Two weeks on from a thrilling ten hour affair in Qatar, the endurance racing world once more turns its attention to the North American scene, with the iconic 12 Hours of Sebring just days away. But who will be vying for GTD honours in Florida?

It’s an impressive field, with no less than 20 cars competing for glory with so many cars in real contention. With so much to go over its hard to know where to start, I’ll do so with the reigning champions of this class: Winward Racing. Last year they dominated the class with Phillip Ellis and Russel Ward, and the two return alongside Indy Dontje to form what looks to be one of the favourites going into this one in the #57.

There’s also the team who won Daytona, AWA’s Corvette programme looks to be a force to be reckoned with. The #13 returns from fresh from it’s Rolex win with Matthew Bell, Orey Fidani and Lars Kern hoping to take another major victory. 

Ever present are the Vasser Sullivan team, who’ve split their two cars across the GT classes. In GTD, they’ve got the #12 with Jack Hawkesworth, Franco Monticalvo and Parker Thompson campaigning for another win with the ageing Lexus. 

Another long standing IMSA team is Heart of Racing. They contested Daytona with a two car effort, but now they’re back to just the old reliable #27 car. Tom Gamble, Zacharie Robichon and Casper Stevenson return to contend with the iconic team. 

Another Aston in the field is that of Van de Steur Racing, who joined the IMSA grid this year. Team owner Rory Van de Steur will be competing alongside Aston representative in WEC Valentin Hasse-Clot and Anthony McIntosh.

Triarsi Competizione have expanded their entry to two cars this year, with the #021 driven by Mike Skeen, Steven Mcaleer and Sheena Monk. The #023 meanwhile competes with Alessio Rovera, Charlie Scardina and Onofrio Triarsi. 

Another two car effort here is that of AF Corse in partnership with Cetilar Racing. Their two car effort comprises of the #21 with Alessandro Pier Guidi, Simon Mann and Lilou Wadoux. Cetilar meanwhile have gone with Antonio Fuoco, Lorenzo Patrese (son of Ricardo) and new for this round Giorgio Sernagiotto. 

GM and Ford’s rivalry isn’t just in GTD Pro, as Gradient Racing ditched the Acura NSX at the end of last year in favour of the newer Ford Mustang GT3, with the team now in their second race with the car. They’ll be employing the talent of Tatiana Calderon, Joey Hand and Till Bechtolsheimer in the #66. Corvette meanwhile have DXDT racing with support from WEC team operator TF Sport. Salih Yoluc, Charlie Eastwood and Alec Udell will form the lineup of the #36 machine.

Mercedes may not be present in GTD Pro but they do have three cars in this class, one of which I’ve already covered with Winward. The other two are Korthoff Preston Motorsports, with Kenton Koch, Maximilian Gotze and Seth Lucas in the #32 car. There’s also Lone Star Racing’s #80 with Dan Knox, Eric Filgueiras and Scott Andrews. 

In the Porsche camp are Wright Motorsports, who’ve been consistently towards the front of the GTD pack with Elliot Skeer, Tom Sargent and Adam Adelson forming the #120 car. Iron Dames are also here hoping for a real run at the class win. The usual suspects of Rahael Frey and Michelle Gatting are here, and there’s a return for Sarah Bovy who missed out on the WEC race two weeks ago. 

BMW are also here, with Turner Motorsports another strong team. They’ve Robby Foley, Patrick Gallagher and Jake Walker and will be hoping for another good run as BMW’s best shot at a win in this class. 

Forte Racing will be running Lamborghini machinery once again, with Misha Goikberg, Mario Farnbacher and Parker Kligerman. 

Inception Racing meanwhile have undergone a huge change in identity. Long known as a one of the only teams to run McLaren GT3 cars on the continent, they’ve switched to Ferrari and are now here with Ollie Millroy, Dane Frederik Schandorff and Brendan Iribe. 

Conquest Racing are another Ferrari team, with Daniel Serra, Cecdric Sbirrazzouli and Manny Franco competing in the #34 car, hoping for a good result.

Wayne Taylor Racing opted to expand into GT3 machinery in 2024 and now are in their second year running their sole Lamborghini Huracan. The #45 car will be piloted by Graham Doyle, Danny Formal and Trent Hindman for this event. 

That then, is your guide to a bumper GTD class at the 2025 12 Hours of Sebring. With so many cars in real contention its bound to be a brilliant class with many twists and turns, but the winner may be decided on the golden rule of this famous track:

Respect the Bumps!

thumbnail image credit – Rick Flores from USA, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons