zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Racing
/
I'm At The 12 Hours Of Sebring (And Supposedly Have To Lick Magnus' Car)
I'm At The 12 Hours Of Sebring (And Supposedly Have To Lick Magnus' Car)-July 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:11:44

Welcome to the 12 Hours of Sebring, the one place where you wish you'd dressed up as a cow and where all kinds of marvelous wonders await you on track. Oh, and supposedly I have to lick a car.

Tudor United SportsCar is the flagship twelve-hour event, but we've got the usual Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge and IMSA Lites support series in addition to MX-5 Cup, Historic Sportscar Racing, and Porsche GT3 Cup USA. While GT3 Cup is probably my favorite support series of all time (of all time!), HSR is going to be a must-see, too. Not only can you see the BMW added to the Team RLL Z4s for the 40th anniversary of their first American win here, but you can see the Batmobile's daddy (a '73 CSL in the same BMW Motorsport stripes) run in Historics, among all kinds of other cool stuff. HSR seems to be a "bring cool stuff" vintage series as opposed to one that adheres to a certain time period, and the alone is beyond fantastic.

To commemorate their first victory in the United States at Sebring 40 years ago, BMW whipped out a…

Expect some fawning over old cars in addition to all the new, shiny toys here at Sebring. As for all things new and wonderful in TUSC, you'll see many of the same teams you saw at the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Sebring is another "big one" on United SportsCar's schedule, earning it a place in the North American Endurance Cup.

Unfortunately, the pretty new Honda ARC-04b P2-class prototype run by Extreme Speed Motorsports won't be making an appearance at Sebring. Per , ESM decided that the new car needs further development before they can homologate it for their World Endurance Championship run, so they bought two Ligier JSP2s for WEC duty this year and have opted to bring last year's car (the Honda ARX-03b) to Sebring instead. The ARX-03b is an open top design rather than the ARC-04b's closed-top one, so we get to see Extreme Speed's drivers' helmets bouncing around in that car. Hooray for bobbleheads!

Extreme Speed Motorsports has shelved its new HPD coupe and is buying two Ligiers for its attack on

is taking a one-race-at-a-time approach to announcing their TUSC schedule, and will run their number 45 Audi R8 LMS at Sebring after all. Marco Holzer returns to the team after a while away. Robert Thorne will spend a second weekend this month driving for the Flying Lizard team after driving their McLaren 650S GT3 earlier this month in Pirelli World Challenge.

Perhaps the most exciting news of them all is the team's addition of another driver from the Pirelli World Challenge series: Colin Thompson. Thompson the all-911 GT Cup class in both races at Circuit of the Americas, winning both outright. Both races were amusingly different, with the first being pleasant and dry and the second race taking place during a crazy torrential downpour:

Thompson has a lot of experience in 911s, having recently moved up from the GT3 Cup series, so it will be interesting to see what he can do in the Audi R8 LMS.

Fifty-Plus Racing returns for this race as well, proving yet again that being over the hill doesn't mean you have to slow down. The entirely over-50 team has been racing a Daytona Prototype to support and raise funds for Alzheimer's Disease. There are a million cars out there racing for a cause, but having all the drivers near the age that's most susceptible to Alzheimer's is beyond awesome. (Hint hint, Dad. Drive my Porsche.)

Part of what makes Sebring special isn't just the action on track, or the bigger story lines of the season. It's the massive party that happens around this race. You see, the 24 Hours of LeMons isn't the only endurance race that compels people to don fun costumes and be as over-the-top as possible. The have been a tradition for over twenty years, partying in cow costumes all weekend. Many other groups of campers make Sebring a yearly tradition, marking their campsites with elaborate signs, including one larger-than-life plywood car I spotted this evening.

FlatSixes.com talks to the Sebring Cows on their 20th anniversary and gets the udder truth.

As a fan amongst the craziness, I, too, am called to do something crazy:

The gauntlet has been thrown: Bradley C. Brownell from Flat Sixes has nominated a Porsche 911 that must be licked. I must provide detailed tasting notes for the betterment of Porsche-kind.

I'm noticing a theme with these odd endurance race weekend requests: it always seems to involve . That's okay, because we like those guys, but I'm definitely noticing a theme here.

1. Magnus Racing has been wanting legendary Australian V8 Supercar driver Shane van Gisbergen on…

Of course, I will be roaming the grounds looking for interesting stories, crazy parties and sweet cars that Bunny needs to sit on.

We've already got a live Q&A set for tomorrow at 3:00 PM EDT with driver Bryan Sellers from the brilliant Falken Porsche 911 RSR team. Who knows what else we'll get into?

Not at the race this weekend? Never fear! The entirety of the race will (hopefully) be broadcast again. Here's the full broadcast schedule:

10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.: Fox Sports 112:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.: Fox Sports 27:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.: IMSA.com live stream10:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.: Fox Sports 2

If for some reason Fox , usually streams something for the entirety of the race. They usually at least have an onboard running during the chunks where Fox Sports takes over the main feed. They put all the support series that they sanction online as well, so if you can't stand the fact that you are physically away from GT3 Cup or CTSCC, they can help with that.

Hey, guys, do you like watching motor racing? On TV? When the schedule says there's going to be…

So, if you see someone at Sebring walking around with a pastel-hued bunny (there are multiples this weekend), don't hesitate to say hi.

Know of any must-see campsites? Know any drivers who need their nails done in "When Life Gives You Lemons" chartreuse? (I brought this with me for some odd reason.) Drop us a line in the comments below.

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Racing
Local Businesses Want Compensation After Allegedly Losing Money During Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix
Local Businesses Want Compensation After Allegedly Losing Money During Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix
If you listen to Formula 1 or local officials from Las Vegas and Clark County, you’d probably think November’s inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix was a success. Some sources estimated that the city of Las Vegas made over $1 billion in revenue from the event — but there were...
Jul 7, 2025
You've Probably Never Heard Of The Coolest Canadian Car Ever Built
You've Probably Never Heard Of The Coolest Canadian Car Ever Built
Name a car from the early 1960s built by a famed racing driver with curvy, lightweight aluminum bodywork, a big American engine, and a reputation for being unruly and fast as all hell. Your first thought was probably the famed Shelby Cobra, did you know there was a who...
Jul 7, 2025
After Delivering 8 Seasons At The Back Of The Grid, Haas F1 Team Dumps Guenther Steiner
After Delivering 8 Seasons At The Back Of The Grid, Haas F1 Team Dumps Guenther Steiner
The partially North Carolina-based squad has determined that after , it needs to mix things up a little. The team’s firebrand has been following an abysmal 2023 season which saw the team score just four points-paying finishes. The team’s , where scored a fourth-place finish, but that season too...
Jul 7, 2025
Get Ready To Spend All Your Money On Retro Formula 1 Merch
Get Ready To Spend All Your Money On Retro Formula 1 Merch
Fellow nerds, get ready to open your wallets, because I’ve found what may be the greatest store of all time. With designs from Formula 1 teams like , you’re sure to find something that fits your particular nostalgic niche. I’d like to introduce you to Racing Retro. I first...
Jul 7, 2025
Listen To In-Car Audio From Race Cars While You Work
Listen To In-Car Audio From Race Cars While You Work
If you follow racing in the U.S., you probably already know about the . Most of the episodes are too much of a distraction to put on as background noise while you work, but a couple of recent entries in his series have been working incredibly well for me....
Jul 7, 2025
Race Team Would Rather Create A Fake AI Woman Rather Than Hire A Real One
Race Team Would Rather Create A Fake AI Woman Rather Than Hire A Real One
In another unsurprising example of motorsport’s inhospitable mindset toward hiring competent women, the Racing team has announced a new partnership with Ava Rose, a literal , who will... engage with fans? Share knowledge about technology? “Navigate the cutting edge of innovation to create positive change” (whatever that means)? I...
Jul 7, 2025
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved