As it turns out, traveling thousands of miles, walking tens of miles, shooting thousands of images, hardly sleeping, all while soaking in as much of the experience as possible and then trying to bring them all together in a cohesive manner for a fairly short blog post is somewhat of a daunting task. That clumsy run-on sentence pretty much sums up our Sebring experience. Long, packed with info, and the feeling that while you know you can clean it up and trim some fat, you fear leaving out something crucial or particularly memorable. So where to start? The beginning is usually a good place to do so.
As regular followers know we left the city that never sleeps at around 10:00am on Wednesday, with the plan to drive down straight through, with about a 3-hour layover somewhere along the way.
First stop was the Maryland house (or was it the Chesapeake house?) and things were going quite well. Traffic was minimal and we were making really good time. A drive past the old home town of Baltimore made me thirsty for a nice cold Natty Boh, but we had no time to stop...the miles need to be chased down!
Second stop was Lufteknic down in Richmond, to talk a little shop with Robert and stretch the legs a tad. As usual, there was some eye candy on display. More on this 930 in the near future...
Lunch / dinner at Kitchen 64 made for a rather extended stop, but it was worth it. The sandwiches there are pretty tops at all times. if you're running through and need a quality meal, there are worse choices to be sure.
1997 stopped by in the form of this classic east-coast styled Honda Civic. Stock steelies up front, 17s out back, cut springs and not much else. Was this style popular everywhere, or just in the Mid-Atlantic? Cars like this were all too common back in the day.
Somewhere in South Carolina...
We eventually crashed out for some much needed rest just outside of Georgia. Two things should be noted. One, Mk5 GTis have the LEAST comfortable seats for sleeping in the world. My Mk1 GTI was more comfortable than this thing. The bolsters which make the car so nice in the turns make it nearly intolerable as a bed. The other thing is that if you do sleep in a fairly deserted rest area, maybe don't park by the creepy picnic tables. I woke frequently from my thin slumber to visions of Zombies shambling towards the car. I was quick to volunteer to drive as long as it meant we were far from this place.
A few hours later and we encountered the great Daytona Beach interchange of I95. This marked the furthest south I had ever driven up until now. Immediately past here we jumped on I4 and went through Orlando, and encountered our first traffic, (boo) and a bunch of prostitutes in between Orlando and the Florida turnpike. I mean really, who picks up a hooker at 9:30am?
We drove the deceptively long way down to our hotel accommodations in lovely Okeechobee, Florida. We cleaned up, drank our 10,000th redbulls and headed to the track to pick up our credentials and get a look at the ALMS cars during practice, and the SVRA enduro.
The crowds were pretty thin, and we didn't see any security keeping people from above the pits, so we headed upstairs for a better view. We were naturally confronted by a man demanding a level of credentials that we did not possess, but after some smooth talking by Josh we were issued permission to take a look around, snap some pics and enjoy it while we could, as we 'Most certainly were not going to be allowed up there on race day.' (Sadly he wasn't lying.) The view was pretty awesome.
It was pits...
and track!
Pits...
and track!
It was a full practice with all classes. A pretty large number of cars were taking part, including several of the new LMPC Oreca cars. Powered by 6.2 liter push rod V8 motors, they could add a real sense of power to the events, but they're neutered with mufflers that take all the edge off.
GT2 was where my main focus of interest was, and there was plenty to see. Both BMWs, Flying Lizard 911s and Corvettes were out in force, plus the Falken Tire RSR.
The Autocon Lola prototype looked good in bright orange paint, but this would prove to be one of the only times we would see it out on the track. They did not have a good weekend.
There were a bunch of GTC cars (Porsche Cup cars) out as well, and like the LMPC cars they suffered from a lack of auditory volume...
The big boys were clearly in charge however...the two Peugot 908s glided around the track with a presence that none of the other cars could muster.
Perhaps my favorite livery is the striking Tequila Patron sponsored Ferrari 430s from Extreme Speed Motorsports. Great looking cars.
Our final view of the day, from our exclusive view point saw the whole field streaming down pit lane, no doubt ready to make final preparations for qualifying, set to begin the following afternoon.
Job well done...
But before we get to qualifying we have a whole lot more to cover. The SVRA enduro followed up the ALMS practice, and we needed to walk the track to check the best viewpoints for the big race. Part two coming soon!
For full size pics just click one of them or head over to the Wolfsburg Rennsport Flickr page.
_WRS
Good job on the report... been wondering what/when this was going to come out!! I'm still going through my pile of pics.
ReplyDelete