Best of the Past Race at Sebring Four Hours

SEBRING, Fla.—Racecars from the past fifty years competed in Historic Motor Racing’s Four Hours of Sebring vintage car race, at Sebring International Speedway in Sebring, Florida, on December 6.

Racing fans got a chance to see legendary cars from many eras compete as they did in their heyday: Cobras, Lolas, Porsches, Jaguars, sports racers and GT cars, flying around Sebring’s 3.7 mile circuit at full chat.

The event was the culmination of three days of vintage racing, the Sebring Fall Classic, which is the final race on Historic Motor Racing’s schedule. Throughout the weekend these cars competed in sprint races against other cars in class. At the Four Hours, in true endurance racing fashion, all the cars were on the track at once, creating traffic and increasing the difficulty of the race.

Cars had to come in for pit stops for fuel, tires, and driver changes, just as they would have when they raced at Sebring when they were brand new. This was not a parade or a demonstration; this was all-out road racing featuring some of the fastest cars of the past fifty years.

Despite rain early in the weekend, 47 cars took the green flag at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, ranging from lightning-fast WSC and GTP cars like Robinson Racing’s 2001 Riley & Scott MkIII to classic Grand Touring machines like Jan Gijzen’s 1957 Aston Martin DB4.

Porsches dominated the field, but there were plenty of competitors of other makes. Alex Hammond drove the famous Penske Sunoco Trans-Am Camaro of Mark Donahue, sliding spectacularly around Turn Ten a few times. The Camaro finished just ahead of a beautiful 1969 Ferrari 365 Daytona driven by Mauro Borella and John Starkey.

Peter McLaughlin and John DeLane brought the 1979 Ralt RT-2 which won the 1980 2-liter Can-Am championship. However, the class was hotly contested, and the class win went to the Pink Ponies Racing 1986 Swift DB2 of Dan/Bruce and Bart/Eric.

Paul Thieme and Rick Riley brought the 1988 Porsche 962 in its Miller Beer Livery; the popping of its wastegate could be heard three turns away. On the other hand the 3-rotor engine of Dennis Spencer’s 1993 Mazda Kudzu DG3 could be heard from halfway around the track.

With such a wide array of cars, the gaps in lap times were huge, but every car was racing hard for a class win. Seven different classes were represented in the top ten finishers, of the seventeen classes of cars in the race.

The Robinson Racing 2001 Riley & Scott MkIII, which started from the pole, led most of the race, only to break in the final laps, ending up second to the KMW Racing 2003 Porsche RSR driven by Markku Biedermann and Klaus Graf.

Robert Garcia and Brad Pierce in their 1999 Riley & Scott 3-liter was one of the fastest cars on the track all weekend; unfortunately they crashed on the first lap, and had to retire.

When the race ended, the drivers and crews stood around victory lane, laughing and swapping stories. Fans walked among the drivers unmarked by security. This laid-back atmosphere marked the whole weekend. While the on-track competition was fierce, off the track everyone from the race officials to the fans were relaxed and friendly. The cars are the stars, and everyone was there to have fun.