GT World Challenge America Draws 18 Entries For Sebring

The Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS championship heads to historic Sebring International Raceway next weekend, and the provisional entry list has been released for the penultimate meeting of the 2022 season.

18 cars are due to take part, consisting of five Pro cars, 11 Pro-Am cars, and two Am cars.

The Pro Cup class is bolstered by the one-off appearance of Conquest Racing, best known for their tenure as a competitive IndyCar team founded by ex-driver Eric Bachelart. Conquest Racing have partnered with Corsa Horizon to field the #34 Ferrari 488 GT3 for two-time IMSA GTD Drivers’ Champion Alessandro Balzan, and GT3 newcomer Manny Franco.

Their presence will fill the void left by the absence of US Racetronics, who will forgo the Sebring round in order to prepare for the upcoming Indianapolis 8 Hour race on 8 October – where Tristan Vautier will join regular drivers Steven Aghakhani and Loris Spinelli.

K-PAX Racing have one hand and three fingers on the Pro Drivers’ and Teams’ championships heading into Sebring, where Andrea Caldarelli and Jordan Pepper swept both races last year. Caldarelli, star driver of the black #1 K-PAX Lamborghini Huracán GT3, leads Pepper in the green #3 K-PAX Lamborghini by 47 points in the Drivers’ Championship. And in the Teams’ Championship, K-PAX have a 95 point lead over Turner Motorsport and a 96 point lead over Winward Racing, who are coming off a weekend sweep at Road America last month.

However, the Pro-Am Cup championship battles are as close as can be with three races remaining.

Just four points cover the top three in the Drivers’ Championship: The #45 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3-R (Charlie Luck/Jan Heylen), followed by the #93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 (Ashton Harrison/Mario Farnbacher), and the #04 CrowdStrike with Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 (George Kurtz/Colin Braun). And in the Teams’ Championship, Wright Motorsports and Racers Edge are level on points, two points ahead of the CrowdStrike/Riley crew.

Jan Heylen helped navigate Wright Motorsports to a Pro-Am win in Race 1 at Sebring last year, while Racers Edge, who are based out of nearby Deland, Florida, won Race 2.

Another local team, Orlando-based Triarsi Competizione, are expected to be back in full-force with the return of their Pro-Am #13 Ferrari (Justin Wetherill/Ryan Dalziel) alongside 2022 Am Cup Champions, Onofrio Triarsi Jnr and Charlie Scardina in the #23 Ferrari.

The provisional entry list also has the #61 AF Corse Ferrari (Jean-Claude Saada/Conrad Grunewald), who have been sidelined since Saada’s hard crash in Race 1 at VIRginia International Raceway.

FGTWCA PROVISIONAL ENTRY LIST >>

Teams will prepare for the weekend with official testing on Thursday 22 September, followed by Friday practices, then qualifying on Saturday morning, and two 90-minute races on Saturday and Sunday, 24-25 September.

Feature image © Dave Green / SRO Motorsports Group America