This weekend is the Sebring 12 Hours. And if you are thinking, “blimey, that’s come around fast”, then for once, you wouldn’t be wrong. It’s just over four months since the 68th edition of the race took place in November.
That race was delayed heavily by the restrictions put in place to curb the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, but for 2021 the event is back in its usual mid-March slot. Crowds will also be back this year, with Florida deciding to relax its Covid restrictions, but the World Endurance Championship will not be back to support IMSA’s flagship weekend.
Since it’s been so, er, long since we were at Sebring, we thought it high time for a refresher on Sebring’s tricky 3.74 miles of tarmac and concrete, and who better to be your guide than our much-missed friend Jim Pace. Pace, a legend in American sportscar racing, had probably done more laps of US racing tracks than almost anyone else before he passed away last year, so is the perfect guide.
This time he is in a 3.0-litre Porsche 911 RSR in practice for Historic Sportscar Racing’s four-hour Sebring endurance race in 2014, talking us through how to extract maximum speed from a stunning sounding (and looking) machine, with the calmness of a man on his way to the shops for some milk. How he remains so relaxed, and is able to even relieve his right hand of the wheel from time to time to give directions, we’ll never know, as the Speeds Pace is extracting from the glorious-sounding Porsche is almost unreal. Oh, about four minutes in he dispatches a brand new Porsche Cayman GT4. We miss you Jim.
Welcome to Goodwood Elevenses, a mid-morning helping of motoring-related amusement to help break up your day. Watch the last video: 911 full-throttle at Road America.
Sebring
HSR
Jim Pace
Porsche
911
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