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12 Hours Of Sebring


Sports/Touring Car Racing

12 Hours Of Sebring
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History

The following section is an excerpt from Wikipedia's 12 Hours Of Sebring page on 14 April 2016, text available via the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

The 12 Hours of Sebring is an annual motorsport endurance race for sports cars held at Sebring International Raceway, on the site of the former Hendricks Army Airfield World War II air base in Sebring, Florida. The event is the second round of the United SportsCar Championship and in the past has been a round of the now defunct World Sportscar Championship, IMSA GT Championship and American Le Mans Series. In 2012, the race was the opening event of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

The track opened in 1950 on an airfield and is a road racing course styled after those used in European Grand Prix motor racing. The first race was a six-hour race on New Year's Eve 1950, with the next race held 14 months later as the first 12 Hours of Sebring. The race is famous for its "once around the clock" action, starting during the day and finishing at night. From 1953 to 1972 the 12 Hour was a round of the FIA’s premier sports car series which was contested under various names including the World Sportscar Championship and the International Championship for Makes.

In its early years, the Sebring circuit combined former airport runways with narrow two-lane service roads. The 1966 event was a turning point in Sebring history, as the facilities and the safety of the circuit were heavily criticized. Five people were killed during the race, which was more people killed than in the race's prior 15-year history combined. Bob McLean crashed while approaching the hairpin; his car rolled several times, struck a utility pole and then exploded, landing in a ditch and killing McLean.

In another incident Mario Andretti in his Ferrari 365 P2 tangled with Don Wester's Porsche 906 on the Warehouse Straight near the Webster Turns, killing four spectators and then crashing into a warehouse next to the track. Subsequent to these events, the facilities were upgraded and the circuit layout was changed, including eliminating the Webster Turns and creating the Green Park Chicane further down the track to move the straight further away from the airport warehouses. The circuit was made safer and there were no fatalities until 1980.

It is known as preparation for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, as the track's extremely bumpy surface, combined with south-central Florida's perennial hot weather, is a test of a car's reliability. In recent years, six overall victories have been achieved by the Audi R8, one fewer than the record seven wins of the Porsche 935.

Tom Kristensen has won the race more times than anyone else, with six victories – in 1999–2000, 2005–2006, 2009 and in 2012.


Year-by-Year

DateOverall WinnersOverall Winner's Make
1950Victor Sharpe/Tommy Cole (Fritz Koster/Ralph Deshon)Crosley
1952Stuart Donaldson (Harry Gray/Larry Kulok)Frazer-Nash
8 March 1953Briggs Cunningham (Phil Walters/John Fitch)Cunningham-Chrysler
7 March 1954Briggs Cunningham (Bill Lloyd/Stirling Moss)O.S.C.A.
13 March 1955Briggs Cunningham (Mike Hawthorn/Phil Walters)Jaguar
24 March 1956Scuderia Ferrari (Eugenio Castellotti/Juan Manuel Fangio)Ferrari
23 March 1957Maserati (Juan Manuel Fangio/Jean Behra)Maserati
22 March 1958Scuderia Ferrari (Peter Collins/Phil Hill)Ferrari
21 March 1959Scuderia Ferrari (Phil Hill, Dan Gurney, Chuck Daigh, Olivier Gendebien)Ferrari
1960Joakim Bonnier (Olivier Gendebien/Hans Herrmann)Porsche
1961SpA Ferrari SEFAC (Phil Hill/Olivier Gendebien)Ferrari
1962Scuderia SSS Republica di Venezia (Lucien Bianchi/Joakim Bonnier)Ferrari
1963SpA Ferrari SEFAC (John Surtees/Ludovico Scarfiotti)Ferrari
1964SpA Ferrari SEFAC (Mike Parkes/Umberto Maglioli)Ferrari
1965Chaparral Cars Inc. (Jim Hall/Hap Sharp)Chaparral-Chevrolet
26 March 1966Shelby American Inc. (Lloyd Ruby/Ken Miles)Ford
1967Ford Motor Company (Bruce McLaren/Mario Andretti)Ford
1968Porsche Automobile Company (Jo Siffert/Hans Herrmann)Porsche
1969J.W. Automotive Engineering (Jacky Ickx/Jackie Oliver)Ford
1970SpA Ferrari SEFAC (Ignazio Giunti, Nino Vaccarella, Mario Andretti)Ferrari
1971Martini Racing (Vic Elford/Gérard Larrousse)Porsche
1972SpA Ferrari SEFAC (Jacky Ickx/Mario Andretti)Ferrari
1973Dave Helmick (Hurley Haywood, Peter Gregg, Dave Helmick)Porsche
1975BMW Motorsport (Hans-Joachim Stuck, Brian Redman, Allan Moffat, Sam Posey)BMW
1976Holbert Porsche-Audi (Al Holbert/Mike Keyser)Porsche
1977George Dyer (George Dyer/Brad Frisselle)Porsche
1978Dick Barbour Racing (Brian Redman, Charles Mendez, Bob Garretson)Porsche
1979Dick Barbour Racing (Bob Akin, Rob McFarlin, Roy Woods)Porsche
1980Dick Barbour Racing (John Fitzpatrick/Dick Barbour)Porsche
1981Bayside Disposal Racing (Bruce Leven, Hurley Haywood, Al Holbert)Porsche
1982JLP Racing (John Paul, Sr./John Paul, Jr.)Porsche
1983Personalized Autohaus (Wayne Baker, Jim Mullen, Kees Nierop)Porsche
1984De Narvaez Enterprises (Mauricio de Narvaez, Hans Heyer, Stefan Johansson)Porsche
1985Preston Henn (Bob Wollek/A.J. Foyt)Porsche
1986Bob Akin Motor Racing (Bob Akin, Hans-Joachim Stuck, Jo Gartner)Porsche
1987Bayside Disposal Racing (Bobby Rahal, Jochen Mass)Porsche
1988Bayside Disposal Racing (Klaus Ludwig, Hans-Joachim Stuck)Porsche
1989Electramotive Engineering (Geoff Brabham, Arie Luyendyk, Chip Robinson)Nissan
1990Nissan Performance Technology (Bob Earl/Derek Daly)Nissan
1991Nissan Performance Technology (Derek Daly/Geoff Brabham/Gary Brabham)Nissan
1992All American Racers (Juan Manuel Fangio II/Andy Wallace)Eagle-Toyota
1993All American Racers (Juan Manuel Fangio II/Andy Wallace)Eagle-Toyota
1994Clayton Cunningham Racing (Steve Millen/Johnny O'Connell/John Morton)Nissan
1995Scandia Motorsports (Andy Evans, Fermín Vélez, Eric van de Poele)Ferrari
1996Doyle Racing (Wayne Taylor, Jim Pace, Scott Sharp)Riley & Scott-Oldsmobile
1997Team Scandia (Andy Evans, Fermín Vélez, Yannick Dalmas, Stefan Johansson)Ferrari
1998MOMO Doran Racing (Didier Theys, Gianpiero Moretti, Mauro Baldi)Ferrari
1999BMW Motorsport (Tom Kristensen, JJ Lehto, Jörg Müller)BMW
2000Audi Sport North America (Frank Biela, Tom Kristensen, Emanuele Pirro)Audi
2001Audi Sport North America (Rinaldo Capello, Michele Alboreto, Laurent Aïello)Audi
2002Audi Sport North America (Rinaldo Capello, Christian Pescatori, Johnny Herbert)Audi
2003Infineon Team Joest (Philipp Peter, Frank Biela, Marco Werner)Audi
2004Audi Sport UK Team Veloqx (Allan McNish, Frank Biela, Pierre Kaffer)Audi
2005ADT Champion Racing (Marco Werner, JJ Lehto, Tom Kristensen)Audi
2006Audi Sport North America (Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish, Rinaldo Capello)Audi
2007Audi Sport North America (Emanuele Pirro, Frank Biela, Marco Werner)Audi
2008Penske Racing (Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas, Emmanuel Collard)Porsche
2009Audi Sport Team Joest (Tom Kristensen, Rinaldo Capello, Allan McNish)Audi
2010Team Peugeot Total (Anthony Davidson, Marc Gené, Alexander Wurz)Peugeot
2011Team Oreca Matmut (Loïc Duval, Nicolas Lapierre, Olivier Panis)Peugeot2011 Race Information
2012Audi Sport Team Joest (Tom Kristensen, Rinaldo Capello, Allan McNish)Audi
2013Audi Sport Team Joest (Oliver Jarvis, Marcel Fässler, Benoît Tréluyer)Audi
2014Ganassi Racing (Marino Franchitti, Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas)Riley-Ford
2015Action Express Racing (Christian Fittipaldi, Sébastien Bourdais, João Barbosa)Coyote-Corvette
2016Tequila Patrón ESM (Scott Sharp, Ed Brown, Johannes van Overbeek, Pipo Derani)Ligier-Honda2016 Race Information


2011 Race Information

DateArticleAuthor/Source
6 October 2011Scott Tucker, A Year In Review: The 12 Hours Of SebringKaitlyn Tillman


2016 Race Information

DateArticleAuthor/Source
20 March 2016Extreme Speed triunfa en las 12 Horas de Sebring Wikinoticias
23 March 2016Corvette Racing Goes 2-for-2 in 2016, Wins 2nd Straight Sebring Race Patrick Rall, TorqueNews





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