The 47th running of the 12 Hours of Sebring
March 20, 1999
Last update: March 23 1999 6:00PM
This race was the second appearance of the Corvette Factory-Sponsored C5-R Racing Team in endurance racing; sadly, the C5-Rs didn't fare as well as we'd have liked (they finished 23rd and 38th overall, 4th and 7th in Class) -- but they were terrific competitors all the same. For more information about the C5-R and the Corvette Racing team, click HERE:
More than 100 C5 Registry members plus spouses and friends attended the race!
In addition to being founders and Directors of the C5 Registry, Dan and Jake are race nuts -- so it was inevitable that they'd turn this event into a C5 Registry event as well.
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Yes, yes, we know; the plaque maker made the logo blue instead of red. But, like the famous upside-down biplane stamp, this one should be worth mucho bux in the future. (...far, far in the future...) |
John Wakefield (C5R#W0718) and I decided to organize a caravan to Sebring. It turned into two caravans: John, Tony Brimer (C5R#W0571), Gary Ballantyne (C5R#W0240), Brian Atkins (C5R#W1483), Michael McDermott (C5R#W1481), Ken Swinney and I would caravan from Atlanta and Tony Petrea (C5R#W1413) and his wife, Nancy, Donnie Self (C5R#X1625) and his wife, Carol Ann and Alan Crisp (C5R#W1486) and his friend Duke Collins would caravan from Savannah/Jacksonville. With so many coming south I organized a motel (The Comfort Inn in Kissimmee) as a rallying point. Though the motel was 75 miles from Sebring it made a convenient place to gather the rest of the cars to roll on down to Sebring early Saturday morning. But I get ahead of myself...
As you may know, Atlanta area C5ers will use just about any excuse to get together! You can view pix from Thursday evening's Atlanta event by clicking HERE.
Registry members came from all over, converging on Sebring for the race. As I mentioned, my co-pilot Ken and I were part of a a six C5 caravan that began in Tennessee, linked up in Atlanta, and drove together to the Comfort Inn in Kissimmee, FL. Our caravan was comprised of Brian Atkins (99NavyRoadster), Gary Ballantyne (98SilverTarga), Tony Brimer (98TorchTarga), Michael McDermott (99BlackTarga), John Wakefield (98WhiteTarga) and me (98BlackTarga). Not awfully fuel-efficient; seven people, six cars.
We used the motel as a rallying point to hook up with several other C5ers who journeyed down via other routes.
The Comfort Inn put us all in adjacent rooms so we could line up the C5s. That's Brian's back and Gary Hunsberger (C5R#W0518) who, along with Tony & Nancy Petrea, Donnie and Carol Ann Self, Allen Crisp and his friend Duke Collins, Larry Terrell (C5R#W1229) and his wife Jeanette -- and our six cars from Atlanta/TN made up our caravan from Kissimmee to Sebring on Saturday morning.
And here's a better shot of Gary Hunsberger
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The Comfort Inn staff really got into our little C5 mini-event. This is Mildred who took good care of us in the lounge. |
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The reason they were so "into" our trip was because the General Manager of the Inn, Thomas Stillwell, is the proud owner of a 98 Pewter Roadster! The drinks in the lounge were complimentary thanks to Thomas. |
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Here are Larry Terrell and Gary Ballantyne.
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And Tony Brimer and Brian Atkins...
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And Michael McDermott...
Tom Crawford (C5R#W0149) and his wife Lynn organized a Registry dinner for us Friday evening at Pacino's Restaurant in Kissimmee. About twenty of us had dinner and extended fellowship there; it was great! (though the lighting made for poor pix...) At dinner were the aforementioned folks plus Lisa Lafferty (C5R#W0576), Jon and Pat Gardner (C5R#X1555), Duane and Arlene Pavlic (C5R#W1002) and Ben Anderson (C5R#W1199).
Here's Tom and Lynn hiding (coyly) behind Larry Terrell and his wife Jeanette.
Dinner brought an unexpected bonus: Our fearless leaders, Dan (C5R#V0001) and Jake (C5R#V0002), showed up!
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We arose early (very early) Saturday morning and the caravan (now eleven C5s long) prepared to make its way the hour and a half down US 27 to the racecourse.
Here's Tony Petrea taking a picture of me taking a picture of him taking a picture of me taking a.... along with a picture of Donnie Self's bride Carol Ann and Tony's bride, Nancy.
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Since the caravan down to the track was leaving very early, we asked that everyone refuel on Friday night so no one would have to stop for gas. Well, that worked pretty well.
Two of the Torch cars (both, curiously, from Savannah) needed gasoline. So the first leg of the caravan ended at the first Amoco station we spotted on US27...
But we soon had the cars lined up again and .... we're "on the road again"!
On the trip down our caravan was infiltrated by a pair of Vipers and a whole gaggle of Lotuses. We were not embarrassed....
We arrived in plenty of time for the start at 10am though the last mile to the track was excruciatingly slow. Big crowd.
Our good friends at Ecklers sponsored a Corvette Corral in the track infield near Turn 17 -- but by the time we arrived, it was full. We had only seconds to be discouraged until we found that GM had established another Corvette Corral outside the track just down from the start/finish line! Dan and Jake had really turned the crank with the GM folks to get us this prime spot. And the GM VIP box was made available to us to watch, high above the track. It was great to see the modified LeMans start and to cheer the C5-Rs around the track.
This picture is from the top of the GM VIP box looking to the right. In the right corner you can see the back of the C5Registry tent. As I'm fond of telling folks, the tent is one of the biggest benefits of Registry membership!
This is looking to the left at the cars lined up for the LeMans start. 'Way off in the distance are the two C5-R cars. There were 61 cars starting the race ("races", actually, since there were three different classes of cars on the track: GTP, GTS (the class where the C5-Rs compete here) and GT1. The C5-Rs had qualified well and started in positions 27 and 30 on the grid; remember, the GTP cars (the "p" stands for "prototype") are much faster.
Here's the first wave of cars (all GTP class, no surprise) about to complete the first lap right in front of us.
This is taken from on top of the GM VIP box. It's Jake Delaney's (C5R#W0360) (always) beautiful Carmine Mongoose Targa.
This is Buzz Fyhrie's (C5R#W0564) new air induction system. Ask him about it!
And here's just a few of the cars in the GM Corral and, yes, other generation 'Vettes were most welcome!
This is my friend and co-pilot for the weekend, Ken Swinney, standing with the only Viper to show up for the race. I'm happy to say that the C5s did well against it
In the Chevy tent was C5-R #2, the car with the oil leak problem at Daytona. Apparently Corvette Racing has at least three C5-Rs 'cause two were racing when this picture was taken! This is Gary Ballantyne (apparently oblivious to the naked guys behind the car). This is the John Heinricy ride from Daytona.
I couldn't resist. This is our co-leader Jake Drennon (seen leaving his private office).
In the Registry tent, Sebring and/or GM had thoughtfully provide a closed-circuit TV with race standings and live pictures. This is Bill Firman (C5R#W0328). It's a "guy" thing to watch a race on TV when the cars are blasting by less than 40 yards away!
And, finally (for now) just to show that Dan is always working, this is Dan talking with the Corvette Brand Manager, Jim Campbell, about making things even nicer for the C5 Registry folks at future Corvette Racing events. You go, Dan!
The net of all this?
It was a great weekend!
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