Sebring International Raceway – photographers guide

A flat featureless former airfield in the middle of Florida should surely hold no interest for motorsport fans. Well, the same criteria apply to Silverstone so perhaps there is hope ! Of course there is – Sebring is one of the iconic US race tracks and holds its 12 Hour race for sports prototypes and GTs every March.

For 2019, it was announced that there would not only be the 12 Hour race for the US IMSA series, but also a 1,000 mile race for the World Endurance Championship. That meant it was high time to reacquaint ourselves with Sebring – visited previously in 2000, 2006 and 2013.

Using the track map below, you can see the sort of images that can be achieved at each location. In most cases, a 70-200mm zoom will give good results, but I also used the 200-500mm zoom. 

Location A – the pits – in common with many US tracks, there are no pit garages as we might be used to at Silverstone or Brands Hatch. There are open backed pit areas (see later) and terracing above. 

Location B – Turn 1 – a very high speed turn on the original concrete runway from Sebring’s days as an airfield. The hashtag #respectthebumps is entirely appropriate. 

Fan grandstands are a regular feature of the type I was familiar with from Silverstone GPs in the 60s and 70s. With flags supporting car marques and, occasionally, politicians it makes for an excellent blurred background to a car at speed. If you can match the car to the flag – even better !

Location C - Turn 2 into Turn 3 – the former is flat out kink, before the hard braking (and possibly out-braking and overtaking) into Turn 3. As the light starts to fade, you can better see the brake discs glowing here.

Location D – Turn 3 and 4 – there’s seating here giving a great view from Turn 2 to Turn 5 but is not really high enough to get over the fence. 

The high fence ends to the left so there is a clean shot of the cars at or around the apex, or heading off to Turn 4

Location E – Turn 5 – a simple head on shot as the cars exit for the gently curving and quick run to Turn 7

Location F – Turns 3 and 4 – take the bridge and turn left towards Turn 3 where there is a raised viewing area and a big screen. You can see the seating on the outside of the track referred to above. 

Then walk along the fence line to Turn 4 to get a shot of the cars in Turn 4, Turn 5 and away under the bridge. Yes, sometimes it does rain in Florida ! More on that story later !

Location G – walk along the outside of the track to between the two bridges where good panning shots may be obtained. Qualifying for the IMSA race was in bright sunshine …

… but the race started on Saturday morning in that persistent drizzly November fashion we have in Britain. Once it started to dry, it did so quickly, however. I do like photographing racing cars in the rain though !

Location H – Turn 7 has a small seating area and allows shots under the bridge with the Sebring banner or cars braking for the turn. Here the Cadillac #5 is making a bid for the lead against the Mazda #77 early in the IMSA race

There’s an apex shot and a rear shot as the cars head towards the kink at the exit of the turn.

Having watched the start of the IMSA race here at 10.40 on the Saturday morning, we returned for the finish at 22.40 for some night shots. Unlike Daytona which has large areas of the track illuminated, Sebring has large areas of darkness. 

That only makes for better glowing brake discs !

Location I – crossing the track by either of the bridges gives the opposite panning shot to Location G. This time you get trees and the main Sebring buildings in the background. The drag down from Turn 5 through 6 to 7 also provides for an overtaking spot. As you can see, when you get a couple of large GT cars overtaking there ain’t a lot of spare room.

Location J - on the inside of Turn 7 has the backdrop of the Seven Sebring hotel (with a view from the balconies to die for – for motorsport fans at least). You can also see the seating area at Location H. 

Location K – on the run between Turn 8 and 9 and giving a view up to Turn 10. There’s another set of seating here and some shade (although not in exactly the same place). 

There’s also the Sebring cows, (the men in cow costumes were absent when we passed by), and the MudSharks … I’m told it used to get pretty wild in the infield area here back in the last century but has calmed down a bit.

Location L – Turn 10 – another hard braking and overtaking point. There’s a racing car mural on the wall of the building opposite and occasionally you can get an artic in the background of the photo which is slightly disconcerting !

As darkness falls, it gets even more interesting ! Glowing brake disks, exhausts and reflections from the lights all come into play.

There’s even a minimalist approach available !

From the same location, you can turn around and follow the cars into Turn 11.

Location M – at Turn 12 there’s three distinct shots available – the “through the corner workers and fence” shot …

… the “panning shot with optional Dutch Tilt” …

… and the “going away from the camera” shot as the cars head towards Turn 13.

Location N – Turn 13 has a raised viewing mound and, if desired, aircraft in the background. Alongside the racetrack there is a working airport

Location O – no photos from 2019 but here’s one from 2013. There is a seating area and a view of the cars heading down towards Turn14 and 15. With the WEC cars using a temporary pit lane just beyond Turn 16, there was less access on the inside of Turn 15 and 16.

Location P - is the main pits where it is possible to view the action through the wire fence behind the pit boxes. In the first image, you can see the area the teams use between the pit wall (to the left of the awnings) and the pit area – not open during racing. 

During the IMSA race, I spotted Jordan Taylor returning to the team trailer in the paddock, the #11 Lamborghini team about to do a pit stop, Tristan Nunez taking a well-earned drink after his stint in the Mazda and Toni Vilander waiting for the Weathertech Ferrari to make its stop.

Location Q – just by the footbridge at pit in, there is a spot where you can get the cars coming out of Turn 17

Location R – on the outside of Turn 17 there is a shot of the cars entering Sunset Bend – a long, bumpy corner - or of them heading up to Turn 1. You can see the original concrete runway first hand and even relatively early into the race there’s a lot of rubber marbles off the racing line.

The plan was to do the grid walks for the WEC and IMSA races but in the event the Saturday morning rain meant that we only did the former. 

...and a close up of the, oh so photogenic, SMP Racing BR1

I was hoping for a Sebring sunset, but alas for both races it was not to be, so you will have to make do with this one from 2013 – still not bad !

Some things to consider –