The penultimate race weekend of the 2022 Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS season heads to central Florida for two races on the famous, 3.74-mile stretch of ex-military base tarmac at Sebring International Raceway. The notoriously bumpy circuit is a true challenge for both driver and machine to set the stage for the final few rounds of the 2022 season.
Heading into the weekend, the fight to watch will be between Florida natives Racers Edge Motorsports against out-of-towners Wright Motorsports and CrowdStrike w/ Riley Motorsports. The trio are in an epic three-way battle for the top spot in the Pro-Am championship. They’re no strangers to this track, either — Wright grabbed the Pro-Am win in Race 1 in 2021 with its Porsche, whereas Racers Edge took the win in Race 2 with its Acura. This time around, they’ll have eight other Pro-Am teams to contend with if they’d like to repeat their success.
When all of the combined SRO global events are summed up, we are now 35 races into an amazing 49-race series, where manufacturers points are gathered across the greatest racetracks of Europe, America, Australia, and Asia. Heading into Sebring, Mercedes-AMG, leads Audi Sport and Ferrari.
Pro
K-PAX Racing understands the Sebring’s high-speed circuit, having swept the weekend here in 2021 with Jordan Pepper and Andrea Caldarelli at the wheel of the No. 3 Lamborghini. This year, the duo is split, with Caldarelli and Michele Beretta piloting the No. 1 Lamborghini Huracan GT3, and Pepper teaming up with Misha Goikhberg in the No. 3 Lamborghini Huracan GT3. This could mean some front-of-the-pack, intra-team squabbling is in store while they work to fully extinguish any other team’s hopes at the 2022 championship. But as we all know, and have been reminded of this season (especially at Watkins Glen): it’s not over until it’s over.
After some bad luck in Race 1 at Road America, the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 (Michael Dinan/Robby Foley) will be back to ensure no win is too easy, as will late-season newcomers Conquest Racing with its No. 34 Ferrari 488 GT3 (Manny Franco/Alessandro Balzan).
Pro-Am
This class has not only been the most populous class of the Fanatec GT World Challenge America season, but has also seen the most drama. Nowhere is that more apparent than the points possessed by the top three teams in the championship so far: No. 45 Wright Motorsport’s Jan Heylen and Charlie Luck lead over the No. 93 Racers Edge Motorsports drivers’ Ashton Harrison and Mario Farnbacher and No. 04 Crowdstrike Racing by Riley Motorsports’ George Kurtz and Colin Braun, with just four points separating first to third. Any one of the teams could leave Sebring as the points leader, but the championship will not be decided until the 8-Hour season finale at Indy.
Wright scored their two race wins in the opening rounds at Sonoma, while CrowdStrike has three wins at three different tracks. The Racers Edge team may have the momentum having just swept the Road America weekend.
Just behind in fourth and fifth are the No. 94 BimmerWorld BMW M4 GT3 (Chandler Hull/Bill Auberlen) and the No. 63 DXDT Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 (David Askew/Dirk Muller).
This will be a wide open battle for race wins and championship points. The high-speed straights at Sebring may favor the big-block V8 Mercedes over its turbocharged six-cylinder-engined rivals from Acura and BMW. but Sebring also features some awfully technical sections, too. That’s the beauty of Fanatec GT World Challenge America — the wide variety of manufacturers, chassis, and power plants ensures some of the most thrilling professional sports car racing in North America.
Am
The No. 23 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 488 GT3 driven by Onofrio Triarsi and Charlie Scardina has already clinched the Am championship with eight wins from ten races.
Triarsi’s done an awesome job this season, claiming some finishing positions way in front of Pro-Am rivals, and not too far off from their No. 13 Ferrari 488 GT3 Pro-Am sister car of Justin Wetherill and Ryan Dalziel. In fact, they finished right behind the No. 13 in Race 2 at Watkins Glen.
The Sebring schedule, live timing and scoring, and session reports will be available at GT-World-Challenge-America.com.
Check out race live streams for free on YouTube at GT World. Come check out the action in person — tickets are now available.
