2021 Sebring Classic

While you may not recognize the airport “Hendricks Army Field”, you have probably heard of the race that has taken place on its runways since 1952: the 12 hours of Sebring. Like many airports that served their country during WWII, this sunbaked expanse of Florida concrete also helped sports car racing flourish at a time when purpose-built road courses were a rarity.

Fast forward almost seven decades, and Sebring is still home to the most famous 12-hour race in North America. On the professional side, IMSA holds the “Mobile 1 – 12 Hours of Sebring” every March, while vintage racers enjoy the HSR “Classic 12 Hour” every November.

Please enjoy the images courtesy of photographer Chuck Anderson and mark your 2022 calendar for this year’s Sebring Classic 12 on December 3-4

Race organizers Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) have come up with a system that embraces the essence of a real endurance race while keeping conditions safer and more economical for the participants. Instead of all cars racing for 12 hours straight (which is dangerous due to the differences in speeds), HSR’s format incorporates four separate races for each class of cars. At the end of 12 hours, the results are tallied to determine class winners by the furthest distance driven.

2021 was the sixth Sebring Classic 12 and proved to have the closest finish to date with the Group A 1972 Porsche 911 of Alan Benjamin and Brady Refenning edging out the 2nd place 1967 Porsche 911 of Nelson Calle by just 0.714 seconds.

In group D, Price Ford and Cody Ellsworth earned 1st by just 5.152 seconds over Brent Asplumdh, both teams driving Porsche 991.1 cup cars. The 1978 Lola T298 of Jim Farley and Craig Benett took Group B honors with a dominating finish of 5 laps over the second-place finish of Damon Desantis and David Hinton in a 1974 Porsche 911.