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It was extremely refreshing to race in such relaxed and convivial surroundings. We were certainly made to feel welcome and the amazing lack of bureaucracy was a welcome change from the norm. When presenting a car for scrutinising, which occurred in the race paddock, a well-known racer was told to put his racing licence away, with the comment that if he did not have one of those he would not have been asked to race in the first place. Imagine that on a European track!
A cruise to downtown Sebring was organised for all these mainly unsilenced racing cars - at the drivers' briefing the drivers were informed that the "pace will be brisk" - and it was. With a police escort the cars sped through the town, parked up in the main square, and later sped back to the track. It was all done for PR purposes in order to involve the locals in racing. Somehow I can't see this sort of thing happening in Europe! This is a pity as the aim was achieved with the streets lined with cheering race fans.
A number of workshops within the Sebring area came to the rescue of many of the British racers who were faced with some pretty major repairs in an extremely limited timeframe, and with limited resources. Without exception the British racers found these specialists extremely knowledgeable, highly enthusiastic and great fun, for example a gear box was re-built in an hour and a half despite there being considerable other work going on at the garage at the time. They were quite mystified that there were so many British drivers driving American cars!
John Bendall brought his 1963 AC Cobra CSX2951 which last raced at the famous Florida airfield 37 years ago and did considerably better than John Reed who retired in 1963. Bernie Chodosh's outrageous flame-coloured 1958 Corvette was as ever a tremendous crowd-pleaser and Leon Cole in his first ever major event brought his 1955 "Shoebox" Chevrolet. Many of the HSR cars were of higher specification than the rule bound British racers, but nevertheless the British drivers acquitted themselves well - both on and off the track! With 60 cars on the grid a rolling start was essential and was familiar to the AMOC team. However the Germans won the Enduro, whilst Porsches took all the first seven places!
The first non-Porsche home in the GT enduro race was our very own Bill Withey in his pink 1967 Chevrolet Camaro. Bill had a tremendous race dicing with the Porsches and was clearly quicker than most of them on the straights. He has certainly grown in stature since this success (he is only just over five feet tall!). John Bendall, Chris Beighton and Ralph Avis all finished strongly.
Before the party set off for Sebring, there was much speculation as to which team from the Anglo-American Challenge would beat the opposition from America in their English and American cars. Sadly it would appear that the only clear winners were the German cars, as Americans in Porsche racing cars filled the top places in every HSR event! Already a return match is being planned for Donington in England this summer, being sold to the Americans as a sort of Sebring with better beer! A 2001 trip to Sebring is also being planned to include cars from the Intermarque AMOC series. For further info on the Anglo-American Challenge contact Tim Boles at: boles@connectfree.co.uk |
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