The Eighth Working of the Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) Traditional Sebring 12 Hour got here to a aggressive and action-packed conclusion Sunday afternoon at Sebring Worldwide Raceway the place three first-time Traditional 12 Hour winners captured Run Group victories and one other added a fourth “HSR Classics” victory to his spectacular profession win complete.
A 12 Hours of Sebring tribute race, Saturday featured nine-straight hours of competitors on the three.74-mile highway course with rivals in every of the 4 Run Teams taking to the monitor thrice in a rotation of one-hour phase races. The ultimate rounds have been held in the same rotation for 3 hours Sunday afternoon with the quartet of Run Group winners topped after a symbolic 12 hours of competitors on the legendary Sebring airport circuit.
The Group B race was a feel-good household affair from begin to end with Kyle Collins scoring a convincing win in the identical GMT Racing 1972 No. 8 Chevron B21 his grandfather John Delane drove to a Traditional 12 victory in 2020. The senior Delane fortunately stepped out of the Chevron in favor of his 24-year-old grandson, however he was within the pits all through the race teaching his younger protege to the victory on the group radio. Mimi Delane, John’s spouse and Kyle’s grandmother, additionally held station pitside all through the occasion as did Collins’ mom and father.
Collins crossed the end line greater than two minutes away from his closest competitor after main all 4 of the Group A segments Saturday and Sunday. He turned in what gave the impression to be a flawless run for his first HSR Classics victory in an surprising solo drive. Collins was scheduled to co-drive together with his brother Tony Delane however ended up pulling the solo effort when the taller Tony was unable to suit comfortably within the compact Chevron.
Run Group B shared the monitor all through the Traditional 12 with their peer rivals in Run Group A, which was residence to the one repeat HSR Classics winner within the race. Quick and acquainted HSR competitor Toni Seiler scored his third Traditional 12 Run Group win and fourth general HSR Classics victory within the Waite-N-See Motorsports 1969 No. 17 Lola T165.
Seiler beforehand scored a Traditional 12 Run Group win at Sebring in 2018 and adopted it up with one other Run Group victory the next yr on the HSR Traditional Daytona 24. Seiler was additionally an in-race driver addition to the successful Run Group A Lola final yr at Sebring, co-driving within the last stage to the win with teammate Marco Fumagalli.
In Run Group C, Pierce Marshall and Eric Foss put in a aggressive and managed drive to their first general HSR Classics Run Group victory in simply their second race within the Matador Motorsports 2017 No. 02 Cadillac DPi. Marshall and Foss prevailed in a race-long battle with Stuart Wiltshire in his No. 10 Acura ARX-05 DPi.
Wiltshire completed first within the second and last Group C segments however the No. 02 Cadillac group constructed a virtually 40 second cushion within the opening race and added to the hole with a phase three win. Marshall and Foss maintained the result in end, not mounting a problem on the Acura when it was in entrance however staying shut within the No. 10’s mirrors just some seconds again.
The third and last first-time winner was the unlikely entry of Patrick Womack who co-drove his FedEx 2014 No. 11 Toyota Camry to the Run Group D victory with successful NASCAR star Joe Nemechek. Reminding followers and rivals alike of this previous June’s profitable Storage 56 NASCAR inventory automotive effort at Le Mans, the NEMCO Motorsports group fitted the Camry with full headlights, taillights and brake lights and Womack and “Entrance Row Joe” went out and scored the primary victory for a Inventory Automotive within the almost decade-long historical past of the HSR Classics endurance races.
The highest GT finishers in every Run Group have been additionally honored within the Traditional 12 Victory Lane. The record of winners contains Clair Schwendeman and Alan Sevadjian within the 1968 No. 137 Duntov Motor Firm Corvette Roadster (Run Group A), Ken McKinnon and Mike Bruns within the Predator Efficiency 1972 No. 01 Porsche 911 RSR (Run Group B), Thomas Gruber and Marco Seefried within the TAG 2016 No. 991 Porsche 991 GT3 (Run Group C) and Russell Wittenberg and Bryan Collyer within the 2012 No. 113 Porsche 997.2 Cup automotive.
Every general Run Group winner was offered with a special-edition B.R.M. Chronographes watch commissioned particularly for the HSR Traditional Sebring 12 Hour. Different displays included the standard Greatest-Airplane and Greatest-Automotive awards that have been offered Sunday simply earlier than this yr’s lineup of wonderful classic and historic plane taxied again to Sebring Worldwide Raceway for departure after being on show for 2 days on the HSR Traditional Sebring 12 Hour, Pistons and Props, offered by the Alan Jay Automotive Community. Attending pilots and their households choose the perfect group or race automotive of the occasion whereas taking part HSR rivals and officers vote on their favourite aircraft.
This yr’s Greatest-Airplane Award went to the debuting 1945 Grumman TMB-3R Avenger flown by Job Savage. The aviators in flip chosen the distinctive 1978 No. 4 Toj SC206 sports activities racer of Phil Daigrepont as this yr’s Greatest-Automotive Award winner. Though Daigrepont, a former jockey from Louisiana, suffered 4 cracked ribs in a Saturday night contact incident whereas racing the Toj, he nonetheless capably and enthusiastically accepted the Greatest-Automotive Award Sunday morning on the pre-race grid.
The 2024 HSR racing calendar begins proper again at Sebring Worldwide Raceway subsequent March for the sixth-straight yr with the season-opening HSR Spring Fling at Sebring, March 8 – 10. The race might be run as an HSR headline weekend occasion for the primary time in a number of seasons. The Spring Fling units the stage for the 72nd working of the enduring 12 Hours of Sebring IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race the next weekend.
