It’s a great group of
people who hang out
together each year
and have a good
time. They’re there
for the racing and
for the socializing.
They even have water
fi ghts with our
kids! So it’s a great
time. I’m looking forward
to it again. You
see a lot of the same
people every year
Johannes van Overbeek
but you also meet
lots of new people.”
The energetic fans as well as the vast history of the event
motivate the drivers.
“My favorite Sebring moment was winning it overall in
2016 with Ed Brown, Scott Sharp and Pipo Derani (in the
Tequila Patron Ligier JS P2-Honda),” says van Overbeek. “We
were strong the whole race leading often throughout. The
weather that year was a variable and there was rain and
tricky track conditions to contend with. We had everything
cued up for Pipo to fi nish. He made a great pass with a few
minutes to go and pulled off the win. It was the fi rst time
Honda won overall and the fi rst time for all four of us. That
was a great day.”
“I always look forward to March in Sebring,” van Overbeek
says. “The weather is typically great, the orange blossoms
are in bloom so the area smells great. There’s also great ambiance
during the race weekend with the large number of
fans that come out for the event. For people that haven’t
been to an endurance race I always put Sebring at the top
of the list.”
Respect the Bumps
Respect T17
Diabolical. Freaking di.a.bol.i.cal.
Turn 17 at Sebring International Raceway is regarded
as one of the toughest turns in all of motorsports. It is
simple but deceiving - a fl at sweeping tight decreasing
radius and declining width right hander, so tight it
is almost a hairpin, that connects the Ulmann Straight
to the front straight and pits. Speeds reach 180 mph
heading into the turn entrance and late brake fading
is common. It is extremely bumpy, so bumpy that it
violently pitches the racecars toward the outside concrete
wall on the left. It is wide at the entrance and
narrows under the bridge to the paddock.
The thing is, there is no preferred line. Turn 17 is
different for each car and each driver driving that car.
Throw in traffi c and the 25-mph top end speed difference
between the Prototypes and the GT entries, and,
well, Turn 17 is a devilish beast. Conquer Turn 17?
Hell no. Just surviving Turn 17 is a good goal.
Turn 17 is known as the Sunset Bend as cars face the
glare of the beautiful Florida sunset lap after lap late
in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by
Advance Auto Parts. Then comes the darkness to the
fi nish of the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship
event some 300 laps later.
“Turn 17 is one of the craziest and hardest corners on
any track in the USA,” says Oliver Gavin, who has a
second-best six class victories in his 17 career Sebring
starts and will co-drive the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette
this year. “The car moves around all over the place on
entry, and you have to manage it through the turnin
because you’re never really settled. You get to the
middle of the corner with a couple of huge bumps,
and you keep trying to manage those bumps all the
way to the circuit. It’s a wide ride and that really sums
up the Sebring circuit. You feel like you are on a bucking
bronco the whole time and are trying at times to
hang on a bit.”
Joerg Bergmeister
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