Video Post: Trackside at Sebring 2012

Sebring preview 2012

Things have been a bit slow around here lately. Not much about motorsport, or anything else for that matter, but it's not for lack of attention on my part. I'm still very much invested in motorsport this year, more so than any other in fact, but ultimately I just don't have as much spare time to contribute anything of merit into the vast vacuum of noise that is the internet.

So this year we've already seen the 50th running of the Daytona 24, and while it was exciting and while it has heritage, it is really a dim candle in comparison to the 12 Hours of Sebring. Sebring is a tougher track. It's more challenging from both the driver and car perspective, and it's much better for spectators. You can get shockingly close at some points, and there is something for everyone when it comes to the circuit itself.

Like years past we're sending troops down south to Sebring, but rather unfortunately I will not be able to go. Duty calls, so I'll be at a track, just not one in central Florida. I'll be quite a few miles north at West Virginia's famed but certainly less-famous Summit Point for an Audi Club track day. Any other day of the year this would be preferable, but certainly not this weekend.

But I digress, it's going to be a heck of a race, despite Peugeot dropping out of the WEC at the last minute, and allowing Audi a factory-free run in Florida. There will be challengers to be sure, but Dyson, Rebellion and Muscle Milk are small change compared to a factory, despite their millions. Toyota won't be in action until Spa, so unless Audi makes a mockery of themselves - totally possible seeing what they did to themselves last year in the ILMC - it will be tough to beat the diesels.

I personally am an Audi fan (rather obviously looking at the header pic) but I'm more a fan of underdogs, so any petrol car taking the overall win will have made for a great race. Dyson has a brand new Lola, Muscle Milk has their HPD, and either of those taking the win would be the ideal result. An American team winning America's premier endurance event on its 60th birthday. Both Dyson and Pickett are pillars of the sportscar community over here and both deserve a Sebring win - and the ALMS needs to bring a little hardware home as well. I've been pretty silent about it up until now, but the boys in Braselton need to grow a pair and divorce themselves from the ACO if they expect to survive beyond the next year or so.

But I digress; that is something for another time.

In GT the battle is far from predictable and there are no real clear 'sure bets.' Ferrari is due, BMW is last year's hot ticket, Corvette is hungry and Porsche both consistent and sporting new hardware. So it's nearly anyone's game. It'll take luck along with a healthy dose of performance behind the wheel and in the pits. As always we'll be pulling for Team Falken Tire. From the top down, CEO to Bryan and Wolf, they are a class act, and it's great to see them continuing to run at the top level in the best championship in the world.

Josh and Kevin, accomplices in all our previous Sebring trips, will be driving south tomorrow to the sunshine state. So despite my own inability to attend they'll be there for pictures and report.

For more / picture credit: American Le Mans
Coverage: Radio LeMans

_WRS

Pic Post: Porkers at Sebring

Ever felt like you had way too much to do and couldn't seem to gain traction on any of it? Well that's been the story around here lately. Simply way too much to do and not enough time in the day, or perhaps motivation / brain power to go around and make it all happen. So because of this, I've been a little slow for updating. It's not for lack of wanting, just for lack of time.



I've got a few things in line, waiting to be posted, the most interesting of which is almost certainly the IMSA GTI, but that will wait until next time.  First I will finally dig in a little more to Sebring. The event itself is so far in the past I hardly think it's worth re-telling the event itself, but why not throw up an all-Porsche post. Despite Audi being back in 2011 the Porkers are still my favorite,

Read on...

Pic Post: (vintage) Michael Keyser Sebring '76

Baltimore's own Michael Keyser scored an overall victory at the 1976 12 Hours of Sebring in this Porsche 911 RSR, set up and co-driven by the late great Al Holbert / Holbert Racing. I've said it once and I'll say it again...I was born in the wrong time.

Photo: Michael Keyser via 'Nigel Smuckatelli' Flickr

_WRS

Sebring Paddock: Princes to Paupers

 




The paddock at any big event like the 12 Hours of Sebring is a fascinating place to be. I almost prefer it to being out by the track in certain ways, as you get a much better feel for who the teams really are and what they're really all about. Sure you can see who's fastest on a time sheet, break it down into simple statistics, but that only shows half of the competition really. It's more than who's fastest, it's who's got the most cash, and from the top to the bottom of the grid, teams aren't afraid to spend some cubic dollars to one-up the next guy.

12 Hours of Sebring 2011, Wed-->Thurs

 

For the second time in as many years, the crew (myself and Josh) have made the trek 1200 miles south from NYC to sunny Florida for the most important and exciting endurance race that takes place on United States soil: the 12 Hours of Sebring. So far we know one thing for certain, it's a hell of an adventure no matter how you slice it.

Victory for Oreca at Sebring

While the drivers are off at the podium receiving the accolades, the Team Oreca Matmut crew takes a moment to celebrate in their own way with the car they spend so much time with, and sent to victory lane at the 2011 12 Hours of Sebring. It was a great race. Back from Sebring with many more pictures to share and video to edit, but first, sleep...it was  a heck a of a drive back to NYC, and my mind needs a little time to catch up. 

_WRS

Ferrari 458 at night

Thursday night practice. A new Ferrari 458 is heading into the hairpin. Words can't quite describe this car, as it sounds and looks that good in person. Go to the track and see it, the 458 ain't no joke. Porsche, BMW and Corvette have their work cut out for them...

More soon, time for early bed and early rise for tomorrow's race.

_WRS

Sebring 2011; live updates from Wednesday to Saturday

In under a week's time, we'll be heading down to Sebring Florida for the second year in a row, and I for one can simply not wait. It's looking fantastic, with near 60 cars on the entry list, and the vast majority of those additional cars over last year's race have been gained in the prototype ranks. With Audi coming back after their absence in 2010, Flying Lizard coming back as strong as ever, and Falken with a much improved team working behind the scenes, we'll have plenty to cheer for.

Video Post: Team Falken Tire ALMS Sebring Testing

Our friends over at team Falken Tire just released this teaser video of their Sebring testing, with a little input from their new team manager Derek Walker, and (I think) they might just have one of the coolest intros I've ever seen. Totally #winning.

_WRS

Testing for the 2011 12 Hours of Sebring

Two days of testing for the 2011 12 Hours of Sebring concluded this week, with Porsche teams from Flying Lizard and Falken Tire posting very respectable times, up at the sharp end of the grid during just about every session. The Corvettes seemed to be the cars to beat, as expected, but Jorg Bergmeister and Wolf Henzler both had their 911 GT3 RSRs on the pace. If Falken gets better durability from their tires this year, they could prove to be a force to be reckoned with. Wolf put in a very impressive first sting in 2010, so Falken had the pace, they just needed the durability. Let's hope they've found it, it would be fantastic to see some blue and green on the podium or in the winner's circle in 2011.

These fantastic pictures are from James Boone, who has fantastic access to the Florida tracks and the skill to back it up. Lots of other great pictures are over on his Flickr stream.

_WRS

Audi R18 in testing

Fantastic night shot of the R18 undergoing testing in Sebring. We can't wait to see the R18 in action...too bad it won't be at the 12 Hours.

_WRS

Video Post: Audi at Le Mans, 2003

An excellent look at the Audi Sport UK's run at Le Mans in 2003. With no factory / Joest Audi team, the group from England had Frank Biela on board and seemed to be in a prime position to challenge the Bentley boys for the overall win. Watch their rise, and tragic fall at Le Mans, in this excellent video. Bonus points for lots of great Sebring footage, which is just 52 days away and counting down...

_WRS

Audi - Le Mans 2003 from gt4zone on Vimeo.

Waiting and wishing

I don't know about you, but I'm officially sick of the cold weather...and it's not even Winter yet. Right about now the only thing keeping me going, aside from copious amounts of spiked egg nog, is the thought of a warm spring. We'll be making the trek back down to Sebring Florida for the 1st American Le Mans race of the year, where this photo was taken back in March. It was a warm Friday evening as the cars were going out for night practice, and Peugeot was sending one of their all-conquering 908s to the track.

Here's to an early Spring!

_WRS

Pic Post: (Sebring flashback edition) - SVRA Porsche 911 RS / RSR

I've been having irrational day dreams about owning / buying / restoring an older 911 the past couple of days. I blame the latest book I've been reading, From R to GT2
The Racing Porsches: 911 & 930 by John Starkey. So far I'm up to the 1975 3.0 RSR (the car pictured is not a 3.0 RSR however, probably a replica or an early 2.7 RS) and well, they're just such awesome cars. Perfect, in a word, and I know that is very common knowledge but they just are. Simple, with everything you need and nothing you don't: CIS injection, lightweight, no ABS, no power steering, pretty much bulletproof. This is an RSR:



As long as I'm living in NYC however, that's never going to happen. Even if I could manage to afford the car, I'd never be able to afford the extra parking space (which would have to be a garage naturally), not to mention the fact said garage would be underneath of or behind someone else's house. Plus any mid 70s 911 which I could scrape together the cash to buy would likely be a project, and once again, I'm not about to leave thousands hundreds of dollars of tools out of sight and out of reach, several blocks away.

So until the day comes when I have millions of dollars, or I leave NYC, that dream will just have to wait. At least I have a lot of research and learning to do in the meantime.

_WRS

In the paddock: Part One

There's something particularly magical about the paddock at a race event. They are virtual beehives of intense activity for hours at a time. Then empty. Like a ghost town after the gold rush ended.



Areas are secured, custom tractor trailers are position and unloaded, and home base is established. Mechanics, drivers, managers, owners and media of all sorts are coming and going at all times. You never know who is going to be standing 5 feet away...



There are hundreds if not thousands of near misses between go carts, race cars and pedestrians. It's like Times Square at New Years, but with millions of dollars of equipment strewn about. Body work that is probably work more money than I make in a year is placed, if not carelessly, somewhat haphazardly on the ground.





Cars in various states of disassembly dot the garages and look nowhere near close to race ready.



Eventually though it clears out, and that is when it becomes magical. The light is just right, the day is perhaps drawing to a close for some (but definitely not for all) and the cars maneuver like sharks in the ocean. Slowly at first, then on the attack as they near the track entrance.















Then all that hard work...



Finally pays off when the car hits the track.



Part two coming soon. Check out the full size pictures, and MANY more, over at Der Wolfsburg Rennsport Flickr Page.

_WRS

Video Post: And now for something completely different

This video from Highcroft racing has absolutely nothing to do with anything I usually write about. It is however exceptionally well done in my opinion, and is worth a look.



These HPD (Honda Performance Development) cars sound exactly like the old CART Honda turbo motors from back in the 90s. As far as engine notes go it's not as interesting as say, a Porsche flat six or big rumbling American V8, but it's a heck of a lot better sounding than the Porsche RS Spyder's 3.4 V8. That thing is just grating.

Sebring 2010 - Race day cometh (and goeth), part dos

When we last visited Sebring, we had just stopped off at home base for a quick break and a little respite from the beautiful, but relentless Florida sunshine. To a northerner like myself, who spent all winter couped up in a small NYC apartment, the risk of a sunburn was well worth all the time outside.



The race itself was rather unfortunately decided by problems for the LMP1 challengers to Peugeot, more than actual racing, not that anyone really thought anyone other than Peugeot was going to win outside of a freak accident taking out both cars.





LMP2 Saw the Acura (sorry) HPD from Highcroft in a commanding lead over the slower but consistent Porsche RS Spyder, and the Dyson Lola Mazda with its early on bad luck.



GTC saw the Misson Foods Porsche from Alex Job Racing run start to finish in P1 in class. The Alex Job crew swept the podium in fact.



LMPC was pretty spread out, and the #55 Level 5 Motorsport car took command of the class and eventually the first ever LMPC win at Sebring.



GT2 was where the real battle was, and everyone knew it. The Corvettes managed to pull off a most uncharacteristically disgraceful move which put both cars out of the running: They ran into each other in the pits.



The BMWs and Flying Lizard Porsche #45 were always going to be in the fight, but Risi was the early on leader, and definitely the one to beat in these long run races.





Rather embarrassingly for Porsche, the #17 Falken Tire car shed a wheel (its second) which managed to tag the #45 Flying Lizard, and thanks to some bungling of the yellow flag / pace car timing, it sat in the pits for several laps before anyone was able to work on it. This effectively ended the Lizard's chances of a win.



Falken tire had problems of their own, with repairs needed to ensure no more wheels would be lost (stub axle and halfshaft I believe), which then dropped them down the order in no time thanks to the competitive field. One mistake of any kind in GT2, and you're done.





At any rate, we ran into our buddy Michael H Locke a few more times throughout the day, and he had plenty to say about the wild antics of Sebrings past. Going through my photos I realized I never took a picture of Michael...I should have, as it's the people that make events like Sebring as memorable as they are. Sure the cars are great and they are the primary draw at the end of the day, but it's randomly meeting some person who can impart a whole new perspective on the event to a newcomer like myself, which really takes it to the next level.











As the day turned into night things really hit their stride. The perfect light that washes over everything, causes it all to glow like something out of a memory. A summertime baseball game as a kid, a road trip with friends in college, that familiar feeling that this is something special, that must (and will) be remembered for years to come.



As the temperature fell the battle on the track began to heat up. An electrical problem for the Highcroft car meant that the Team Cytosport Muscle Milk RS Spyder took P1 in LMP2. A position it would hold until the end.



Dyson was out and running, but out of the running, so to speak.





By the way, it's worth mentioning that the SCCA's track cars were some fantastically 80s Nissan models. This rare Stanza wagon was one, and a classic 'square-back Maxima' was the other...



As mentioned, the Peugeots were on cruise control, and nothing much was expected from them in terms of on-track excitement.



GT2, just like the start of the race, was anything but calm. The two BMWs from Rahal Letterman were charging hard to try and catch up to the Risi Ferrari, itself about a lap up thanks to another safety car bungle.







Flying Lizard was charging hard to try and make it as close as they could, but with a field as closely matched as this was, it simply wasn't going to happen.



Both the #44 and #45 were pushing it though, and time and time again they were leaving the concrete of turn 17 as they bumped along the old bomber base surface.



The Falken Tire Porsche RSR was pushing hard too. So hard they were getting BOTH right side tires off the ground in 17. They were in a race of their own to complete 70% of the distance covered by the leaders, or risk being not classified.



In this, their first full season of ALMS competition, every lap and every point will count. Even now, with this new team, it's never too early to start thinking about championships. For Bryan Sellers and Wolf Henzler, Sebring wasn't exactly ideal, but then it wasn't ideal for anyone really, outside of the class winners, all of whom had a fairly substantial cushion between them and their closest challenger.



As the fireworks shot towards the sky, and the engines died down as suddenly as they started, everyone still capable of walking made their way to the winners area. There were many who were not, whether that be through too many drinks or too many miles of walking around the track.





Some of the cars were out on the front stretch (all the class winners) but for some reason the Dyson car was there in place of the Cytosport Porsche. Who knows, maybe they took a wrong turn. Either way, they were all heavily guarded from the throngs of people crowding around, much like the open grid at the start of the race.



It should be noted this is probably a good thing, as people were beginning to tear down everything that wasn't bolted down to take home as a souvenir. I can imagine that some people might have just been drunk enough to try and walk off with a bit of a splitter, or a wing, or maybe even a number off of a car.







Josh stalked the Michelin Man for a photo op...



Crazily enough we decided to drive the two hours back to West Palm Beach to crash at Kevin's place before heading north the next day. It was rough. Luckily Josh was up for it, as I didn't have the energy to drive anywhere, and the sunblock that migrated into my eye didn't make things any better.

The following day, after a great brunch thanks to Kevin and his lady Marcy, we embarked on our blitz back to the north. No stopping this time, just trading off time at the wheel in an effort to make it through DC before Monday morning rush hour. I decided that even though I was tired, we had to stop at the legendarily bizarre South of the Border for a few snaps. I think this was about 1am. Or maybe it was 3, I can't recall...



At any rate, we did make it through DC before the worst of it, just barely, and I had the rather unenviable task of driving through Northern Virgina at that time. Stop and go is even less fun after you've been driving for 15 hour straight, with less than enough sleep. We made it from West Palm Beach Florida to New York City in 19.5 Hours, with a 65 MPH average. The total trip was a whopping 2810 miles in 5 days, with an average cost of $3.05 per gallon for 93 octane premium fuel...a total of 88.078 gallons of gas. We had a 28.2 MPG Average over the first 2486.8 miles, with a stop speed of around about [redacted]mph...



So will we do it again? Absolutely. Will we drive? Most definitely. Will we give ourselves a little more time? Without question.

More (many / larger / better) pictures at the Flickr account. Believe it (or not) we're STILL not done with Sebring. In the final installment we will take a peak around the paddock area, both before and during the race. It will be the (maybe) last look at Sebring. For a while at least...

One last thing - This post was done with manually sized pictures, linking to the original images over on Flickr. This means that clicking the image takes you directly there. I was wondering if this caused the page to load slowly for anyone? Please let me know in the comments if it did / didn't. Thanks!

_WRS