Here's a rare find on eBay- a Donald Healey Company-engineered and built endurance Sprite- purported to be the class winner at the 1965 12-hours of Sebring.

Sprites competed at Sebring from their inception, and each year they got a little faster and less bug-eyed. By '65 the factory was campaigning a pair of aerodynamic coupes with Lola-like noses and kamm tails. While there's no documentation that this is the same #61 that came in fifteenth overall that year, the seller spins a riveting account of driving to the track in his 1961 Frog-eye and watching this car dice it up with, among others, the GT40s and Porsche 904s. He goes on to detail his being reunited with the car, and its rebirth under the direction of its creator- Donald Healey:

Fifteen years later to the day of that race I found and bought this car. I shipped it back to England and Geoff and Donald Healey restored the car to the original Sebring specs (including the crap Lucas coils). The car even has a new set of the original Dunlop rain tires it ran on. The car is original and as run at Sebring in 65. When the car was returned to me Geoff and Donald gave me their file for the car from Sebring. Entry form, tech inspection sheet and even the shipping documents from England to Sebring. I already had the program and poster for the race. And I had photos of the car in the rain. Shortly after that I got another package and in that envelop were pictures of the car being built. They even gave me their original line drawing of the car before they began construction. I have misplaced the line drawing but will find it and everything goes with the car. There is a spare windshield for the car and multiple rear diffs with different gear ratios. The paint has some cracks, but I left it this way as this is how it came from the Healey shop. This is a great piece of racing history from the greatest era of road racing…the 60's.

This fascinating piece of racing history is currently bid up to over $145,000, with less than a day to go in the auction. One hopes that the eventual buyer will let others enjoy seeing it in action once again, although possibly not in the pouring rain.

eBay by way of BaT.com Hat tip to Engineered!

The BARC folks have been going to Sebring since the 1950s, and their site features galleries of photographs from 1955 through 1965. If you like MGs, Porsches, Ferraris, Maseratis, Cobras, the works, be sure to check it out. Thanks to Scroggzilla for the tip!
[BARC]

If you can identify the planes that you see in this clip we'll give you a cookie and a Tylenol. [via YouTube]

This video's a battle occurring around the seven-hour mark pitting Audi R15 TDI driver, Alan McNish and Peugeot 908 HDI driver, Franck Montagny against one another for overall race lead. It was an eerily similar battle to the one between Flying Lizard's Porsche 911 GT3 RSR and Risi Competizione's Ferrari F430 GT that happened during the final lap of the 2007 Sebring race. [youtube via speedtv]

Audi's brand new R15 TDI whomped on the French with a 1st place finish over the 2nd place Peugeot 908 HDI. It was an epic battle between the two diesel powers and McNish in the #2 car was able to take the lead around the 42-minute mark when Peugeot driver, Montagny, made a final fuel-only pit stop. McNish was able to maintain his overall lead, clicking off faster and faster laps that allowed him to gain enough of a gap to eventually win the 100th ALMS race, the 57th Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring.

Can they repeat this epic win in Le Mans? We're sure that Peugeot will bring their A-game, but with Audi's amazing performance today, we're not so sure it the French will win on their home turf.

57th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Final Results:
1. (2) Allan McNish, Scotland; Rinaldo Capello, Italy; Tom Kristensen, Denmark; Audi R15 TDI (1, P1), 383.
2. (5) Franck Montagny, Brignoles France; Sebastien Bourdais, France; Stephane Sarrazin, France; Peugeot 908 HDI FAP (2, P1), 383.
3. (4) Mike Rockenfeller, Germany; Marco Werner, Germany; Lucas Luhr, Germany; Audi R15 TDI (3, P1), 381.
4. (7) Luis Diaz, Mexico; Adrian Fernandez, Mexico; Acura ARX-01B (1, P2), 360.
5. (3) Pedro Lamy, Lisbon Portugal; Christian Klien, Austria; Nicolas Minassian, England; Peugeot 908 HDI FAP (4, P1), 356.
6. (12) Jan Magnussen, Denmark; Antonio Garcia, Spain; Johnny O'Connell, Flowery Branch, GA; Corvette C6.R (1, GT1), 349.
7. (11) Oliver Gavin, England; Olivier Beretta, Monaco; Marcel Fässler, Switzerland; Corvette C6.R (2, GT1), 348.
8. (27) Mika Salo, Finland; Jaime Melo, Brazil; Pierre Kaffer, Germany; Ferrari F430 GT (1, GT2), 332.
9. (15) Gianmaria Bruni, Italy; Mathias Russo, Argentina; Luis Companc, Argentina; Ferrari 430 GT (2, GT2), 330.
10. (17) Dominik Farnbacher, Germany; Ian James, England; Panoz Esperante GTLM Ford (3, GT2), 329.
11. (14) Jörg Bergmeister, Germany; Patrick Long, Oak Park, CA; Marc Lieb, Germany; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (4, GT2), 326.
12. (24) Seth Neiman, Burlingame, CA; Johannes van Overbeek, San Francisco, CA; Darren Law, Phoenix, AZ; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (5, GT2), 326.
13. (23) Nic Jonsson, Sweden; Eric van de Poele, Belgium; Tracy Krohn, Houston, TX; Ferrari F430 GT (6, GT2), 325.
14. (16) David Murry, Cumming, GA; Andrea Robertson, Ray, MI; David Robertson, Ray, MI; Doran Ford GT MK 7 (7, GT2), 303.
15. (6) David Brabham, Australia; Scott Sharp, Jupiter, FL; Dario Franchitti, Scotland; Acura ARX-02a (5, P1), 302, Drive line.
16. (13) Dirk Werner, Germany; Richard Lietz, Austria; Wolf Henzler, Germany; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (8, GT2), 274.
17. (19) Joel Feinberg, Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Chris Hall, Daytona, FL; Ritchie Holt, Davie, FL; Dodge Viper Comp Coupe (9, GT2), 251, Clutch.
18. (1) Gil de Ferran, Brazil; Simon Pagenaud, France; Scott Dixon, New Zealand; Acura ARX-02a (6, P1), 246, Mechanical.
19. (20) Robert Bell, UK; Paul Drayson, London, UK; Jonny Cocker, UK; Aston Martin Vantage GT2 (10, GT2), 204, Engine.
20. (9) Chris McMurry, Phoenix, AZ; Tony Burgess, Canada; Bryan Willman, Kirkland, WA; Lola B06/10 AER (7, P1), 151, Electrical.
21. (10) Butch Leitzinger, State College, PA; Marino Franchitti, Scotland; Ben Devlin, England; Lola B09 86 Mazda (2, P2), 149, Mechanical.
22. (26) Dirk Müller, Germany; Tom Milner, Leesburg, VA; BMW E92 M3 (11, GT2), 140.
23. (8) Chris Dyson, Pleasant Valley, NY; Guy Smith, England; Andy Lally, New York, NY; Lola B09 86 Mazda (3, P2), 127, Mechanical.
24. (22) Lou Gigliotti, Dallas, TX; Eric Curran, Easthampton, MA; Lucas Molo, Brazil; Chevrolet Riley Corvette C6 (12, GT2), 89, Mechanical.
25. (25) Clint Field, Dublin, OH; Chapman Ducote, Miami, FL; Jon Field, Dublin, OH; Lola B06/10 AER (8, P1), 77.
26. (18) Bill Auberlen, Hermosa Beach, CA; Joey Hand, Sacramento, CA; BMW E92 M3 (13, GT2), 27, Mechanical.
27. (21) Nicky Pastorelli, Netherlands; Hans Stuck, Germany; Johannes Stuck, Austria; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (14, GT2), 0, Withdrawn.
28. (28) Richard Westbrook, England; Marc Basseng, Germany; Lance David, Germany; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (15, GT2), 0, Withdrawn.

[via speed, youtube, americanlemans, coldtrackdays] (Top Photo: Doug Werner)

Contrary to the teenage sprinters in Formula 1, the field at a race like Le Mans is mostly made up of middle-age guys, with a few granddads thrown in for good measure.

Take Yojiro Terada. Born in 1947, he has raced cars since the 60s and has competed at Le Mans an astonishing 29 times. While victory has eluded him so far, he has won his class on four occasions. He also appears to like perfectly circular fried eggs, as evidenced on his blog.

While frying eggs is a relaxing pastime, driving racing cars at Le Mans is not: if you stand at the braking zone of a corner, you can see that cars decelerate with the ferocity of spaceships reentering the atmosphere. Now imagine taking that pummeling with grandpa bones, corner after corner, lap after lap.

Only a few years younger than Terada is Hans-Joachim Stuck, the son of 30s Grand Prix driver Hans Stuck whose Auto Union will be up for auction in August. Hans-Joachim is an highly accomplished racing driver himself: he has won two times at Le Mans and three times at Sebring, a race he is returning to this weekend.

Stuck will race at the 12 Hours of Sebring in VICI Racing’s #18 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, teamed up with Nicky Pastorelli and his son Johannes Stuck. “Racing at Sebring again after winning for the first time in 1975 means a lot to me, especially when it comes to the fact that I can compete in the 2009 race with my son Johannes and further to that it will be my first race with Porsche since my last race for the factory in Laguna Seca 11 years ago in 1997,” the 58-year-old said.

The Sebring race on Saturday will also mark the debut of Audi’s new diesel R15, which is replacing the R10. The new car has had all its testing in cold, rainy Europe and Ralf Jüttner, Technical Director of Audi Sport Team Joest, is somewhat jittery:

We are not as well prepared as we would like to be—but this is actually always the case with a new car. Unfortunately, it hurt us a lot this year that the tests in Europe were affected constantly by bad weather and we have not run in hot conditions like we can expect at Sebring. Furthermore, for the first time we did not test at Sebring before the race—which means we have no experience whatsoever with the Audi R15 TDI on the track.

This is shaping up to be a wonderful Florida weekend.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images, Yojiro Terada, Vici Racing, Audi

The #2 Audi R15 of Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Dindo Capello lapped the 3.7-mile track in 1:43.596, half a second quicker than their teammates Marco Werner, Lucas Luhr and Mike Rockenfeller in the #1 car, and a full 1.4 seconds clear of the Frenchies in their Peugeot 908’s.

Allan McNish, who scored the first victory for the R15’s predecessor—the R10, pictured above at last year’s race—with teammates Kristensen and Capello at Sebring in 2006, had this to say about the new diesel racer:

The car feels more agile, it feels more reactive, especially at high speed and through Turn 1, which is a very bumpy corner, it’s more stable than the R10 was. We're actually going through there a gear higher.

We’ve got a better response from the engine as well. I think the V10 being a bit shorter and lighter is allowing the chassis to be more agile in the other parts of the circuit.

Performance-wise, what we’ve seen to date is that we’re a little bit ahead of Peugeot on short runs and also on long runs. Acura are very early in their running because they didn't run on Saturday, so I think we’ve got to wait until Tuesday or Wednesday to see their full potential.

Poor Peugeot. They have been trying to beat Audi since 2007 to no avail. If the R15 wasn’t such an absolute treat for the aluminum and carbon fiber heart, one would almost feel compelled to root for them.

Source: Autosport.com

Photo Credit: Doug Benc/Getty Images

At last! Barely a week and a half before its first outing at Sebring next weekend, Audi has released three dozen photos of their new diesel racer, the R15. Gone is the V12 engine of the R10, replaced with a V10 which makes 600 HP and 774 lb-ft or torque. You have ten more days to learn the discrepancies between the model names and cylinder counts in Audi nomenclature to arrive in Florida an educated man, ready to impress girls.

Remarking on the new engine’s substantial torque, Audi Motorsport has stated they will pay all costs incurred in extracting Sebring International Raceway from the muddy waters of Lake Okeechobee. No word yet on whether they plan on doing the same when the track at Le Mans inevitably ends up in the Atlantic Ocean.

The car is a lovely study in weird wavelets and winglets of carbon fiber and it has one hell of a legacy to live up to. Audi has won every single race at Le Mans since 2000, six of them with the gasoline-powered R8 (at one point run as a Bentley). For the past three years, they have run their first diesel-powered racer, the R10, which retired with a perfect record from Le Mans after three seasons.

Looking at the car from certain angles, one is drawn to paraphrasing Slate commenter Robert Michael “auros” Harman’s timeless words: “The Audi R15 appears to kick so much ass that they’ve had to import extra ass into Ingolstadt solely for its kicking purposes.”

With Audi pulling out of ALMS and Peugeot prepping a highly modded version of their 908 HDi for a Le Mans showdown, it was sort of the perfect opportunity for the French to ruin Audi's party. Just by showing up, the Pug people are going to be grabbing some of the steam and some of the headlines from Audi.

Even worse, if the new Audi R15 falls to the Peugeot 908 they're going to look like chumps before the 24 Hours of Lemans. The official line from Peugeot Sport director Olivier Quesnel is this:

Our busy test programme notably includes endurance simulation tests at a variety of circuits, and we will take part in two races upstream of Le Mans which will serve as full-scale dress rehearsals for everyone in the team. We have consequently chosen to compete in March's 12 Hours of Sebring, which is the opening round of the American Le Mans Series, with two cars and six drivers.

Yeah, right... This is the best setup for an 80s-style showdown movie since Better Off Dead.

[via AutoSport]

What is it at the core of autosport? What are the facets and edges of this jewel that holds some of us so captive? A few quick words and phrases come to mind: machine vs. machine, driver vs. driver, sound, fury, glamour and glory. Endurance sports-car racing gathers all these angles and takes them to extremes. Machines vary wildly in their look, structure and abilities, but they're all thrown together into the same battle. Drivers must not only best the opponents in their class, but also be ready to tangle with traffic in other classes, as if it were a 12-hour chase on the interstate. Stand by the track with your eyes closed and you'll hear the tune of internal combustion instruments ranging from the gentle thrum of an Audi R10 to the skull-cracking wail of an Aston-Martin DBR9. Open your eyes and you'll see the smooth shape of a Panoz contrast with the angles of a Lola prototype and with the fuzzy lines of drunks in green, sequined top hats. It was St. Patrick's Day, after all.

Sebring International Raceway sits above Lake Okeechobee, dead in the middle of southern Florida. It's a decommissioned bomber base used now for a wholly different kind of battle. The 3.7-mile circuit is one of the more punishing venues on the ALMS calendar, owing to its bumpy surface and erratic weather. Molehills become mountains over the course of a race. An uneven joint in the concrete is a hiccup when you hit it, but try having the hiccups for 12 hours.

An American Le Mans Series event is like the circus coming to town. Rings of other attractions surround the main event. The Speed (Channel) World Challenge Touring and GT classes each had their own races last weekend, as did vintage racers and one-make series of Panoz Esperantes and open-wheeled Star Mazda cars. The crowd was as diverse as the field, Maseratis filed in behind duelie pickups with bumperstickers that read, "If it's got tits or wheels it'll give you problems." I've also never seen so many people without arms in one place before. But remember, this is gator country. Now, on to the photos.

The sun set as the race entered its home stretch. The Porsche prototypes struggled to stay near the top of the order as they faced a series of electrical problems. Andretti Green Racing (Kanaan, Franchitti, Herta) and their Acura ARX P2 car had a minimum of problems and took the class lead ahead of the Acura Lola of Fernandez Racing (Fernandez, Diaz, Martinez) and the eventual third place Penske Racing Porsche of Castroneves, Bernhard and Dumas.

The GT1 Corvettes driven by Max Papis, Olivier Beretta, Oliver Gavin, Ron Fellows, Jan Magnussen and Johnny O'Connell took first and second in their class and finished well ahead of several prototype teams, including both Dyson cars.

And so it came down to GT2, the least powerful class in the whole thing, to give us the best race. The Spyker Squadron team put on an impressive showing with their C8 (in Dutch orange, naturally), but it wasn't enough to contend with the more experienced teams.

Jamie Melo in the Risi Competizione F430 and Jorg Bergmeister in the Flying Lizard 911 GT3 RSR had risen above the fray as ten o'clock rolled around and fireworks exploded overhead. The two drivers laid absolutely everything on the line, as they charged for the finish. Twelve hours or racing boiled down to hand-to-hand combat, Porsche and Ferrari engines screaming only slightly louder than the fans who were watching as the cars jostled for position. In the end, it was the Ferrari with both the position and the power as Melo flew past the checkered flag. After twelve hours and half a rotation of the Earth, Bergmeister had lost by two-tenths of a second. He may not have been happy, but none of the fans who watched felt cheated. – James Gribbon

Related:
Sebring GT2 Finish Mayhem; You Are There: The American Le Mans Series New England Grand Prix, July 1, 2006 [internal]