The Twelve Hours of Sebring will feature four Mercedes-AMG GT3 cars, three in GTD and one in GTD Pro, while five Mercedes-AMG GT4 cars are entered in the GS class for the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge race. 2022 is the first year Mercedes will see cars in multiple IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship classes, this is because 2022 is the first season with both GTD and GTD Pro classes.
The #97 Proton USA GT3 entry in GTD Pro of Cooper MacNeil, Marco Engel, and Jules Gounon return after a competitive outing at Daytona in January. Along with Daniel Juncadella, the three led 77 laps in the #97 before a cooling hose failure resulted in overheating and retirement in the final quarter of the race. The trio is after a better result this weekend, especially after Proton scored a class victory last year at Sebring.
In GTD, the #32 Gilbert Korthoff Motorsports (GKM) GT3 is after continued success after a third-place class finish at Daytona. Driving the #32 will be Mike Skeen, Stevan McAleer, and Juncadella, Sebring marks GKM’s sixth IMSA WeatherTech GTD start.
Another GTD entry with Daytona success is the #57 Winward Racing GT3 car, they secured a victory at Daytona in 2021 and were hopeful for a repeat in January, but they had to settle for sixth after early race contact. Both the #32 and #57 cars will be making their Sebring debuts this weekend. Finally, GTD will also feature the #28 Alegra Motorsports GT3.
They are hopeful for better luck this year with Daniel Morad, Michael de Quesada, and Maximilian Götz after last year’s Sebring race saw them knocked out early by another competitor.
For the Michelin Pilot Challenge, Mercedes-AMG customer teams are fresh off a one-two finish at the season opener in Daytona in GS Bronze with the #11 Capstone Motorsports and #65 Murillo Racing GT4s. Also in GS, the #55 FCP-Euro GT4 will have its first race start since last September, the #55 car features a dual-duty driver as Skeen will race for both FCP-Euro in the Pilot Challenge and GKM in the Twelve Hours of Sebring.
