Sebring, FL — The third annual HSR Classic Sebring 12 Hour concluded last Sunday with competitors claiming wins in four overall run groups to wrap up Historic Sportscar Racing’s 2018 season at Sebring International Raceway.
Toni Seiler’s Lola T70 on its way to a Group A win. Photo: HSR
A retro tribute race to the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring — which will be run for the 67th time March 16, 2019 — the Classic 12 Hour format featured each of the four run groups taking to the track four different times during the weekend.
Saturday’s schedule included the first three 42-minute rounds for each group while the fourth and final segment races Sunday determined the overall winners.
Toni Seiler drove a 1969 Lola T70 to the overall Group A win that was fueled in part by first-place finishes in Rounds 1 and 3. The victory finally put Seiler, a regular HSR Classics competitor from Switzerland, on the top step of the Sebring podium after finishing second in Group A in the event in 2016 and 2017.
The Group B victory went to the 1974 Chevron B26 of Gray Gregory and Randy Buck that rebounded from an early-weekend hit from another competitor for their first Sebring 12 Hour race win.
After a narrow loss in 2017’s Group C race, John Reisman and and his 2010 Coyote Corvette Daytona Prototype won this year’s.
The Group D battle was the most competitive of this year’s event, with a different leader on top of the charts in each of the four segments. The winners were Nigel Greensall and Gary Ball in a Radical SR3.
And in other action, Travis Engen solo-drove his 2005 R8 LMP to an overall B.R.M. Chronographes Enduro victory and Prototype class win.
Scooter Gabel (1974 Porsche 911 RSR) and Carlos de Quesada (1973 Porsche 911) swept the top-two finishing positions in the Porsche class in Thursday’s Sasco Sports International/American Challenge race and pulled off a perfect repeat performance Friday in the Classic RS Cup eight-lap sprint.
