It’s only a partial pun on the 12 Hours of Sebring, but in reality, the period since March 14 until Sunday evening has been the most surreal period for me personally and for us as a company since Las Vegas, last year. A recap of part 1 of the whirlwind is below:
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14
The inside joke here is that the cross country jaunt from Orange County, Calif. to Sebring, Fla. would take as long as the race itself. I called it, in a play off the official race title of: “Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh from Florida,” the “Twelve Hours of Getting to Sebring Fueled by American Airlines.”
The flights were the easy part, going through Dallas and then landing in Orlando. No issues on the rental car, or obscene charges. Still, the issue sprouted up about 7:45 p.m. ET – about 10 hours after starting the day – in that it took nearly two hours to go some 20+ miles from one of America’s least favorite airports, MCO, to the State Route 27 connection with Interstate 4. The culprit was a massive pileup that caused a 10-mile, roughly hour-plus delay outside 27, on I-4, which shut down I-4 both directions and caused massive headache.
One of the things I get when I tell people I get to travel for a living is that, “oh, it’s so glamorous.” Well, yes, a lot of it is – but travel days such as this one are far from it – and it’s those moments that really test your patience when you’re drained, at night, in a rental car, in some remote location. I’d considered crashing at a hotel near the I-4/27 interchange but most were sold out, so the ride continued. A 12:30 a.m. ET arrival time then occurred at surprise number two of the evening, the Sebring Inn (RIGHT).
Without going into too many specifics, the easiest way to describe this place is that it makes the Motel 6 in Buttonwillow, Calif. look like the Ritz-Carlton by comparison. And, as your typical roadside, bare bones hotel available only when things are done last minute, it was what it was. THURSDAY, MARCH 15
The DeltaWing made its official public debut. Anything and everything else was secondary. This car has the potential to revolutionize motorsport in a way unseen by any other model or car in decades, even if people remain divided on its appearance. Certainly the night practice session was the other highlight, although a number of incidents made the day a little longer, nearly to 10 p.m. at the track.
FRIDAY, MARCH 16
I got a hot lap in a Corvette ZR1, thanks to Mobil 1. Sometimes you get one of those surreal messages in your inbox, like, “Would you be interested in a hot lap in a ZR1?” I didn’t respond back, “Do I have a pulse?” although I was tempted to.
SATURDAY, MARCH 17
Ah, race day. The joy of attempting to follow nine – nine! – classes at once while also monitoring whatever crazy stories popped up. Here’s more on the class insanity and thoughts about the politics of the thing, although I’ll touch on part of that directly in a few paragraphs.
First crazy race moment? The Team Falken Tire Porsche team, led by team manager Derrick Walker, barely even made the start. An engine issue struck the team at the tail end of the morning warm-up, and an hour and a half thrash by the crew – and constant social media updates from the team’s newly acquired PR ace Kelly – led to everyone cheering when Wolf Henzler made the grid literally at the last possible second. The German Porsche factory driver rolled to pit lane at the end of the second warm-up lap, but caught up before losing any time.
Not so lucky was a fellow German Porsche factory driver, former GT class champ Jorg Bergmeister, who was speared by Dominik Farnbacher in a Ferrari 458 right before the green flag. The Lizards were already screwed before the thing even started.
Eventually, the race ran its course, largely trouble-free although there were a few coming-togethers.
About 2 p.m., a handful of us were shuttled off to a meeting with top FIA and ACO officials. That included me, trying to not look too hideous in my one-off borrowed firesuit thanks to Dyson Racing (RIGHT).
Anyway, we got a chance to meet with a group of five led by FIA President Jean Todt. Now, the fan in me here wanted to punch him in the face for making a joke out of F1 for about half a decade in the early part of the 2000s with Ferrari and Schumacher, but my brain was able to kick in and avoid me going postal. That probably would have got me kicked out of media centers for the rest of my life, if not out of racing altogether, but I would have had a hell of a story…
As it turned out, Todt wound up in a verbal spat with a journalist who had the gall – some would say bravery or simply common sense – to question why the timing of schedule finalization was so late for several FIA World Championships. Something might have got lost in translation, but Todt basically turned the question around, claiming we should be “not criticizing, but thanking” the FIA for getting a calendar sorted so quickly. No one has ever officially accused the “A” of standing in FIA for “arrogance,” but I could have sworn I’ve seen “French Insisting on Arrogance” as one of the re-created monikers in the wake of the 2005 USGP at Indy…
Needless to say, the media briefing didn’t go quite to plan. It was a crazy moment that only has hit in magnitude several days after the fact, that about 20 of us were in a room with some of the most powerful people in motorsport and had the chance to go toe-to-toe on certain issues. It’s a chance I don’t know if I’ll ever have again.
The last bit of craziness came at the finish. The outright GT lead, I guess would be the best way to call it, came down to a battle between Joey Hand (BMW) and Olivier Beretta (Ferrari). Hand edged passed Beretta with a few minutes remaining, but on the final lap, a Ferrari which everyone thought was Beretta contacted Hand, nudging the American off the course and ending his win chances.
Not so. Hand then edged past this same Ferrari through the final corner. Turns out we were all wrong, Hand included, as to which Ferrari it was – it was actually the sister car driven by Gianmaria Bruni, more than 100 laps down.
Rather stupidly, it turns out both Hand and Beretta had won, as they had won the ALMS GT and WEC GTE Pro classes, respectively. But nobody thought of it that way, although technically that was how it was.
SUNDAY, MARCH 18
The day going back from Sebring is always a haul. You’ve usually been up til about 2 or 3 am, at least, the night before. Depending on your flight, you either can sleep in late and make your drive ahead of schedule for a mid-afternoon departure, or, if you’re stuck on an early morning one, get a brief nap in and then hit the road in pitch darkness.
Fortunately I had the former option, and a last-minute dart off I-4 onto a toll road (417) saved another near headache of backups and delays. Still, it took a little over 2 hours for the commute back.
To me, Sebring had a weirder vibe to it this year compared to the last two years. Maybe it was the late arrival at the track (Thursday versus Monday) where I felt like I was already behind, maybe it was not being able to stay at the nice hotel, maybe it was the FIA’s influence. Or maybe it was the brewing of things I’d heard in cryptic messages that bore themselves out when I resumed in the office…
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