and the whole team see Daytona as the one that got away. their cars were fast, well suited to the circuit and looked set to be in race long contention until trouble hit, not mechanically serious, but ultimately too much time lost to recover.
The big V10 engined cars lose fuel load too, 120 litres down to 103, but there’s reason to believe that this is a team that will be tough to beat here, the Viper loves the long straights and has great traction out of the turns. If these big boys get involved in a close battle it will be a treat to be trackside.
Finally it’s America’s sportscar and Corvette Racing’s fabulous looking (and sounding) C7.Rs are on the hunt for their first win. Their Daytona fuel load is reduced from 110 litres to 96. Here’s a team with more Sebring stories than most – and form that suggests they’ll be very tough to beat here.
Meanwhile though this is yet another great GTLM driver line up, another great team, and at another great race – Pick a car, and watch it go, a great race within a race is all but guaranteed in GTLM.
GTD (26 Cars)
13 Matt Plumb / Madison Snow / Jan Heylen Rum Bum / Snow Racing Porsche 911 GT America
18 Earl Bamber/ TBA/ TBA Muehlner Motorsports America Porsche 911 GT America
19 Earl Bamber/ TBA/ TBA Muehlner Motorsports America Porsche 911 GT America
22 Cooper MacNeil / Leh Keen / Philipp Frommenwiler Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT America
23 Ian James / Mario Farnbacher / Alex Riberas Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT America
27 Patrick Dempsey / Andrew Davis / Joe Foster Dempsey Racing Porsche 911 GT America
28 Christian Engelhart / Rolf Ineichen Dempsey Racing Porsche 911 GT America
30 Henrique Cisneros / Christina Nielsen / Kuba Giermaziak MOMO / NGT Motorsport Porsche 911 GT America
32 James Sofronas / Alex Welch/ Marc Basseng GMG Racing Audi R8 LMS
33 Jeroen Bleekemolen / Sebastiaan Bleekemolen / Ben Keating Riley Motorsports SRT Viper GT3-R
35 Seth Neiman / Dion von Moltke / Alessandro Latif / Filipe Albuquerque / Portugal Flying Lizard Motorsports Audi R8 LMS
44 John Potter / Andy Lally / Marco Seefried Magnus Racing Porsche 911 GT America
45 Nelson Canache Jr. / Spencer Pumpelly / Tim Pappas / Markus Winkelhock Flying Lizard Motorsports Audi R8 LMS
46 Christopher Mies / Charlie Putman / Charles Espenlaub Fall-Line Motorsports Audi R8 LMS
48 Bryce Miller / Christopher Haase / Matthew Bell Paul Miller Racing Audi R8 LMS
49 Gialuca Roda / Paolo Ruberti / TBA Spirit of Race Ferrari 458 Italia
51 Matt Griffin / Marco Cioci/ Michele Rugolo / Jack Gerber Spirit of Race Ferrari 458 Italia
63 Lorenzo Case/ Stefan Johansson / Alessandro Balzan / Jeff Westphal Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia
64 TBA / TBA Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia
71 Patrick Lindsey / Connor De Phillippi / Kevin Estre Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT America
73 Jim Norman / Craig Stanton / Norbert Siedler Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT America
81 Patrick Huisman / Damien Faulkner /Bob Faieta / Mike Avenatti GB Autosport Porsche 911 GT America
94 Dane Cameron / Paul Dalla Lana / Markus Palttala Turner Motorsport BMW Z4
007 David Block / Al Carter / James Davison TRG-AMR Aston Martin V12 Vantage
009 TBA / TBA TRG-AMR Aston Martin V12 Vantage
555 Bill Sweedler / Townsend Bell AIM Autosport Ferrari 458 Italia
The big news here pre Sebring was the withdrawal of Daytona winners Level 5, the team apparently without a sustainable full season package, and apparently unhappy about some aspects of the way the class was managed and moving.
The team’s #555 entry though has transferred to the returning AIM Motorsport (though with the Level 5 car) and that means that Bill Sweedler and Townsend Bell’s season stays on track, literally!
There’s BoP shenanighans in GTD too as fuel loads here are also changed though large cuts post Daytona have, in some cases now been clawed back.
Porsche’s 911 GT America will race with an 83-liter tank, down from 85 at Daytona, Ferrari’s F458 will have 92, up from 86, Audi’s R8 will have 94, up from 86, BMW’s Z4 will have 89, down from 100, Aston Martin’s V12 Vantage will have 97, up from 90, and SRT’s Viper will have 104, up from 95 – All clear? Good!
Even with a net loss of a Ferrari there’s a mightily impressive 26 car entry and there’s a level of expectation that the best of the 12 Porsche bunch, effectively balanced out of contention at the Rolex 24, will be right back in the hunt here.
With some well known factory blessed hotshoes, and some other less well known ones that will be just as quick, there are likely to be a number of 911s up for the Sebring cup. In fact there’s barely a car wearing a Porsche badge that doesn’t have at least one driver capable of duking it out at the front. Alex Job Racing are punching for their tenth Sebring class win, Magnus Racing would love to win this one too but honestly, the harder you look at the list, the trickier it is to count more than one or two out on pace alone.
And then you remember that this isn’t GTC and there are more marques to come!
TRG’s Aston Martins looked great, ran fast but had just too many niggly issues, and some contact too. That’s something that will improve as the season progresses – but perhaps not in time for the Vantages to be right there just yet?
The Viper too had its niggles but this is looking like a star in the making, the cars pace in testing was excellent and here’s another car that will only get better from here on in.
The solo BMW from Turner Motorsport has potential too, though this is a car that should be quick out of the box. A good car, a good driver line-up – If they can pull a clean run out of the hat then this could be one to watch.
Ferrari next and five cars, including the AIM effort dealt with earlier. A pair of Spirit of Race (AF Corse) efforts and a pair of Scuderia Corsa cars complete the quintet and again the cars have a sprinkling of real talent aboard – Ruberti, Griffin, and a pukka ex Ferrari F1 driver (that makes two of them in this race!). In truth some of the Gentlemen drivers in the 458 are probably not as fast and surefooted as the gentlemen elsewhere but there will be red cars in the mix here.
That leaves us with another quintet, five cars, and four rings. Audi’s glory days of winning Sebring overall might be history for now at least, but this place really means something to the marque, and there are few weak points in their attack here – a two car effort from Flying Lizards, and single car efforts from GMG, Fall-Line and Paul Miller all look pretty good, some look more convincing still with the likes of Filipe Albuquerque, Marc Basseng, Christopher Haase, Christopher Mies and Marcus Winkelhock amongst the order.
Don’t bet against at least a couple of the R8 LMS runners bing in contention at the end here – Audi’s story at Sebring is about to turn to another chapter!
