The 2014 Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) 12 Hours of Sebring support races brought some classic race cars to the 3.7 mile airport based race track.The photos speak for themselves however they can’t convey the sensory over load the drivers of historic cars such as the Porsche 935, Ford GT40, Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA, Mini Cooper and others experienced. Sebring attacks all the drivers senses with the concrete runway pounding the body into submission, smells of burning rubber and race gas mingling with those of popcorn, BBQ and campfires, eyes having to squint as drivers race into the setting sun at over 170 miles per hour on the back straight…Sounds terrible but the drivers love it and so do the crowd. HSR drivers had a chance to race in front of the largest crowd they may ever encounter. The spectator was estimated to be a conservative 170,00 plus over the four days of racing.
Notable amongst the HSR cars was the 1972 BMW CSL of Scott Hughes. Consider this; Scott won an Amelia Award in the BMW CSL class at the world famous Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance on Sunday March 9th. On Tuesday March 11th he was unloading the very same car at Sebring ready to hit the track.
Rumours are that the Grand Marshal for the Classic Motorsports Mitty presented by Hagerty may take the wheel of the above mentioned CSL and turn some laps at Road Atlanta April 24-27th. Why is this interesting? Well the Grand Marshal is the winner of the 1975 12 Hours of Sebring in a BMW CSL & winner of the 1976 24 Hours of Daytona, again driving a BMW CSL. None other than Brian Redman.
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Images Chuck Andersen
