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Corvette’s Sebring WEC Entry Confirmed on 30-Car List

Corvette C8.R booked for Sebring double; three of five Formula E clash drivers named for WEC…

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

The new Chevrolet Corvette C8.R’s entry into the FIA World Endurance Championship 1000 Miles of Sebring has been confirmed on the provisional entry list for the race.

As reported by Sportscar365 earlier this month, Corvette Racing is set to contest both parts of the ‘Super Sebring’ double-header weekend that also includes the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

In a similar strategy to last year, Corvette will field a single car with the No. 63 tag in the WEC’s GTE-Pro class.

However, this time around its entry will be with the mid-engine C8.R which replaced the C7.R at the start of 2020 and made its debut in the Rolex 24 at Daytona last weekend.

No drivers have been announced for Corvette’s effort, which brings the GTE-Pro class field up to a season-high seven entries.

Three current ABB FIA Formula E Championship drivers are named for Sebring, confirming that their WEC commitments will take priority over the clashing Sanya E-Prix.

Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Brendon Hartley and Sebastien Buemi are both set to represent the Japanese manufacturer in LMP1 while James Calado is with AF Corse in GTE-Pro.

In recent months Toyota has been confident that its driver lineup wouldn’t change for the Sebring round, although last month it emerged that the team would give Buemi “fair consideration” to skip the WEC race if the Swiss driver requested it.

However, this action does not appear to have been taken.

Furthermore, Alex Lynn who is the reserve driver for the Jaguar Formula E team that Calado races for, is also nominated for the WEC race with Aston Martin Racing.

LMP2 regulars Nyck de Vries and Antonio Felix da Costa are currently set to miss Sebring in favor of the Sanya event.

Da Costa will take up his place with DS Techeetah while De Vries will be driving for Mercedes.

No replacement has yet been announced for Da Costa a JOTA, while European Le Mans Series competitor Job van Uitert is to sub in for De Vries at Racing Team Nederland.

Elsewhere, Swiss LMP2 squad Cool Racing has dropped off the entry list, reducing the class entry count to seven.

This means that a total of 30 cars will line up for the sixth round of the 2019-20 season, which follows the Lone Star Le Mans six-hour race at COTA in February.

Daniel Lloyd is a UK-based reporter for Sportscar365, covering the FIA World Endurance Championship, Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, among other series.

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