The No. 52 Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo, run by Dutch Sim Racing Team will be hoping to hit the ground running around the bumps of the legendary Sebring International Raceway.

However, having not attended the first free practice session, it looks as though it may be difficult for them to be fast from the get-go.

The other new entry on the GT3 class grid is the No. 312 BMW M4 GT3 of Real Pixel Motorsports from Germany. The team with plenty of endurance racing experience, also failed to post a lap time in the first official practice session on Saturday and therefore have given yet to give an indication of their pace, heading into this weekend’s event.

Speaking with Real Pixel Motorsports’ Wolfgang Wildenauer, the 48-year-old German said:

“We have no big expectations. Currently we have only two active drivers on the team, as announced: Ronald Gross and myself. We’ve had some organizational and timing issues, so we were haven’t competed in as many races recently as we’d like to, but we are very happy to have made it to the grid for Sebring.”

“We are highly motivated but have no sense yet regarding our own performance and where we are compared to the other teams. So like I said, our expectations are not too high. We will concentrate on having a good race and focus on finishing without bigger problems. With the BoP [balance of performance] being the way it is, we think that Sebring will not really be BMW-Land, anyway.”, explained Wildenauer.

So, Real Pixel Motorsports and Dutch Sim Racing Team both will be hoping for a good result on Saturday as they enter the season with a 360 points gap to the leaders, with only seven championship rounds to go in the inaugural VSCA Sportscars Series season.

Realistically speaking, new teams probably will find themselves to be a bit on the backfoot, heading into their debut event, because they have not driven on track with any of the other competitors as of yet while the other teams will already have an idea of the driving styles of each other. So good confidence and solid preparation will be key for the new participants as the established teams will have the experience and confidence to push from the start without fear of how another driver will react.

Another point of preparation for the new entrants will be off the track: The rules package. With VSCA having a close to 100-pages-long rulebook, the other cars will have seen those rules in action. The rules will have become next to second nature for them, having experienced them for 24 hours in Round 1 at Daytona. This may leave the new teams at higher risk of penalty or mistake with procedures - something they will have to keep in mind, as well.

The 12 Hours of Sebring is expected to see a total of 53 cars take the green flag at 14:00 GMT on Saturday. The race will be streamed live on the VSCA YouTube channel without commentary.