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and bumps around the track, particularly Turn 17, confronting
the drivers and engineers even during daylight
and perfect weather. The addition of darkness and rain
can render even the most experienced racer exasperated.
While some areas of the track are well lit to help benefit
safety workers, television and even the race teams themselves,
the drivers are left to fight the battle between the
light and the dark on their own.
“Sebring and Atlanta are quite similar,” offered Nick Tandy,
defending GTLM class race winner and driver of the No.
911 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR-19. “Daytona even
in the night is well lit everywhere due to the stadium nature
of the facility. Unlike Atlanta, Sebring has the brightly lit
front section alongside the pit lane, which means transitioning
back into the full dark can take some getting used
to. It tends to be darker out the back of the circuit rather
than around Turn 17 and the pit lane. The direction changes
at Turns 14, 15 and 16 can be particularly challenging.”
“The actual working area of the pit lane is well lit, but the
fast and transition lanes can be less so, making finding
your reference points for when you will be approaching
your pit stand difficult,” briefed Tandy who is seeking his
third-consecutive GTLM class victory at Sebring co-driving
the No. 911 this year with Frédéric Makowiecki and Matt
Campbell.
Blazing sun or moonless night, it is Sebring’s signature
Turn 17 (aka Sunset Bend) which seems to keep the drivers
on their toes.
“Since I first came here all the way up to this weekend,
this track has been extremely tough during the day and at
night,” offered Long whose first Mobil
1 Twelve Hours of Sebring came
in 2004 and includes class victories
in 2005 and 2014. “For me, the
most striking difference is Turn 17.
It is a challenge during the daylight
but at night it becomes even more
difficult. The delta change in 17 is
greater than the other 16 corners.”
While teams add additional lighting to the cars to benefit
the drivers vision of the track speeding toward them – the
Porsche 911 RSR-19 is outfitted with a red light inside the
cockpit to enhance vision of the driver’s immediate surroundings
– even the latest LED headlights can’t cover everything
at these speeds.
Drivers also must create ways to deal with the harsh transition
from daylight to dark and lit to unlit areas of the 3.74-
mile lap. The change happens multiple times within a lap
and can be almost instantaneous at racing speeds.
“I tend to run a dark tinted visor so that I can use it if needed
as an additional sun strip as the sun comes down,”
offered Tandy. “In the night, during normal running, we
will run with our visors open.” Long’s response? “Practice
makes perfect.”
Long, who will be making his 14th career start at Sebring
this year driving the No. 16 Wright Motorsports 1st Phorm
Porsche 911 GT3 R in Saturday’s 12-hour race with Ryan
Hardwick and Anthony Imperato, reflected on the significance
of Sebring at night: “Sebring is always difficult, but
add darkness and yes, it gets even more real very quickly.
Apexes and walls are dark in some sections, and the stakes
are high at the end of 12-hours of racing. This is when we
separate the men from the boys. It is why you see such
intense and almost personal racing at the end of this race.”
When John Lennon and Paul McCartney penned the words
to A Hard Day’s Night, it might not have been a subliminal
message for the world to tune-in to the Mobil 1 Twelve
Hours of Sebring. But, perhaps the “mop tops” from Liverpool
knew something about the struggles faced by the
heroes of Sebring some 50 years later.
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