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Wikipedia: 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.
Date | Overall Winners | Overall Winner's Make | |
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1950 | Victor Sharpe/Tommy Cole (Fritz Koster/Ralph Deshon) | Crosley | |
1952 | Stuart Donaldson (Harry Gray/Larry Kulok) | Frazer-Nash | |
8 March 1953 | Briggs Cunningham (Phil Walters/John Fitch) | Cunningham-Chrysler | |
7 March 1954 | Briggs Cunningham (Bill Lloyd/Stirling Moss) | O.S.C.A. | |
13 March 1955 | Briggs Cunningham (Mike Hawthorn/Phil Walters) | Jaguar | |
24 March 1956 | Scuderia Ferrari (Eugenio Castellotti/Juan Manuel Fangio) | Ferrari | |
23 March 1957 | Maserati (Juan Manuel Fangio/Jean Behra) | Maserati | |
22 March 1958 | Scuderia Ferrari (Peter Collins/Phil Hill) | Ferrari | |
21 March 1959 | Scuderia Ferrari (Phil Hill, Dan Gurney, Chuck Daigh, Olivier Gendebien) | Ferrari | |
1960 | Joakim Bonnier (Olivier Gendebien/Hans Herrmann) | Porsche | |
1961 | SpA Ferrari SEFAC (Phil Hill/Olivier Gendebien) | Ferrari | |
1962 | Scuderia SSS Republica di Venezia (Lucien Bianchi/Joakim Bonnier) | Ferrari | |
1963 | SpA Ferrari SEFAC (John Surtees/Ludovico Scarfiotti) | Ferrari | |
1964 | SpA Ferrari SEFAC (Mike Parkes/Umberto Maglioli) | Ferrari | |
1965 | Chaparral Cars Inc. (Jim Hall/Hap Sharp) | Chaparral-Chevrolet | |
26 March 1966 | Shelby American Inc. (Lloyd Ruby/Ken Miles) | Ford | |
1967 | Ford Motor Company (Bruce McLaren/Mario Andretti) | Ford | |
1968 | Porsche Automobile Company (Jo Siffert/Hans Herrmann) | Porsche | |
1969 | J.W. Automotive Engineering (Jacky Ickx/Jackie Oliver) | Ford | |
1970 | SpA Ferrari SEFAC (Ignazio Giunti, Nino Vaccarella, Mario Andretti) | Ferrari | |
1971 | Martini Racing (Vic Elford/Gérard Larrousse) | Porsche | |
1972 | SpA Ferrari SEFAC (Jacky Ickx/Mario Andretti) | Ferrari | |
1973 | Dave Helmick (Hurley Haywood, Peter Gregg, Dave Helmick) | Porsche | |
1975 | BMW Motorsport (Hans-Joachim Stuck, Brian Redman, Allan Moffat, Sam Posey) | BMW | |
1976 | Holbert Porsche-Audi (Al Holbert/Mike Keyser) | Porsche | |
1977 | George Dyer (George Dyer/Brad Frisselle) | Porsche | |
1978 | Dick Barbour Racing (Brian Redman, Charles Mendez, Bob Garretson) | Porsche | |
1979 | Dick Barbour Racing (Bob Akin, Rob McFarlin, Roy Woods) | Porsche | |
1980 | Dick Barbour Racing (John Fitzpatrick/Dick Barbour) | Porsche | |
1981 | Bayside Disposal Racing (Bruce Leven, Hurley Haywood, Al Holbert) | Porsche | |
1982 | JLP Racing (John Paul, Sr./John Paul, Jr.) | Porsche | |
1983 | Personalized Autohaus (Wayne Baker, Jim Mullen, Kees Nierop) | Porsche | |
1984 | De Narvaez Enterprises (Mauricio de Narvaez, Hans Heyer, Stefan Johansson) | Porsche | |
1985 | Preston Henn (Bob Wollek/A.J. Foyt) | Porsche | |
1986 | Bob Akin Motor Racing (Bob Akin, Hans-Joachim Stuck, Jo Gartner) | Porsche | |
1987 | Bayside Disposal Racing (Bobby Rahal, Jochen Mass) | Porsche | |
1988 | Bayside Disposal Racing (Klaus Ludwig, Hans-Joachim Stuck) | Porsche | |
1989 | Electramotive Engineering (Geoff Brabham, Arie Luyendyk, Chip Robinson) | Nissan | |
1990 | Nissan Performance Technology (Bob Earl/Derek Daly) | Nissan | |
1991 | Nissan Performance Technology (Derek Daly/Geoff Brabham/Gary Brabham) | Nissan | |
1992 | All American Racers (Juan Manuel Fangio II/Andy Wallace) | Eagle-Toyota | |
1993 | All American Racers (Juan Manuel Fangio II/Andy Wallace) | Eagle-Toyota | |
1994 | Clayton Cunningham Racing (Steve Millen/Johnny O'Connell/John Morton) | Nissan | |
1995 | Scandia Motorsports (Andy Evans, Fermín Vélez, Eric van de Poele) | Ferrari | |
1996 | Doyle Racing (Wayne Taylor, Jim Pace, Scott Sharp) | Riley & Scott-Oldsmobile | |
1997 | Team Scandia (Andy Evans, Fermín Vélez, Yannick Dalmas, Stefan Johansson) | Ferrari | |
1998 | MOMO Doran Racing (Didier Theys, Gianpiero Moretti, Mauro Baldi) | Ferrari | |
1999 | BMW Motorsport (Tom Kristensen, JJ Lehto, Jörg Müller) | BMW | |
2000 | Audi Sport North America (Frank Biela, Tom Kristensen, Emanuele Pirro) | Audi | |
2001 | Audi Sport North America (Rinaldo Capello, Michele Alboreto, Laurent Aïello) | Audi | |
2002 | Audi Sport North America (Rinaldo Capello, Christian Pescatori, Johnny Herbert) | Audi | |
2003 | Infineon Team Joest (Philipp Peter, Frank Biela, Marco Werner) | Audi | |
2004 | Audi Sport UK Team Veloqx (Allan McNish, Frank Biela, Pierre Kaffer) | Audi | |
2005 | ADT Champion Racing (Marco Werner, JJ Lehto, Tom Kristensen) | Audi | |
2006 | Audi Sport North America (Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish, Rinaldo Capello) | Audi | |
2007 | Audi Sport North America (Emanuele Pirro, Frank Biela, Marco Werner) | Audi | |
2008 | Penske Racing (Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas, Emmanuel Collard) | Porsche | |
2009 | Audi Sport Team Joest (Tom Kristensen, Rinaldo Capello, Allan McNish) | Audi | |
2010 | Team Peugeot Total (Anthony Davidson, Marc Gené, Alexander Wurz) | Peugeot | |
2011 | Team Oreca Matmut (Loïc Duval, Nicolas Lapierre, Olivier Panis) | Peugeot | 2011 Race Information |
2012 | Audi Sport Team Joest (Tom Kristensen, Rinaldo Capello, Allan McNish) | Audi | |
2013 | Audi Sport Team Joest (Oliver Jarvis, Marcel Fässler, Benoît Tréluyer) | Audi | |
2014 | Ganassi Racing (Marino Franchitti, Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas) | Riley-Ford | |
2015 | Action Express Racing (Christian Fittipaldi, Sébastien Bourdais, João Barbosa) | Coyote-Corvette | |
2016 | Tequila Patrón ESM (Scott Sharp, Ed Brown, Johannes van Overbeek, Pipo Derani) | Ligier-Honda | 2016 Race Information |
Date | Article | Author/Source |
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6 October 2011 | Scott Tucker, A Year In Review: The 12 Hours Of Sebring | Kaitlyn Tillman |
Date | Article | Author/Source |
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20 March 2016 | Extreme Speed triunfa en las 12 Horas de Sebring | Wikinoticias |
23 March 2016 | Corvette Racing Goes 2-for-2 in 2016, Wins 2nd Straight Sebring Race | Patrick Rall, TorqueNews |