HSR Sebring – December 5th to 7th, 2008


George Tuma and I have had a fabulous year in racing, particularly where reliability is concerned. We’ve not had a retirement all season. Until this last weekend... and it was not our fault! Read on...

Sebring was the venue for HSR’s last race meeting of the season, and it featured the standard plethora of multiple test/practice/qualifying sessions and then “dash” (8 lap) races and 1-hour enduros. We were concentrating on the 4-hour enduro on Sunday afternoon, the winning of which (class, that is) was our objective. To help, we had brought in ex-pro driver and teacher par excellence, Jim Pace. Jim has (in his impressive resume) won both the Daytona 24 Hours and the Sebring 12 Hours outright, so who better than to drive for/with us?

Thursday was a test day with four sessions for our Group 5 class. I got an early session in and then George and Jim took the next sessions and, in between, Jim directed Matt and Mike, who were looking after the RSR, on lowering the rear of the RSR further, which improved it’s stability through the fast bends to the point where they could be taken flat out, with no worries about losing it. As Sebring is only a hundred miles from home, I had no problem in commuting for this meeting. The trip, along country roads that run arrow straight for miles, is an enjoyable run, as long as you watch out for police cars and State troopers with head on radars!

So it was that I arrived at Sebring on Friday morning, casually believing that George would take the first session in half an hour’s time, only to be told to get ready and go out there to check the car out as Jim had already been busy lowering the RSR to make it even more easy to drive fast. The car had been to Daytona last month and the gearbox had played up, refusing to accept second gear, unless it was held firmly in place! That had now been fixed and so out I went.

The most amazing thing about practice sessions, I find, is that the first session is full of drivers who believe they are in a full blooded sprint race from the word go. I suppose it’s all that testosterone that's built up whilst they’ve been at home, away from a racetrack. East, the false grid guy ushered us out onto the track and – wallop! – everyone’s charging by the time half a lap is done! Cold tires? Cold brakes? Who cares! Let’s go!

So there I was, second lap of the session and I’m coming around a blind exit left-hander, (please don’t ask me corner numbers, I’m hopeless at remembering most of them) and there’s one of our guys, Rob Summerour, in his black BMW CSL, off on the grass on the inside of the turn, where he’s finished his spin. The BMW had kicked up quite a lot of grass and earth as it exited the turn and I ran straight over it and promptly spun myself! Luckily, I’ve spun there before and the barriers are a long way away, so it was harmless and the only thing damaged was my pride. Selected first gear and off we go again.

Friday afternoon saw George go out and qualify the RSR, with Jim adding encouragement over the radio, so much so that George recorded a 2:22.3, which qualified him third on the grid out of thirty-eight entrants! Of course, we were all delighted and George remarked, looking at the time sheet, “I don’t know what to do, I’ve never been so far up the grid before!”

George’s “Dash” race was on Saturday morning and I drove up to turn three to go and watch the action. At the start, George was beaten into the first corner by a couple of the runners but fought back gamely. His tires started to go off halfway through but he still finished a very creditable seventh overall and won his class to boot.

Just after lunchtime came the start of the one-hour enduro, which we’d decided would be split between George and Jim, George starting. I went down to pit lane to watch and George had an excellent start and was putting in his by now customary 2: 23-24 second laps. Again, Jim was in radio contact with him and when it was Jim’s turn to get ready to drive, he handed me the radio and headphones, saying: “Tell him to pit now!” I did as instructed but there was no reply and the radio was dead. Uh-oh. George didn’t come around again, so I found Chip Wright, one of HSR’s officials and he got on the radio to race control. “He'’ up in turn fifteen, on the grass, looks like the rear suspension’s bent” came the reply. I relayed the message to Jim and the crew and we walked back to the paddock, in time to meet George, who had walked in from the circuit.

“What happened?” “I got hit!” replied George. Turns out that he’d been turning into the fast right-hander when he’d been struck hard on the right rear wheel by another competitor in a more modern 993. “How’s the car?” I asked George. “It’s done” he replied. “Took off the rear suspension.” “Well, let’s take a look when it comes back” I said. “You never know.”

A short while later, the Jagermeister RSR appeared on the back of a low loader and it didn’t look good. The right rear wheel leaned drunkenly in at an angle of thirty degrees from the vertical and the wheel arch was all torn up. Scotty looked underneath and pronounced: “Rear trailing arm’s broken, spring plate’s bent.”

The unloading itself was quite a feat but, once back in it’s garage space, Mike and Matt set to and “borrowing” the rear trailing arm from another 911 that had already been retired with some malfunction, had the car repaired, as far as one could see, by just after nine that night.

Also that afternoon, David Ritter’s new Lola T70, brought along for the ride, so to speak, was fired up for the first time in his ownership. A good sized crowd stood around as Scotty turned the 410 cubic inch small block over to get oil pressure and then David stepped in and fired it up. Sure sounded mighty!

Other interesting cars at Sebring were a Metro racing McLaren F1 GTR from Canada and the most exquisite replica of a 1974 Martini liveried 1974 Porsche RSR turbo, complete with huge “barn door” rear wing. Just lovely. As in the original car, it had a 2.1-liter engine although, for the sake of drivability, this one had twin turbos, as against the original’s big single turbocharger.

Not least but last in this commentary, there was a just flown in from Germany white 917 on display. Although it exhibited no chassis number, it was a real “barn find”, showing the cracks and dings of long time wear. It had been bought from the Rosso Bianco Museum in Aschaffenburg, that used to feature great sports-racing cars and, apparently this 917 had belonged to a German owner, who had had it for many years. It still wore a “Kremer Racing” badge on the tail, as they had restored it back in the early 1980s and that was the last seen of it, apparently as the owner had then stuck it in his garage for years, before displaying it at the Museum.

Whilst the mechanics worked, George, Jim, the gang from Predator and myself went off to the HSR prize giving and banquet. Derek Bell was the guest speaker and, as usual, was very good. I do have to say (personal opinion here!) that I find these occasions stultifyingly boring... and I would say that, even if we’d been in line for a medal/cup, (which we weren’t!) I can’t help but feel that it would be much better if the race officials motored around the Paddock on Sunday morning and visited with each team and handed out the prizes then. Again, just a personal opinion...

Me, I went outside and got into conversation with Elliott Forbes-Robinson, who told me all about his early years. To my question of: “So when did you realize that you were good?” he replied: “When I beat my first SCCA driving instructor by two seconds a lap(!)” There’s no substitute for talent.

Sunday morning, there was yet another dash race, so it was a perfect opportunity for Jim to do the first two laps to make sure the car felt good for the afternoon 4-hour enduro and he duly came back and said the car was fine. I climbed in and took her out. Because there was no chance of finishing anywhere in the race itself, I contented myself by sticking to 6,800 rpm and braking 50 yards earlier so that I could tell the car was back to how it should be.

Sunday lunchtime came and the RSR, with George in the driver’s seat, went to the grid. Thirty-five cars were entered in the race and George was to do forty-five minutes, then Jim and then me, with Jim doing the last spell behind the wheel. At least, that was the plan; as the saying goes, the best laid plans...

So George had a good start and completed his spell with no problems. Jim took over and was soon reeling off laps in the 2:20 range. Just twenty minutes into his stint, he came on the radio to say that there was a problem; the right rear drive shaft bearing had failed, no doubt because of the hit George had suffered the day before. Jim brought the RSR slowly into pit lane but one look from Mike, once he’d crawled underneath, confirmed Jim’s diagnosis and the car went off to the paddock to be loaded onto it’s trailer and taken home.

Ah well, as I said at the beginning of this report, we’ve had a very reliable year, as far as racecars go, so shouldn’t be surprised when things go wrong occasionally, especially when you get hit!

So, at the end of this year, I want to thank George (especially!), Jim for his great advice on driving, Mike, Matt, Josh, David and Larry of Predator, Siggi and Philippe Brun, Heiko and Dimitri in Europe and let’s hope we see an even better 2009.