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
