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Sebring

Exxon Superflo

17/03/2001

Sebring Preview

49th Sebring 12 Hours

© Tom Kjos

The 49th running of the 12 Hours of Sebring will happen on Saturday, March 18, 2001. It will also be the third annual running of the event as part of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS).

In the first two outings associated with the ACO (sanctioning body of Le Mans) this race was won by the eventual Le Mans winner. Last year saw the entry of the winners of all three classes of the previous French Classic. Historically, this is astounding. Over the years of these two great races, North America has rarely seen a Le Mans winning car or team of any kind, say nothing of a substantial part of the field, as has been the case for Sebring and many other ALMS races these past two years. If this was part of the vision of ALMS, then in this regard it has succeeded without qualification. Even in the "golden years" of IMSA, we saw Holbert Racing, who went to Le Mans for good or ill, and little or nothing else.

Forty-one cars are entered. Something less than that will start; some won't show, some will crash and burn or simply not run in practice. Dick Barbour entered one of his 2000 911 GT3-Rs at Texas and withdrew. Schubot didn't show. Similar will happen.

But a solid twenty cars will arrive at Sebring with a realistic hope of a class win at the end of 12 hours of grueling work. If there were fifty, or sixty entries, still twenty cars would arrive at Sebring with a realistic hope of a class win.

The "big" prototypes, the LMP 900s, are represented by nine entries, four of them Audi R8s and two of these the Joest-managed Audi Sport North America reigning Le Mans and ALMS champions. Star driver Allan McNish has moved on to the now-testing Toyota F1 team. Tom Kristensen, a Sebring winner with this team a year ago, and with BMW the year before that, joins holdovers Frank Biela, Rinaldo Capello, and Emanuele Pirro for the series season. They are supplemented for this endurance contest by Michele Alboreto and Laurent Aiello. The advantage of this team is obvious. A championship car improved by hundreds or more bits since last season. The disadvantage of this team would also seem clear. A championship car improved by hundreds or more bits since last season. How will the new bits do on this punishing course over 12 hours? It only takes the failure of one of them. Meanwhile, one of last year's champion R8s has fallen into the hands of Champion Racing, the aptly named racing team that is a premier privateer if ever there was one. Drivers Wallace, Schroeder, and Kelleners may have found the various buttons by the start of this second round, and although they lack the new bits, at least until Le Mans, all their bits are tried and tested. Similarly Johansson Motorsport fields a 2000 R8 in Gulf colors widely hoped to mimic those of the famous John Wyer Porsche 917s. Except for lacking a race "under the belt", the team has the same reasonable chance.

Meanwhile, the "Alien", the stunningly unique Panoz LMP07 comes to this first true endurance race of the season off a surprisingly effective third place at the Texas Motor Speedway sprint. Does a little under three hours on a smooth NASCAR track translate into 12 hours across the bumpy concrete runways and asphalt of Sebring? It might--or it might not. If the Alien does hold up, they are certainly fast enough. In fact, the car might have turned the real fastest race lap at TMS. All the Audi fast laps were set on lap 1 there, skipping the very slow chicane. Unless of course you subscribe to the idea that the R8 drivers held "something in reserve". I guess I am waiting to meet the driver that I can be sure is able to do that over a whole race or stint. It seems contrary to the breed.
The two LMP07s will run with the paddle shift system for the first time, while engine changes since Texas should release more power. “As they proved in Texas, my boys on the Panoz team will certainly aim to make it as entertaining as possible, although they are fully aware of the challenge ahead of them,” commented Don Panoz.

Dyson Racing debuts the Riley & Scott Mark IIIC, an all-new racer, regardless of its designation as an evolution of the venerable Mark III. Following a not-so-good Cadillac in 2000, R&S knows they have to make this one right, and it may well be. They barely turned out the first chassis in time, however, so the crack Dyson team will have little more than a week to give it a power plant and test before the first day of the Sebring event. Regardless, Dyson rarely does other than give a good fight, and we can expect one here, even if Pat Smith has to hold the new baby together with bailing wire and duct tape.

Henri Pescarolo brings his Courage C60 Peugeot from France to challenge this field. The perennial Le Mans competitor is of the Rob Dyson mold; not one to field other than a competitive effort. The C60 could well surprise.

Lastly, Jon Field joins with his Banana Joe's Intersport Lola-Judd. While the ALMS regulars were at Texas, Jon was at Homestead, where he stayed in close pursuit of the Dyson R&S throughout the race. The Lola-Judd combination has shown more speed than durability, which unfortunately says little. We suspect that the first time this chassis motor combination lasts to the end without limping en route it might likely be found on the podium, however.

Only nine, but everybody truly belongs, and no one in good mechanical shape will be easily pushed off the lead lap.

There are two other prototypes at Sebring, members of the as-yet inconsequential LMP675 class. The fairly credible run by Volkswagen at Le Mans last year is hardly enough to prove the potential of these cars. In the SRII form of the FIA Sportscar Championship and Grand Am the formula has attracted large fields, if not particularly scintillating racing. The ACO version has produced little but misery for its adherent teams, most recently in the instant overheating of the Roock-KnightHawk Racing Lola B2K40 Nissan at Texas. The Lola chassis was planned to be re-engineered by this team to accept an Engineering Developments Judd 3.4 liter V8 engine. Whether that is done by Sebring or not, the team promises better than TMS. The other entry, by Kevin Jeannette's Gunnar Racng, will take the same chassis and match it to a 935-derived Porsche single turbo boxer. After withdrawing from the Texas sprint to complete preparations, they will contest Sebring. Both cars represent unique approaches with intriguing potential by experienced and professional teams. There is clearly no way to predict performance, except that we doubt that either car will be past its "teething" stage.

GTS looks good on paper. Corvette and Viper in a continuing rematch, plus the return of the Saleen S7R, in the hands of the experienced privateer Franz Konrad. This time the Vipers are entered by American Viperacing, a team that wears its amateur status as a badge of honor, and thus far is certainly no ORECA. Still, the season is young, and the cars are a known quantity. There is no reason they should not continue to improve on the Texas outing. It remains hard to see something other than a Corvette win here though, as the team prepares for its attempt on a Le Mans class win for the American sports car icon. Have they got a latest spec. chassis to replace the Kelly Collins wreck?

Porsche and BMW have given us great racing in GT since 1995; the IMSA / Professional Sports Car battles have carried over without pause to the ALMS. BMW fields two factory supported teams, PTG and BMW Motorsport, and one of the strongest driver line-ups of any two teams in any class in memory. Meanwhile, Alex Job Racing takes the Porsche factory mantle from Dick Barbour, now preparing an LMP675 effort, and is backed up by a Kelly-Moss team of obvious quality. These and other Porsche teams field yet another iteration of its ubiquitous 911, the GT3-RS. The field is rounded out by two new challengers. A Callaway C12 that struggled at Texas, and the Trinkler Racing Corvette that except for some early extra pit stops showed enough strength at TMS that the class may finally develop a real US challenger to the Germans. This car is purpose-built to the GT rules by the same Pratt & Miller responsible for the GTS Corvette factory team. Still without significant sponsorship, George Trinkler hopes the potential of this car will be soon recognized, allowing a serious effort by the team that can lead to Corvette GT customer cars. A solid run at Sebring will take him a long way in that direction.

This is the third year that the famous American race has run under the ALMS aegis. If the first two are any indication of the third, it is not one that sports car fans should miss. “We've made sure the track retains the unique characteristics which make the race so special,” said Don Panoz. “It's still bumpy and that makes it very demanding for the drivers to set the cars up, but thrilling to watch."

No Ferraris, no Reynards, no Cadillacs, no BMW V12s, no Oreca - but it’s still Sebring.