Sebring CW
Sebring CW Notes:
After WW2, there were numerous military facilities across the United States without a defined peacetime purpose. One of those semi-abandoned facilities was Hendricks Army Airfield in Sebring, Highlands County, Florida. By 1950, Alec Ulmann, a Russian-American aeronautic engineer and motorsport fan, pioneered an American version of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, using the military Airfield in Sebring as a racing venue. Sebring International Raceway was born for that race and, since 1952, it hosts the 12 Hours of Sebring, an annual endurance race that nowadays is a part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The raceway was such a success that in 1959 the Formula One championship brought the first United States Grand Prix to Florida.
The benign climate of central Florida, with 250 sunny days a year, is ideal for motorsport most of the time. That’s part of the reason why Sebring International Raceway is one of the busiest raceways in the USA, with 175 races a year on average. Summers are rainy, with 60% of annual precipitation happening from June to September. There are two road courses in Sebring International Raceway: the Full Course and the Club Circuit, with average speeds of 91 mph and 72 mph.
CW Notes:
Sebring International Raceway's clockwise configuration delivers 6.020 kilometers of Florida's most historic endurance racing surface, combining 3.04 kilometers of asphalt with 0.7 kilometers of original concrete runways dating to the facility's 1941 origins as Hendricks Army Airfield. This 17-turn layout hosts the legendary 12 Hours of Sebring—one-third of endurance racing's informal Triple Crown alongside Le Mans and Daytona—where brutal concrete transitions and Central Florida heat create machinery-destroying conditions unmatched in North American motorsport. The track's character derives from decades of incremental modifications: the 1966 elimination of Webster Turns, creation of Green Park Chicane, and numerous repaving projects that intentionally preserved sections of coarse concrete punishing suspension components and driver stamina equally.
Sebring's defining challenges emerge from surface inconsistencies and high-speed technical sections. The concrete-to-asphalt transitions create violent jolts at racing speeds, while Turn 17 (the final corner onto the front straight) requires late-apex precision after the long back straight section. Sunset Bend, Tower Turn, and the various hairpins threading through former airport infrastructure create constant direction changes at speeds averaging 160+ kph for prototypes. Central Florida's subtropical climate delivers track temperatures exceeding 50°C during March's 12-hour classic, combining with humidity to create extreme tire degradation and cooling challenges. The facility's evolution from 5.2-mile original layout to current 3.7-mile configuration reflects safety improvements while maintaining the bumpy, unforgiving surface character that makes Sebring completion as impressive as victory. IMSA WeatherTech Championship, club racing, and amateur track days all contend with Florida's legendary rough-surface endurance test.
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