TransAm and SVRA Speed Tour at Sebring International Raceway - Part 2

Report by Mark Roden

Day 2 Saturday 25-FEB

Continuing the Sebring Speed Tour report with a detail of the second day of racing. 

I was joined by a friend for Saturday and Sunday, which made the experience more enjoyable.  Second session qualifying was on the schedule for most of the SVRA groups in the morning along with the IGT feature race #1, but we arrived at the viewing mound inside turn 5 just as the Trans Am group was getting started with a 30 minute practice. 

Brabham and Dyson both caught sub 2-minute lap times, with Justin Marks and Paul Menard both right above the 2:00 mark.  The top 8 spots were within a 3 second span, so things were shaping up for some action during qualifying and for the race on Sunday.

We moved to the outside of turn 5, a spot that was serving me well and was a good location to just sit and watch the action without a camera in my face.  I noticed that my battery was down a bar, and so I walked up to a man who was outside his caravan and asked if I could hop a charge from his outlet.  We talked with him and found out that he was another who had been to most--if not all--events at Sebring since the mid 80’s. 

For over 30 years, he and his group of friends from all over the U.S. have been descending on the track for the 12-hour race, and every year they build what they call “Dodge City”, their homage to the famous old west town featured on the television series “Gunsmoke.”  They even put out a mailbox, and for some reason have a caged rooster every year.  One year that rooster got out and onto the track, resulting in a red flag for--as he put it--3 drunk guys chasing a chicken.”  What a great story.

Over the lunch break, the Hagerty “Cars and Caffeine” Car Show entries were paraded around the track.  I missed most of it but caught the last few cars.  If I had thought about it, I would have spent a little more time at the static display, but as it was a hot day and the action on the track was almost constant, I never really made it to the midway to give it a look. 

The TA2 feature race began at 12:45pm.  3 Seconds separated the top 19 positions, and with the top 4 of Mosack, Matos, Green and Merrill separated by only 1 second, it was set to be a great race.  Mosack led the first 19 laps in strong form, until a restart mishap cost him the lead to Green. 

A lap or two later, Matos passed his teammate and drove to the checkered flag under yellow after a wreck close to the end of the race.  Matos narrowly missed winning the 2022 championship to Merrill, who finished 8^th in this race.

Here are some photos from the other feature races:

Groups 1-3-4-5b feature race 1:

For the Groups 6/12a feature race 1, we walked over to where I had met Joe the day before.  He saw us coming the other way on his scooter and said that he was heading to the pits to watch a friend race.  He gave us permission to sit in his campsite until he got back, and so we stayed there through the Group 10 race, even meeting a few more of his campsite “neighbors.” 

Patrick Sessions dominated the Group 6/12a race in his #63 Corvette, beating the next best lap time by about 6 seconds.  The #111 Devin Evolution and the #67A Camaro rounded out the top 3 spots.

IGT (International GT) feature race #2:

Groups 8/12b feature race:

Group 10 (GT class) feature race:

A serious accident at the end of the Group 10 race resulted in a red flag on the last lap and a long delay due to the difficulties in getting the car off the track and the driver to hospital.  This pushed the schedule off for the rest of the afternoon.



Before the feature race for groups 5a-7-9-11 started, we left our car and headed on foot to the other side of the drive-over bridge where there are two viewing mounds.  We chose the one further from the bridge.  The late afternoon light was perfect; nice and warm and I wasn’t fighting shadows and glare.

Groups 5a-7-9-11 feature race:



The Audi R8 LMP came in first with a best time of 2:58.  This car (various chassis) is a 5-time winner of the 12 Hours of Sebring and of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.  In my opinion it was one of the most beautiful cars of the weekend, along with the ’67 Cougar, Bill Treffert’s #24 1960 Corvette and a few others.  Byrd’s Australian formula car (Group 9) beat out eight of the nine Group 11 entries to come in 2^nd, and the Coyote Corvette of Adam Lindemann ended up 3^rd overall.

Next up were the stock cars (Officially referred to as Group “10SC”).There were some familiar names on these cars, like Kurt Busch (2 different cars), Rusty Wallace, Kevin Harvick, and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. 



Joe Nemechek had the best time and scored the win.  It is interesting to note that these are all former NASCAR stock cars or from the truck series, and their best times were about ten seconds slower than the Trans Am group.  Of course, some of these cars are several years old now.

Finally, the TA qualifications began just before 6PM.  The acceleration out of turn 5 was fast, and by the time they reached our location past the bridge they were flying like planes at ground level. 

By comparison, the fastest TA cars were qualifying with lap times of 1:58 or 1:59, running the same qualifying lap times that the LMP3 class posted during this year’s 12 hours of Sebring, or about 13 seconds off the fastest GTP entries at 1:43.

We walked back to the car in turn 5 and took the last shots of the day, just in time to catch the last of the TA (XGT/GT classes): 

The sun set fast as we left, a fitting end to a great day at the track.  Day 3 report coming soon…

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