By Louis Galanos Over the past 60-plus years the legendary Sebring 12 Hour Grand Prix of Endurance has been surrounded by numerous myths, fairy tales, legends and folklore. One such story involves the legend of “Big Mo” the monster alligator that crossed the track during the 1978 race causing racing legend, Peter Gregg, to lose control of his Brumos Porsche 935 wrecking the car. Another myth involves the story … [Read more...]
About Louis Galanos
A Good (Car) Guy is Hard to Find – A Girl’s Memoir
A Good (Car) Guy is Hard to Find: A Girl’s Memoir By Petra Perkins with Louis Galanos Memory: A blazing fireball was racing into the stands -- headed straight at me -- so I fled in a panic. High-pitched engines shriek by, one after another, in endless, killing, head-splitting noise. It’s March 1964, Sebring, Florida and after a long hot day of watching cars in the pits or going round the track I just want to … [Read more...]
Rules? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Rules!
By Louis Galanos | Photos as Credited The late 1960’s and early 1970’s was a great time for motorsports especially for fans of Can-Am racing and international endurance racing like the Daytona 24 Hours and Sebring 12 Hours. It is no wonder that many refer to this period in racing as the Golden Age of Motorsports. In both Can-Am and endurance racing there seemed to be a real spirit of innovation among race … [Read more...]
1971 Sebring 12 Hours – Race Profile
The Old Gal was on Life Support in 1971 Story by Louis Galanos | Photos as credited In March of 1971 I was attending the University of Florida on the GI Bill and in our free time my wife and I worked as race officials for Central Florida Region of Sports Car Club of America (CFR/SCCA). The region was blessed with providing race officials for both the Daytona 24 Hours as well as the 12 Hours of Sebring. In … [Read more...]
The Sebring 12 Hour – H-Bombs and the Planned Invasion of Cuba
Story by Louis Galanos | Photos as credited In 1962 I was a junior in high school and living in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, a small anthracite coal mining town, on the Susquehanna River in north east Pennsylvania. During the previous three summers my father would take my brothers and me to the Giants' Despair Hillclimb just outside Wilkes-Barre where motorsports legends like Carroll Shelby, Roger Penske and Oscar … [Read more...]
1961 Sebring 12 Hours – Race Profile
Story by Louis Galanos | Photos as credited By March of 1961 the controversy surrounding the poorly reviewed 1960 Sebring 12 hour race was forgotten by most. Gone were any threats or boycotts by factory Ferrari and Porsche over the Sebring requirement, in 1960, that all entrants use Amoco gasoline. The Sebring track's major sponsor, the American Oil Company (Amoco), had withdrawn its sponsorship of the race … [Read more...]
The Stars Come Out at Sebring
The first Sebring 12-hour race took place in March of 1951 and within a short ten-year period the annual racing event held on a former World War II training base for B-17 pilots and crews was being touted as the premier sports car event in North America. During those first ten years, and well into the 1960s and '70s, the Sebring race began to draw some of the most famous national and international drivers and cars … [Read more...]
And Then The Rains Came – 1965 Sebring 12 Hours Race Profile
And Then The Rains Came - The 1965 Sebring 12 Hours Grand Prix of Endurance Story by Louis Galanos | Photos as credited Whether driver, crew member, race official or spectator, no one who attended the 1965 running of the 12 Hours of Sebring will ever forget that race. A record crowd of over 50,000 race fans came expecting a race to remember, and the foremost sports car race in this country didn’t disappoint … [Read more...]
Sebring Saga – 1965 Sebring 12 Hours Profile
Sebring Saga - The Story of Two Bizzarrini Iso Grifos at the 1965 Sebring 12 Hour Grand Prix By Louis Galanos | Photos as credited In March the Sebring International Raceway (SIR) will celebrate a couple of anniversaries that are part of the significant motorsports history of that legendary track. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the first win by BMW with the overall honors going to British driver … [Read more...]
1970 24 Hours of Daytona – Race Profile
1970 24 Hours of Daytona - Opening Round of the World Sportscar Championship By Louis Galanos | Photos as credited The ninth running of international sports car endurance racing at the Daytona International Speedway was historic as the new group 5 Porsche 917s and Ferrari 512s met for the first time in a battle for the 1970 FIA World Sportscar Championship (WSC). This fierce competition between Porsche and … [Read more...]
1960 12 Hours of Sebring – Race Profile
1960 Sebring 12-Hours Grand Prix - Porsche Racks Up Their First Overall Win at Sebring By Louis Galanos | Photos as credited From 1954 to 1959 Porsche of Germany had managed to have one or more of it 1.5 or 1.6 liter race cars finish in the top ten at the Sebring 12-Hour Grand Prix of Endurance, which many considered the premier sports car race in North America. However, during those years as also-rans, the … [Read more...]
Legend of “Big Mo” – The Monster Gator of Sebring
By Louis Galanos | Photos as credited The legendary nature of the Sebring 12 Hour Grand Prix extends way beyond the drivers and cars that have raced on this most famous of airport courses for over sixty years. During the past six-plus decades the Sebring race has produced a number of stories that over time have gained the status of urban legends. Of those Sebring urban legends the most widely repeated involved … [Read more...]
Vic Elford Named 2014 Sebring 12 Hours Grand Marshal
By Louis Galanos | Photos as credited The Sebring International Raceway has announced that legendary British driver Vic Elford will be honored as Grand Marshal at the 62nd running of America's oldest and most prestigious sports car race, the 12 Hours of Sebring. This year's race will be held on March 15, 2014. Born in London, England in 1935, Victor Henry Elford's three-decades long career in motorsports … [Read more...]
1973 24 Hours of Daytona – Race Profile
1973 Daytona Race Profile - Daytona Returns to 24 Hours By Louis Galanos | Photos as credited In the eyes of many who had attended the 24-Hours of Daytona since its inception in 1966 people and events in the early 1970's were conspiring to make life difficult for this twice-around-the-clock enduro that is now so much a part of the history of endurance racing. For one thing the ruling body for endurance … [Read more...]
Porsche and Their 917 Star Wars Race Car
By Louis Galanos On February 4th of this year I had to go to the Veterans Administration Hospital in Gainesville, Florida for my annual physical. While there I happened to run into an old Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) friend and we sat in the hospital waiting room swapping stories from the "good old days." I told my friend that since I retired I had been doing a bit of writing about the Daytona and … [Read more...]