FOTY!
Being named as Sebring Fan of the Year for 2014 came as
a huge surprise to me, for I had already left the UK for
Florida, before the e mail from Sebring came through to
notify me that I had been selected. Unable to use data on
my mobile phone whilst abroad, I was at the mercy of Wi-Fi
whenever it was available to catch up on my e mails and
messages. So imagine my surprise when I logged onto the
Wi-Fi at Hooters in Tampa Bay on the Monday evening, where
I was sat enjoying a nice meal with a nice view prior to
the evening NHL game between The Lightning and the Phoenix
Coyotes.
It is Chris to the left
I had all sorts of messages asking me if I was the Fan of
the Year as there was some confusion as there was a media
accredited photographer with the same name as me that also
had Sebring connections. As the overall winner of the Sebring
Go Pro Hero Fan of the year competition last year, I suspected
that people had maybe misread the programme or mistaken
the Fan of the Year with the Go Pro fan win from 2013. Until
I actually arrived at the track on Tuesday afternoon, I
would have no way of knowing for sure.
David Gourley had already asked me to call in and see him
upon arrival at the track in order to collect a couple of
posters that was part of the Go Pro competition prize. It
was at that point that David announced and congratulated
me, that I had officially been nominated and selected as
the Fan of the Year for 2014.
Part of the scenery
Being named as FOTY is a huge honour to me and something
that I will always cherish as I understand the history of
the award and what it means to be named as the FOTY. I saw
this first hand in 2006 when my good friend Pidge Golebiewsk
with whom I usually camp with at the track, was named as
co FOTY along with an old friend John Bullock that he had
lost contact with many years earlier. Ironic that it was
John that had first introduced Pidge to the race all those
years ago and they had lost touch with each other and hadn’t
seen each other for about 30 years and they were reunited
in 2006 via the FOTY selection and found each other at the
track with a little help from Ken Breslauer. For the next
2 – 3 years, John would call by our camp and spend
time with Pidge, but sadly John Bullock passed away around
2010. But I saw first hand how much the honour meant to
them, they were like celebrities, signing people’s
programmes and being recognised around the track wherever
they went.
A large field of competitive machinery
In some respects, as much as I enjoyed being named as FOTY
for 2014, I couldn’t help but wonder “Why me
?” OK I have been flying over the Atlantic Ocean to
attend the race for the last 13 years without missing a
race, something that has cost me a huge amount if I was
to add up the costs over 13 years and it has been a big
commitment in monetary terms and maybe that was a factor
in the selection process. But on the other hand I can think
of dozens of friends that I have met around the track over
those 13 years that have been attending the Sebring 12 Hours
race for far longer than I have been attending that maybe
deserve the award more than me. Still, there is always future
year’s for them to be nominated and selected yet.
It means a great deal to me to be the first international
race fan that travels to the race, to be given the honour
of FOTY. I have a big passion for the Sebring 12 Hours,
not just as a race but as a whole event. Obviously the race
is an important part of the event, but there is much more
to it than that. I love the people and the friends that
you meet each year and the camaraderie between people that
you only see 4 days of the year. I love meeting new people
and making new friends and finding new viewing spots to
watch the race from. The people that you meet around the
track and the campsites at Sebring are quite simply some
of the best and most friendly passionate people that you
could ever wish to meet. Where else other than Sebring can
you say that you gave a lift over the drive over bridge
into Green Park to 2 Cows in the back of your minivan !
One very well known Corvette no.
3 with a Danish driver
Arriving in the field on the Tuesday and walking about the
line of campers meeting up with good friends, I was constantly
being congratulated on being the FOTY and this continued
throughout the weekend as I moved around the track and campsites
and it was a very nice feeling to be recognised. A friend
back home afterwards said that I am better known in Florida
than I am back home in England !
I would like to say a big thank you to 2011 FOTY Bill Farmer
who arranged the first gathering of the current and former
FOTY’s for a party at his reserved spot on the start
/ finish line on the Friday evening. 8 FOTY turned up for
the get together and it was nice to be able to chat to former
holders of the honour. From there we moved over to the Spring
Brake Party Zone where we were all formally introduced on
the stage by Terry from F Troop who was the FOTY in 2013.
We all got to say a few words about what it meant to us
personally to be FOTY and allowed me to say a few words
about John and Pidge in their absence. So a big thank you
to Terry for organising this with the Sebring PR Team and
to Mike at Patron for donating a bottle of Patron Tequila
for us to have a shot of on the stage and also to Continental
Tyres for the hats that each of us also received.
Presentation time. This time it is
Chris second from the right.
The highlight of my weekend at Sebring however was experiencing
a Hot lap of the track as part of the reward for being named
FOTY. I have watched at the track for 13 years and have
attempted to drive the track on Forza on the Xbox, but nothing
can prepare you for actually being out on the famous concrete
racing surface in a high powered car being driven to its
limits by an experienced driver.
At home, I drive an Audi A4 Avant diesel (Station wagon)
and one of my dream cars that I lust after is an Audi R8
in pearl black paint. Having missed my morning slot due
to a communication breakdown, I walked over to the hot lap
assembly area and introduced myself. The previous track
session was on the slow down lap and the Tudor series cars
were gathering in the assembly area at Turn 17 in the paddock
about to start their second practice session. I was informed
that they were about to run another hot lap session in a
matter of minutes and if I could hang about, there was the
possibility of fitting me into that session. Within a minute,
I was being directed to follow a young gentleman named Nick,
he would be my driver for my hot lap of the track. It was
a dream come true when the car he walked over to was a pearl
black Audi R8 V10.
What one have to endure!
This was the first time that I had actually sat in an Audi
R8 and I was about to go for a high speed lap of the Sebring
track in it. Seat belt on and my camera rolling to film
the experience, Nick drove the Audi past the Daytona Prototype
cars in the assembly area and out onto the track and under
the bridge at Turn 17. Quickly accelerating down the start
finish straight, it was fantastic to actually experience
just how bumpy the concrete surface is that drivers always
talk about, then to feel the G force push you across the
car as it turned into Turn 1 at speed. The feel of being
thrown forward in the seat as the car braked hard for the
hairpin at the 300 metre marker boards, I can only imagine
what braking from nearly twice the speed in half the distance
in an Audi E-Tron R18 must feel like and the forces that
the drivers body has to put up with for lap after lap during
the race.
Nick drove the Audi to the cars very limits and used all
of the track available and used the kerbs and apexes on
both entry and exit with the tyres squealing on most corners
of the track. It was nice to try and pick out my friends
campsites at various points around the track and wave to
them as we went past at speed. In around 2 minutes, my hot
lap was over but it gave me a great insight into what it
must be like to actually race on the track and gave me much
more respect for the drivers that have to deal with traffic
and big differences in speed between the classes for lap
after lap during a race. Thank you Sebring for giving me
the opportunity of the Hot lap and thank you to Nick for
driving the Audi like you stole it !
The unified series
Like many race fans, I was very apprehensive about what
changes would be made when NASCAR effectively took over
the running of the race with the merger of ALMS and Grand
Am. What would the future hold for sports car fans in America
? So with this in mind, 2014 was very much going to be a
trip to Sebring not knowing what we would find upon arrival.
After last year’s race I had the opportunity to speak
with both Scott Atherton and Sebring President - Tres Stephenson
and I expressed my concerns about what the future had in
store for both the sport and the Sebring track. I let them
know what it was about the Sebring that brought the race
fans back every year and what areas could be improved to
the facilities without spoiling the experience for the fans.
My main concern was the rumours that the new owners would
want to install grandstands at certain corners of the track
and I voiced my thoughts on this and made it clear that
the fans are happy with the way things are and don’t
need big grandstands on the corners and part of the charm
of Sebring is walking between the various campsites and
structures around the track meeting up with friends at each
campsite. I like to believe that they both listened to me
as thankfully no such grandstands had been put up around
the track apart from existing ones already in place.
I did mention an area that could be improved on, was to
the toilet and shower facilities around the track and although
the toilet block near the hairpin in Green Park still has
old black curtains rather than doors, there was an additional
shower trailer brought in next to the permanent block in
Green Park which made life much easier for the thousands
that camp in Green Park. On the other side of the coin though,
I noticed a distinct lack of hand washing stations next
to the porta toilet cubicles around the raceway, which made
any trips to use these unhygienic. This is the first year
that the hand wash stations have been absent so this needs
looking into before next year’s race please. One final
note regarding the shower trailers, these would be much
more user friendly if they had a wooden bench type seat
down the middle of the trailer so that you could sit down
and dry your feet and also have a safe dry place to place
your clothes whilst in the shower.
Campsites lost personalities
As well as the changes to the series, this year also had
a few other unknowns around the campsites, during the last
12 months, some key personalities from particular landmark
campsites had sadly passed away. These people were the main
men at those campsites, responsible for the set up etc and
we did wonder if the rest of the groups would be willing
or able to step up to the plate and continue the traditions.
Dodge City, home of the Stumble Inn, had lost its Sheriff,
Dennis Butler, and the campsite known as Turn 9.9 because
it is next to Turn 10, had lost Don Jackson who always maintained
an up to date, hourly score board / white board during the
12 Hour race. Thankfully our fears were unfounded and others
had stepped in to fill their shoes and Dodge City was set
up accordingly with a nice tribute to Dennis, and the score
board at 9.9 was updated on the hour. A slogan wrote on
the top of the white board that reflected the nature of
the race made me laugh. “Yellow ! It’s the new
green !” Another campsite that I always visit during
the race weekend, where they have adopted me as part of
their family orientated group had also lost a key member
Ed after last year’s race, but his wife Judy was still
there as usual.
Unfortunately as everyone gets older, eventually the regular
faces at the traditional campsites are going to fade away
when mother nature decides that it is a person’s time.
Turn 10 sadly lost another staple member of the group in
the week following this year’s race, David Baxter
that visited from Texas had just returned home after a week
staying with his best friend and the Governor of Turn 10,
Jupiter John, when he suffered a heart attack. Thankfully
he got to visit the race one final time and spend time with
his friends at the track, but he will be sadly missed by
all that knew him.
Sports car fans are a dedicated bunch that have a passion
for the sport and I only hope that the new IMSA Tudor Series
can provide enough of a draw to continue to entice new fans
to the sport otherwise its fan base will continue to dwindle
as the current fans thin out due to either old age or a
lack of interest due to the lack of technology in the current
Daytona Prototype cars.
It was nice to see the amazing transformation that had been
made to La Bomba, turning it from an Audi prototype into
a Corvette C7 GT car and the owners deserve a massive pat
on the back for all their hard work. New panels, new paint
and even the door numbers lit up and could change to many
different colours via remote control.
As I have just mentioned, sports car fans are very passionate
about the sport that they follow much the same way that
NASCAR fans are passionate about NASCAR, however the majority
of sports car fans don’t like NASCAR, probably because
the sports are very different to each other, or at least
they used to be until the new IMSA Tudor series which is
trying to be run to NASCAR style rules.
The thing that attracts people to sports car racing is the
technology on the cars, we want to see what new technology
a manufacture can bring in to the sport to find an advantage,
we want to see high tech prototype cars that are different
to each other because each manufacturer has interpreted
the rules differently. If a car wins a race by 3 laps, we
are ok with that, they have earned it by doing something
better than their competitors and it’s up to the competitors
to up their own game to try and keep up.
For a sports car fan, it’s all about the cars, not
the stars that are driving them. Yes the drivers are an
integral part of what we like about sports car racing, but
that is because they are easily accessible, and can be approached
in an open paddock environment. In sports car racing you
can become good friends with the drivers and they will sometimes
come and hang out at your campsites around the track and
watch the support races with you.
In NASCAR it’s the complete opposite, to the fans
it’s all about the driver and driver loyalty and they
are worshiped and treated like gods. As a result the paddock
is a closed shop affair and the drivers aren’t that
accessible to the fans and only on rare occasions will you
actually see them visiting fans campsites. The cars are
secondary to the drivers and the technology doesn’t
matter in NASCAR, the fans are happy if they just get a
close race.
This is something that the powers that be at NASCAR that
are running the new merged series under the IMSA banner
need to try and understand, that sports car racing and NASCAR
racing are two completely different animals and each have
their own sets of fans that follow each sport for different
reasons. If they fail to see this and continue to run the
new series to NASCAR style rules, they are only going to
drive the hardened sports car fans away from the sport and
the fan base will reduce drastically.
Sports car fans don’t want to see “wave arounds”
under caution to get a lap back. OK at the end of the race
you can boast on television, that all the class battles
were decided by seconds on the track on the last lap of
the race, but everyone at the track knows that it is false,
as the result has basically been manufactured that way with
the “wave arounds” and allowing everyone time
to pit under caution throughout the race.
Besides which, the oldest sports car race in America didn’t
actually have any live television coverage of the finish
or for that matter for 9 hours of the race ! How can the
jewel in the American sports car crown only have 3 hours
of live television coverage ? Yet NASCAR broadcast practice
sessions live on television.
The Corvette again.
I am one of the few people that actually enjoy both sports
car racing and NASCAR and have travelled from the UK to
watch both on many occasions, but I know that I am a rare
exception to the general rule. Most American sports car
fans that I have talked to, have no interest in NASCAR.
They also for the main part have a big disliking to Daytona
Prototype cars as they see them as old technology that doesn’t
excite them, so as a result, they have christened them “Proto
turtles” as they are slower and not as aerodynamically
or aesthetically pleasing as the technologically advanced
LMP cars.
Personally I don’t have a problem watching the Daytona
Prototypes, as the cars still have 4 wheels, still go fast
and still sound like proper race cars, so they still hold
my interest and I can still get my fix of LMP1 sports cars
at Silverstone in April and Le Mans in June. However the
thing that was the biggest disappointment to me watching
the race this year was the way the race was officiated and
run to NASCAR style rules rather than traditional sports
car rules which isn’t in the spirit of sports car
racing.
The Taylor boys Corvette DP letting
out heat during a SC period.
Sports car racing has for years run just fine to its own
set of rules, rules that the drivers, fans, teams and manufacturers
have become accustomed to. Ok in some cases they don’t
always work out, but at least 90 % of the time things are
managed correctly and people know what is going on and what
the situation is.
Why have IMSA / NASCAR decided that those rules needed to
be disposed of in favour of trying to run the series to
NASCAR oval style rules instead. You can not officiate a
17 corner circuit race in the same way you run a short oval
NASCAR race. They are two different disciplines and should
be treated accordingly.
OOPs off!
Local yellow flags on parts of the track for simple things
like a car that has spun, or for debris or a car that has
pulled off to safe location, which were more than adequate
to deal with the situation, sadly don’t exist anymore
under the new regime. Instead we get a full course caution,
the field is bunched up behind the pace car, then each class
of cars that are a lap down are given a wave around to gain
a lap back, then the cars are allowed time to pit under
yellow. These caution periods are taking an average of 20
– 30 minutes to deal with things as simple as towing
a stationary car to a safe location.
The GTLM winning Porsche with dane
Michael Christensen.
Over the course of the 12 Hour race, something like 5 hours
of the race was behind the pace car under yellow flag conditions.
Ok, there were a few serious accidents that required such
lengthy stoppages like the fire on the SRT Viper which required
track repairs and the two car accidents in Turn 16 and Turn
17 that required repairs to the tyre barriers, however the
rest of the incidents should not have taken 20 – 30
minutes to deal with before going back to green flag racing.
During the race, I decided to take the long walk through
the field along the Ulmann Straight, down to the exit of
Turn 16 so I could do some photography from a great spot
on the track that I had never been out to before. My friend
and I were there for approximately two hours and we were
lucky if we actually got to see about 6 – 8 green
flag laps in those two hours. All the rest was spent under
yellow flag conditions. At one point, all the cars were
stationary on the Ulmann Straight and around Turn 16 with
the doors open so the drivers could let some heat out of
the cars. I can’t ever remember seeing this before
during a race at Sebring.
My friend and I were getting pretty fed up at this point
and this was only about 4 hours into the race and I know
it was not just us that were fed up with the way the race
was being run. Everyone I spoke to around the track had
the same feelings about the race.
The corner workers at Turn 10 were even keeping a daily
chalk mark chart on the wall, keeping track of how many
cautions and stoppages they had each day and the wall space
was filling up fast. I don’t know the accuracy of
the information but I was told that around 50 corner workers
that normally attended Sebring had decided not to bother
this year.
I and many other people were of the opinion that there were
less people camped at the circuit this year, certainly in
Green Park, so perhaps people have decided to vote with
their feet at their displeasure in the new unified series?
Another oops.
The race ran the distance and finished with each class battle
decided on the final lap as series officials had been hoping
for or had been stage managing throughout the day. But at
the end of the day, the race just didn’t have any
buzz, atmosphere or magic about it like it normally does.
For the first time I didn’t have a portable radio
on me during the race so I was unaware of what was happening
during the race but tried to follow the class positions
using the new LED position panels on the car, but I gave
up with this in the end as the red numbers were hard to
read at speed and if you could see them, I often found that
a car that may have been in 1st or 2nd on one lap would
be displaying 8th the next lap. So I decided to abandon
any idea of following the position panels until the final
5 minutes of the race and then work out where each car was
running in the race.
I was dumbstruck as to why it took about 35 minutes in the
final hour of the race for the Whelan Corvette DP to be
recovered from the run off area in Turn 10 and for the race
to go back green again. I watched the car coast to a halt
and pull off to a safe area on the outside of the turn next
to the tyre barriers and watched the yellow flags fly again.
I also watched the recovery truck arrive a few minutes later
and recover the car within another couple of minutes. So
why did it take so long to go back to green ?
Having become increasing frustrated at the race as the day
wore on, after the race had finished I approached a highly
respected, high profile driver in the paddock area and asked
him for his thoughts on the race that he had just been taking
part in. He informed me that as a driver, he found the race
very frustrating himself and that the long caution periods
were also the main thing that were the cause of that. He
found it hard to get into a rhythm as the race was constantly
going back to full course caution and he said that you never
knew when to come in and pit because you couldn’t
estimate how long the yellows would be out for. He understood
that in certain circumstances the long yellows couldn’t
be helped, but in the main he believed that the majority
of the caution periods could have been dealt with a faster
or more appropriate manner.
Upon returning to my own campsite area, I had a long conversation
with a neighbouring race fan that had made the long drive
to Sebring from Boston and we discussed the race and our
own thoughts. The race for him just didn’t have the
usual sparkle. The cars didn’t excite him, because
they lacked the technology of the LMP cars. The race at
Sebring had left him questioning whether or not he was prepared
to spend all his money travelling down to Sebring again
in the future, to see a race that didn’t excite him
anymore. Instead he would probably just go to the Watkins
Glen round of the series which is a five hour drive from
his home and put the money he would normally spend on travelling
to Sebring towards a trip to the Circuit of the America’s
in Texas to watch the World Endurance Championship where
he could watch the LMP1 cars that did excite him.
Evening goes into night at Sebring
It was only after I returned home that I learned of the
massive error that the officials had made in issuing a penalty
to the Alex Job Porsche for contact with a Ferrari, when
the video evidence clearly showed that it was the Core Autosports
Porsche in another class that had made contact with the
Ferrari. That penalty cost Alex Job the win in their class.
It is mistakes like this that make the series look a complete
joke and make them a laughing stock. With mistakes of this
magnitude, it is no wonder that teams are starting to question
whether it’s worth them being in the series and why
some of them are looking elsewhere at other racing series.
It isn’t just the teams that will look elsewhere,
the fans will start to follow suit. Some fans will still
turn up at Sebring anyway as it’s the event as a whole
for them and time to spend with friends that they only see
a few days of the year. But the people that are only there
for the race itself will quickly become disillusioned with
the product that they now have for a race and will also
look elsewhere for their enjoyment.
The sooner the officials running the new IMSA series sit
up and take note of these problems, the better, otherwise
they won’t have a series to run if things continue
the way they have started with both the running of the Rolex
24 at Daytona and the Sebring 12 Hours. Since Sebring, IMSA
have already announced a few changes to the rules and the
way they will officiate the races in the future and the
technology that is going to be used to review video footage
before handing out penalties. This is a start, but they
also need to continue to improve other areas if the series
is to survive and the fans are going to continue to support
it.
Sebring 2014 was a great event for me personally as it meant
so much to me to be honoured as the Fan of the Year and
I really enjoyed the time spent with my friends at the track,
but the race itself was very much a lacklustre affair compared
to the previous races I have
I enjoyed at Sebring. But I’ll probably be back again
next year to spend 4 days in a hot dusty field in the middle
of Florida.
