Event Features
Sebring 2004 Preview
By By: Jimmy Sykes
Mar 10, 2004, 13:06

The 2004 American Le Mans Series will begin on March 20th with the 52nd running of the 12 Hours of Sebring. The green flag will wave for about fifty of the best sportscars in the world at 10:30 am and the checkered will not appear until both hands complete one full trip around the clock. Due to its rough surface and its combination of both high and low speed corners, Sebring is the perfect setting for those planning on racing at Le Mans in June to shake down their cars and prepare for the event. For this reason, the fans see some of the bet sportscar racing that North America has to offer.

Sebring sits amongst the orange groves of central Florida and is a legend throughout the world. It was originally known as Hendricks Field and served the military as an airbase for B-17 bombers. The large runways eventually became America’s oldest road racing circuit, and instead of carrying large bombers, they now carry the world’s latest technology of a different kind. The wings belonging to the vehicles that speed along those runways these days are designed to keep the cars on the ground instead of launching them into the air.

The first race at Sebring, a six hour event called the Sam Collier Memorial, was held in 1950 and the first twelve hour event was held in 1952. Automotive manufacturers have been using it ever since to test and promote their products as the size and notoriety of the event grew. Ferrari, Porsche, Maserati, Jaguar and Ford have been just a few of the marques that have graced the circuit and men such as Mario Andretti, Phil Hill, Dan Gurney, A.J. Foyt, and Jaun Manual Fangio have been behind the wheels of these machines. Legendary battles between these men and machines have been part of the magical history of the track as cars such as the Ford Cobra and GT40 battled against Europe’s best. Sebring even hosted the Unites States’ first Formula One race in 1959.

With some ups and downs throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s, new marques from the likes of Nissan, Toyota and Mazda came out to play with the rest of the world on the concrete runways of Sebring. In the late 1990s, Don Panoz acquired Sebring International Raceway and under him it has become a world class venue after he instituted a host of improvements and the introduction of the American Le Mans Series. Such improvements as the Château Élan Hotel overlooking the hairpin turn, the new pit lane, garage area and hospitality suites have turned the track into a world class facility, while the ALMS has brought the best in sportscar racing teams back to the big race. All of which provide the thousands of fans with the biggest sportscar event on this side of the Atlantic.

With over one hundred thousand fans attending the race on a regular basis, there is no reason to expect anything less for 2004. With the advanced ticket sales already up over the last two years, it is looking like this race will set another record for attendance at the March classic. Why do they come? What are they looking for? Well the answers can be had by simply looking at the entry list and what’s in store for the entrants come that Saturday morning in March.

With four classes of car contesting the event there is always something happening on the track. Two prototype classes, P1 and P2, are designed for the latest and greatest purpose built racing cars. These cars are designed from the ground up to do nothing more than go fast and do not look like anything that you will find on the street. The other two classes consist of cars that look like the ones you might see on the street every day. The GTS is the faster of the two with cars such as the Chevrolet Corvette and Ferrari’s 550 and 575 Maranello. The smaller GT class consists of cars such as the Porsche 911 and the Ferrari 360 Modena. Let’s look at the classes a little bit closer and predict who will be the teams to beat come race day.

P1

The P1 class is the top class in the race. This class has been called the LMP 900 class for the last couple of seasons, but to prepare for some upcoming rules changes for ’05, this class now has a new name and few new cars. They are purpose built racecars, most with carbon fiber tubs and all the latest technology that the racing industry has to offer. The Audi R8 has been the dominant car in this category for the last few years. The Panoz LMP01 car has given the Audi some competition over the last few years and then last year the Lola MG, from Dyson Racing, also started to challenge the Audi, even taking a win and a couple of front row starts. Last year the Lola was an LMP 675 car, but with the current rules changes, it has now been vaulted up to the top P1 class due to its amazing speed and power to weight ratio which allows it to compete with what had previously been the top class cars above it.

This season we will also see the return of a fan favorite, the Panoz GTP car. Affectionately named the “batmobile,” it will be fielded by the Larbre Competition team out of France. If they run this car the same way they have run their others in the past, it should be very fast. Their main competition will be from a trio of Audi R8s, a pair of Lola/MGs and a couple of various other cars. The Audis will be represented by Champion Racing and Audi Sport UK, which will field a pair of the awesome prototypes. Champion has been doing this now for a couple of years and finally took their first wins last season. They won the season finale at Road Atlanta and with their driver lineup of J.J. Lehto, who was in the car last season, Emanuele Pirro, a three-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and Marco Werner who drove the series championship Joest Audi R8 in 2003, Champion has got to be considered a favorite to take the checkered.


Audi Sport UK will also have an impressive lineup with their pair of Audis. The most notable will be the return of Allan McNish and his return to sportscar racing. Having been the ALMS champion in 2000, Allan then left the series for F1 where he was a driver on the Toyota F1 team. However, he is returning this year and is in the car that he drove to victory in 2000. His teammate will be Johnny Herbert, who partnered with Lehto last year in the Champion car and who is also a winner of the 24 hour race in France. The two of them will make Audi UK more than a formidable opponent to Champion racing. The four other drivers for Audi UK will consist of Frank Biela, last year’s champion in the Joest Audi, Guy Smith who drove one of the Bentleys to victory last year at Le Mans, James Davies and Pierre Kaffer. With the power of the Audi and the quality of the lineup, Champion will certainly have to fight for a victory.

Dyson racing will be fielding a pair of Lola/MGs which showed amazing speed last year as they took the LMP 675 championship. Their main driver lineup will return with James Weaver, Butch Leitzinger, Chris Dyson, and Andy Wallace. James and Butch will be in one car with Andy Wallace, while Chris will team up with Didier de Radigues and another, yet unannounced driver, in the other car. Last season the car showed very impressive speed that surprised the Audis on more than one occasion. However, the cars have also shown some reliability issues which may leave them out of the fight come the 11th hour. But if they actually stay together, don’t be surprised to see them standing on the podium at the end of the day.


Another team that could show some fight is the team from Intersport Racing and Jon Field. They also are running the same Lola chassis that Dyson has used with great success, however, they have done away with the MG power plant and have gone with a Judd in hopes of more reliability. Will this prove to be a smart move? We’ll just have to wait and see. The Lola will be driven by Jon Field and Duncan Dayton. They will team up with Larry Connor for this event. The other car fielded by Intersport will be a Riley and Scott MkIII c with an Elan engine. This car showed speed under the Jim Matthews racing team but is fairly new to the Intersport team. They have tried to develop the car and hopefully will be able to show the speed the JMR team did with it before selling the car to Intersport.

A couple of other cars to look for in this class will be the Taurus Sports Lola, a different chassis from the ones that Dyson and Intersport are piloting, the Dallara of Rollcentre Racing, and the Lotus Elise GTP car from Team Elite. None of these cars is likely to be contending for the lead of the race, but each could show up towards the top of the leader board if the others have problems. In any case they should provide some other on-track excitement during the twelve hours, especially the Lotus which should be a fun car to watch, along with the Panoz. These are the only two hard top prototypes in the field and will bring that extra something to an already diverse race.

P2

The P2 class should also provide some excellent action during the race. These are the little brothers of the P1 class and are also purpose built racing machines that have much of the same technology found in the larger cars, but with less power and are therefore a little slower. The car of choice in this category is the Lola B2K/40 and the overwhelming choice for power plants is from Nissan. This combination will be used by Rand Racing, American Spirit Racing, and Van der Steur Racing. Intersport will also field a Lola B2K/40 in this category to go along with their two P1 cars, however, they will put a Judd engine into the back of it instead of the popular Nissan. The only non Lola in the field will be from Team Bucknam who will be running a Pilbeam chassis. They will, however, have that Nissan engine driving it.

This class is pretty wide open. Bucknam has had great success the last few seasons with its Pilbeam, coming in behind the Lola/MGs of Dyson and Intersport on several occasions. But, with the Lola/MGs now running in the P1 class, they should return to the top of the podium at least some time during the season. Sebring could be one of those times. Any of the other teams are likely to have a shot at the win, though, as long as they stay out of trouble. Rand Racing returns to the ALMS after spending last season in the Grand Am Rolex series. In the past their Lola/Nissan combo has been very successful and there is no reason to predict otherwise for this year. The team is very well run and is always a strong contender no matter what series they are running in.

American Spirit Racing ran a Riley and Scott MkIII c in the LMP 900 category last year without much success. They were often fighting mechanical gremlins and never showed the speed with the car that JMR did a couple of seasons ago. However, they have run a very successful Trans Am team in the past so they do know how to do it. This year they have dropped down to the P2 class with their Lola/Nissans and are looking for some success. They have the right combination of chassis and engine, now they just need to go out and drive. Their pair of cars will add much to this class and they are quite capable of challenging for the win if all comes together for them.

Intersport is always a threat as they are very well funded and know how to do a team right. This will be a new car for them, though, and they are likely to have some teething problems with their very first race being such a long and hard one. The last team from Van der Steur Racing is fairly unknown so we will have to wait and see what they have in store for the race. They have a good car and engine and they also have a good driver on the team in Andy Lally, so they are not to be counted out.

GTS

The GTS class is contested by cars that are designed to look like the road going cars you might see everyday. They are, however, purpose built race cars that are only slightly similar to the road cars they represent. They are allowed to make changes from the stock specifications of the road cars and are often wider, lower and use different engines as well. Of course most of the other components are also purpose built, leaving the cars with little in common with their road-going counterparts, other than a vague outward resemblance.

At the top of the list of potential winners for Sebring will have to be the Corvettes from Pratt and Miller Racing. With Ron Fellows and Johnny O’Connell paired up with Max Papis in one of the cars and with Oliver Gavin, Olivier Berretta, and Jan Magnussen together in the other, this has to be the strongest team right now in the field. With the Care Racing Ferrari 550s having withdrawn from the event to prepare for Le Mans, Corvette Racing has to be the odds on favorite to stand at the top of the podium when all is said and done.


Their competition will come from a variety of teams that have yet to prove themselves. One of the more interesting entries will be from Barron Connor Racing and its pair of Ferrari 575s. Similar to the Prodrive cars that gave the Corvette team so much competition last season, these cars should be very fast and could certainly have the speed to compete. However, these cars are new this year and have yet to be tested for such a long and hard event, so it will be interesting to see if they hold up for the full twelve hours. They are also on everyone’s “to watch” list as their first announced driver is Danny Sullivan, the Indy 500 winner and ex CART star. They should put on a good show, but I wouldn’t bet against the Corvettes at this time.

Two other cars that should have a good chance at standing on the podium will be the Saleen S7Rs from ACEMCO Motorsports and Graham Nash Motorsport. The Saleens should finally have their speed returned to them as they are now racing without all the restrictions levied on them due to Saleen not delivering enough street cars early on, as per series homologation rules. The cars were very competitive before the restrictions were instituted and ACEMCO’s main driver, Terry Borcheller, had much luck with these cars before they were restricted. With Johnny Mowlem and the always fast David Brabham partnering with Terry, this is definitely a car to watch. GNM has had a lot of luck in Europe with their Saleen though not much here in the states in the past. But again, with the restrictions lifted, we are likely to see some real speed out of this car as well and should not be dismissed too early.

The last player in this category will be the Carsport America Dodge Viper. This car has always lurked in the shadows of the Corvettes and the Ferraris since Oreca and their Vipers left the series several seasons ago. Carsport America has been trying to develop this car for the past few seasons and hopefully they will be up to speed come March. Last year at Sebring the car was showing very well till an accident late in the event put them out. If all goes well for them this year, you could see them near the top as it closes in on the checkered.



GT

The largest class in the series is the GT class. These are the slowest cars on the track, but are far from slow. These cars are fairly close to the street cars they represent. They begin as actual cars and are built on the stock chassis. They are then heavily modified to endure the rigors of racing and fitted with larger brakes, better suspensions, and more powerful engines that make them more durable and faster than their street going counterparts. The engines are similar in size to the originals and are the same configuration as well. These cars are the closest to what you might see on your commute to work.

The dominant car in this class has been the Porsche 911, though the Ferrari 360 has been coming on strong every race. This year we will also see the Panoz Esperante, the TVR and the Morgan trying to give the Ferraris and Porsches a run for their money.

The favorite for the class has to again be the Alex Job Racing 911s. This team has dominated the series the last couple of seasons and is surely going to be a force again. With their support from Porsche and their super strong driver lineup, they will be hard to beat. But the 911 team of Peterson/White Lightning will do their best to do just that. This team has been on again and off again in the series the last few years, but are always a strong contender when they show up. They should be able to give AJR a good fight and could likely end up on the top step of the podium if the AJR guys have some difficulty. Several other Porsche teams that could challenge AJR are Seikel Motorsports, British American Motorsport and Flying Lizard Motorsports. All are strong teams with strong cars and any one of them could surprise a few people.


The main Ferrari challenge will come from Risi Racing. They have knocked on the door of victory several times over the last couple of years, but have not quite been able open it up and walk on through. But with a handful of second place spots, they are more than capable of taking that last step and they are sure to be hungry to get that first victory in the 360, especially at such a prominent venue such as Sebring. Keep an eye on them.


A couple of interesting entries that will surely be fun to watch, even if they are not likely to be at the front of the pack, will be the pair of TVRs and the Morgan. Both of these cars are beautiful to look at and a blast to watch on the track. They are likely to provide some excitement and variety, but if they end up on the podium it is likely to be the result of some kind of miracle.

The 12 Hours of Sebring is a classic race at a classic track that has become far more than a mere race – it is truly an event. It symbolizes the start of the sportscar racing season in North America and is one of the most exciting races you are likely to see. With many teams using it as a test bed for Le Mans, it allows U.S. fans to see cars they are not likely to see elsewhere and gives the race a flair that no other race on the continent possesses. Additionally, with the history behind the race and the big names that have it on their list of wins, the race is just as special to the teams and drivers as it is to the fans. It is a race that every driver, team and manufacturer wants on their resume. Because of this the competition is fierce and the intensity high. There are no other races in North America that have the same feel and this is proved by the fact that year in, year out, the 12 Hours of Sebring is the most attended sportscar race in the States. It is truly the most special and largest endurance race on the continent.

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