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Sebring is the home of America’s oldest and most famous road racing track. Founded over a half century ago, Sebring International Raceway is the Mecca of sports car racing in North America, hosting the famous Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Endurance Race every March. Sebring is the premier event on the American Le Mans Series schedule, attended by nearly 100,000 people each year from around the world. A Historic Sports Car Race is held two weeks prior to the 12-hour classic each year and also draws sports car racing enthusiasts from far and wide.
Thousands of local residents support this major community event by volunteering their time and expertise, which for many has become a deep local tradition, involving second and third generations. It is not uncommon to see lawyers, stock brokers, bankers, physicians and others from the community giving their time at this annual world-class event. In addition, Sebring International Raceway is busy nearly every other day of the year with testing, corporate events, sports car club races, driving schools and other special events.
The Chateau Elan Hotel and Spa at Sebring International Raceway is a four-story hotel overlooking the famous Hairpin Turn. The hotel serves as an anchor facility for meetings and conferences with a health spa, and pool in a complete, full service setting patterned after the tradition of the famous Chateau Elan, a five star resort near Atlanta. An important part of the Sebring Community for over 50 years, the raceway pumps hundreds of thousands of dollars into the local economy and helps make the name "Sebring" known throughout the world as the location of one of the greatest motor sport racing facilities. Sebring International Raceway is located on the southern portion of Sebring Airport. Originally a World War II military base for training B-17 pilots and crews, known as Hendricks Field, it is replete with its own significant history. Today, the airport is a modern general aviation facility having undergone a transformation of its own in recent years.
The first auto race at Sebring was held in 1950 and since that time some of the greatest cars and drivers in motor racing history have competed at this location. Mario Andretti, A.J. Foyt, Phil Hill, Juan Manual Fangio and Dan Gurney have all won at Sebring International Raceway driving legendary cars built by such names as Ferrari, Porsche, Jaguar, Maserati, Ford, Nissan, Toyota and others. The first 12-Hour Race at Sebring was held in 1952, promoted by Alec Ulmann, and grew in stature becoming a part of the sports car world championship in 1953. Sebring became an important venue for automobile manufacturers to test their cars and promote their products. In 1959, Sebring International Raceway hosted America’s first Formula One Race, further adding to its international stature and mystique.
The 1960’s produced legendary battles between Ferrari, Porsche, the Ford Cobra and GT 40 and the Chevrolet Chaparral. Huge crowds made this one of racing’s truly great events while the 1970’s were a decade of change with the focus primarily on production cars. The 1980’s brought a resurgence of exotic international machinery with factory involvement returning in full force. A new generation of drivers such as Bobby Rahal and Geoff Brabham rose to prominence with victories at Sebring.
Through it all, Sebring has been "the place" for sports car racing. Such
notables as Paul Newman, James Garner, Gene Hackman, James Brolin, Dick
Smothers and even Walter Cronkite have driven at Sebring. So have NASCAR
legends Fireball Roberts, Bobby Allison, Terry Labonte, Bill Elliott, Ken
Schrader and Ricky Rudd. Of late, Sebring has become the winter home of Indy
Car racing, boasting the most active test facility in North America. |
