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New York Times
11-03-2025
- Automotive
- New York Times
At Sebring, an Old Air Base Tests the Limits of Endurance Racing
This year the Sebring International Raceway in Florida will mark its 75th anniversary. Its flagship event, the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, is one of motorsport's most prestigious events. Now a round of the I.M.S.A. WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, it is part of the unofficial triple crown of sports cars, alongside the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Rolex 24 at Daytona. Sebring is among the oldest motorsport venues in the United States, created after World War II. 'In 1941 the Army Corps of Engineers built Hendricks field, and it was a Second World War training base for B-17 and B-24 bombers,' said John Story, senior director of marketing, communications and business development at the track. 'Once they trained here they went straight to England, and then when the war ended the Army turned the base back over to the city of Sebring for $1 a year and said you can have this field for whatever you want with it,' he said. 'Along came a gentleman called Alec Ullman, a Russian American engineer, who had a liking to sports-car racing, particularly Le Mans.' Ullman turned the runways, taxiways and access roads into a circuit, and the Sam Collier 6 Hour Memorial race took place on New Year's Eve 1950. In mid-March in 1952, the 12 Hours of Sebring was first held, and the race has been run annually, with the exception of 1974, because of the energy crisis. Sebring's layout was initially fairly rudimentary and was over five miles long. 'They were running between hay bales, cones, airplanes, there were no walls, it was quite dangerous,' Stone said. 'Drivers would historically get lost in the middle of the race if they were running by themselves.' The current 3.7-mile layout still incorporates sections of the original airfield. That creates a unique feel, with around half the circuit asphalt and the remainder made of the airfield's concrete slabs. 'Unlike a lot of tracks it has held on to what makes it really special,' Jack Aitken of Cadillac Whelen, among the team of drivers who won the race in 2023, said in an interview. 'These massive concrete paving slabs are pretty beaten up and poorly matched, there's differences in the height of each slab. It's extremely bumpy; it's a real test of cars, and when you're getting moved around that much, of the driver as well. It's not uncommon to hear of drivers getting out of the car with a headache. 'There's some very fast corners, in the prototype cars you're carrying fourth or fifth gear and the car is jumping, and you're losing contact with the road on two, if not three, or maybe even four wheels, so it's pretty thrilling.' The 12-hour race begins midmorning in daylight and concludes at night, and drivers must cope with its length, as well as traffic because the four classes of cars competing have large performance differences, and the fastest cars must drive around the slower ones. 'It's a high-risk, high-reward circuit, and that's what makes it special,' Louis Delétraz, of Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing, said in an interview. 'First of all, you have to survive, which with I.M.S.A. traffic is insane, so that's one thing. It's more like survive eight hours, and then in the last four hours [the aim] is get to the front, then the last hour is war.' Teams try to optimize setup for the cooler nights, so cars and drivers must manage the hotter daytime weather. 'Being quick in the day is nice, but it's not particularly useful, especially after a couple of restarts towards the end and things have reset,' Aitken said. 'It's quite an attritional race, we see mistakes through the years — including my car last year — and it's not a very forgiving track. If you get off the circuit it's very easy to end up in the wall, so it's about taking care of the car, surviving through the heat of the day, then it all gets quite racy at nighttime.' Delétraz won in 2024 after taking the lead with just five minutes remaining. 'It was my biggest win, especially the way it happened; at night the visibility is low, I had a 15-minute fight with Sébastien Bourdais, a legend, and it was amazing,' Delétraz said. 'I was so stressed in the car, but I wanted it so badly, I remember I was screaming in my helmet when I passed him. When we won it was surreal, because it's such a big race.' Aitken's victory came on his Sebring 12 hours debut in 2023. He was running fourth, but the three leading cars collided with 20 minutes remaining, and he vaulted into the lead. 'The Sebring 12 hours is a pretty special one to win as your first race,' he said. 'The way it came about was quite lucky, it was more about staying out of trouble and benefiting from others' misfortune, so you do feel a bit sorry for those that have lost out, but that's racing.' Last year over 100,000 spectators attended, Story said, and many turn it into a weekend-long festival. 'There's a nonstop party, it's a really fun weekend, it's in the middle of nowhere, and there's still 100,000 people, we love it,' Delétraz said. Aitken added that Sebring veterans had told him he should visit the fan areas. 'I.M.S.A. do a pretty good job of staying true to the event,' he said. 'It really is a party atmosphere. The setups that people come to the race with, to not only make themselves comfortable at the track, but to make other people's experiences better is pretty amazing. 'They set up their own bars, little spots to eat, they've got barbecues going, viewing areas with old sofas, some guy had a fish tank last year — I'm not sure what the fish tank brought to the event, but it was something. I think it attracts that kind of community that sports cars often has, and the fans seem to take care of each other and always enjoy themselves. It's a cool event.'
Associated Press
14-02-2025
- Automotive
- Associated Press
Oh, baby! Bubba Wallace celebrates his 1st win at Daytona with his newborn son and a new outlook
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Bubba Wallace vowed to try to 'enjoy the little stuff' this season. It showed in victory lane. 'Can I get a Rolex for this one?' Wallace quipped, referring to what winners receive after the Rolex 24 at Daytona sports car race. Wallace, driving the No. 23 Toyota for 23XI Racing, won the first of two qualifying races Thursday for the upcoming Daytona 500. He showed enough speed to make him one of the favorites heading into 'The Great American Race.' 'Man, what a night,' Wallace said. 'I've wanted one of these Duel wins for so long.' Wallace will now start third in the Daytona 500 on Sunday, behind pole-sitter Chase Briscoe and Austin Cindric. Wallace's win continued Toyota's early dominance at Daytona International Speedway, where Briscoe won the pole in his new Joe Gibbs Racing ride. The 31-year-old Wallace celebrated his first victory at Daytona by spraying a Coke at his crew, hugging Denny Hamlin, who co-owns 23XI Racing along with Pro Basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan, and then lifting his newborn high into the air a la 'The Lion King.' The baby was wearing noise-protective headphones and a checkered-flag bib while sucking on a pacifier. Wallace and wife Amanda welcomed Becks Hayden Wallace in late September. Wallace said he 'lost it walking out on pit road' while carrying his 4-month-old son. He found himself shedding more tears while frolicking in victory with his family. 'It is the coolest thing having a kid,' Wallace said. 'You never know if you're ready. I regret not having one earlier. He's brought so much joy and new perspective. I feel like I'm walking lighter because of him. Four months old, and he's already changed my life.' Wallace has talked openly about past battles with his mental health. And coming to Daytona has provided more stress than success, with Wallace being 0 for 15 in races at Daytona – although he's finished second twice in the season-opening 500. 'Tired of talking about it,' he joked. 'I felt like every time I've strapped into a race car at Daytona 500, I've been able to win and just things haven't worked out like that,' said Wallace, who has finished in the top 15 in 12 of his 15 starts at Daytona. 'I don't think there's one time that I haven't felt that. You have to show up and have that drive and passion that you're going to win. But you also have to put yourself in the right spot.' It nearly happened in 2018 and 2022, but Wallace came up just short in both Daytona 500s. 'I think you've got to crawl before you can walk,' he said. 'Second-place finishes I guess wasn't crawling enough. So maybe the Duel win is. Now we can put ourselves in a little bit better spot. 'I feel like we've done just about everything right. But just about everything isn't good enough to win the 500. It's got to be perfect, and we've just got to really focus on how to do that and when that time comes be in the same spot here Sunday.' Wallace said a day earlier he 'couldn't care less' if President Donald Trump attends the Daytona 500. Trump accused the NASCAR Cup Series' only Black full-time driver of perpetrating ' a hoax ' five years ago when a crewmember found a noose in the team garage stall. Trump suggested in July 2020 that Wallace should apologize after the sport rallied around him following the discovery of the noose in his assigned stall at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. Federal authorities ruled that the noose had been hanging since October and was not a hate crime. NASCAR and the FBI have referred exclusively to the rope — which was used to pull the garage door closed — as a noose. Wallace declined to say much about the possibility that Trump could return to NASCAR's biggest race as a sitting president for the second time. 'We're here to race,' Wallace said. 'Not for the show.'
