Following a six year hiatus, I decided to drive down to Sebring for the oldest endurance race in
| There were three fires: two from cars on the track and one from an RV in Green Park |
By Friday morning, it was dry and, initially, sunny. Drove the 40 miles to Sebring and pulled into Alfa Alley, the Florida Alfa Club’s hospitality tent and Alfa parking area. The tent was up, but due to yesterday’s lousy weather, not too many people were around. Alfa Alley had a few puddles of water, but had fared much better than the Porsche Corral located nearby, which was flooded out. Alfa Alley has a good vantage at the far west end of the track on Turn 17. I watched some of the 12 hour practice and some 10 lap historic and vintage races from there.
The track has been improved significantly over the past few years.
It’s former reputation as the roughest track surface in America has given way to a more positive one. The course has been shortened from 4.11 miles to 3.75 miles and a few turns added (it appears 3 or 4 new turns were added, but the manner in which they number the turns makes this unclear. There is no turn nor turn number between Turn 1 and Turn 3, prompting a race fan to wear a Sebring T-shirt with the inscription on the back, “Where the hell’s Turn 2?”.).
Ticket prices have taken a real bounce since I was last at Sebring. The Superticket (5 day entry into the track, all viewing areas, paddock and garage areas) increased from $40 to $60 advanced purchased. The pit box ticket (all the above plus a box increased even more - from $100 to $175. But better to spend the money on a race ticket than a motel room! The track had been acquired two months earlier by Don Panoz who in addition to owning Road Atlanta and a GT1 racing team, also has purchased Mosport Racetrack in Canada. He obviously likes road racing cars and tracks.
The thunderstorms, hail and high winds hit shortly after the start of the Stock Sports Cars 4 hour race at 2 o’clock. After half an hour, the race Course was so the time, I was in Green Park (also called the “Animal Farm” or the “zoo” because of its unkempt, crude and generally drunk habitues). Watching the “fans” frolic in the rain. I returned to Alfa Alley to wait out the rain, but after a while called it quits, drove back to Lake Wales and had a nice fresh seafood dinner.
Arrived at the circuit just before the race began at 10:10 a.m. (this is ten minutes later than previously - one wonders why 10 minutes?) But the first lap of a 12 hour race, unlike shorter races, isn’t usually too dramatic. After all, there are 11 hours 58 minutes and 318 laps left to run.
One of the great attractions of endurance car racing is that it is multiclass. In this instance, the World Sports Car (WSC) class was joined by GT1, GT2, and GT3. However, the formulas for the WSC, GT1 and GT2 are so similar that it makes a de facto two class race: WSC, GT1 and GT2, and the slower GT3.
The pole position was taken by the Toshiba Ferrari 333SP driven by Wayne Taylor, et. al. The Contenders in the race also were Gianpiero Moretti’s MOMO Ferrari and the Ford Riley & Scott Mark III cars in the WSC class. Although the Ford-engined Panoz cars (2) and the Porsche 911 GT1 were running in the GT1 class, it was thought they stood a good chance to win overall, not just class, honors.
My pit box placement couldn’t have been better. To my left was the Toshiba Ferrari pit; to my right, the Porsche 911 GT1 pit, and just beyond that the MOMO Ferrari pit! I watched the crew work on the broken fuel pump on the Toshiba Ferrari which would result in the car dropping from contention. I watched the Porsche pit crew replace a broken windshield in about one minute (why does replacing mine take all day?). And I probably saw the Porsche being refueled with the illegal nozzle which resulted in a 5 minute penalty that the car could never make up. This penalty was a double tragedy. The refueling device is allowed by the Daytona 24 hour race sanctioning body (U.S. Road Racing Champions), where Porsche last ran in February. It is not allowed by the Sebring sanctioning body (Professional Sports Car Racing). That should not be. But the team should know and follow the rules, dumb though they may be.
During the early part of the race, I had the good luck to have a short conversation with Gianpiero Moretti, the owner/driver of the MOMO Ferrari as he sat by a stack of tires in the pits. He smiled broadly and thanked me when I congratulated him on his team’s win of the Daytona 24 hour race, and as I departed I wished him “Buona Fortuna” at Sebring. It may have helped.
As the race developed, the Riley & Scott Ford of the Dyson team took a lead and held it for three hours, but then yielded to the MOMO Ferrari Which led the rest of the race. The Panoz GT1 cars were surprisingly fast and durable, leading their class after the Porsche GT1 dropped back due to the 5 minute penalty. The Panoz’ finished 2d and 4th overall. The Porsche GT1 garnered 3d place overall and a GT2 Porsche Turbo finished 5th. The pole qualifying Ferrari placed 6th.
So the World Sports Cars didn’t perform too well as a class. The MOMO Ferrari GT1 or GT2 cars, although eight WSC cars were running at the end of the race. Another interesting note is that the GT3 class winner, a BMW M3, led its class from start to finish and placed 11th overall. Of the 52 cars that started, 21 finished. There were three fires: two from cars on the track and one from an RV in Green Park.
And to end on a high note - Paul Spruell displayed a beautiful, new, black Lamborghini along side 25 Alfas in Alfa Alley. Sticker price was $289,000. Bet you could buy it for $260K cash.