Classic Sebring 12h: Victories for the Swiss
AS IN LE MANS The Classic Sebring 12 Hour in Florida, held along the lines of the Le Mans Classic, ended with a double victory for Toni Seiler Racing in its field and for Alain Rüede in the GT cars. The 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 12 Hours of Sebring are the two classics par excellence in endurance racing. [...]
The 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 12 Hours of Sebring are the two classics par excellence in endurance racing. Two events for Historic Racing bring together the racing cars of the past at the same venue.
The Classic Sebring 12 Hour, held for the third time on the legendary airfield circuit in the US state of Florida, followed a similar pattern to the Le Mans Classic. All four vehicle groups completed three 42-minute races within a twelve-hour time window on Saturday. On Sunday, a fourth race formed the finale.
Finally a victory for Toni Seiler
In field A, the two Lola cars from Toni Seiler Racing set the tone. Seiler won the first and third races in his 1969 Lola T70 MkIIIb with a 5.7-liter V8 engine. The second Lola, an open T165 of the same age, was shared by Andy Feigenwinter and Italian Mauro Casadei. The duo took first place in the second and fourth races.
Toni Seiler thus won the overall classification ahead of Feigenwinter/Casadei. Third place went to a British Ford GT40.
Seiler was already the best Lola driver at the Le Mans Classic in July, finishing second overall. In 2016 and 2017, the Zurich native finished second on the podium at the Classic Sebring 12 Hour.
Good premiere from Feigenwinter
For Andy Feigenwinter, the appearance in Sebring was a premiere. The Basel native finished third in the 2018 Swiss Hill Climb Championship in a Lotus Exige 430 Cup from the SuperSeries Competiton group. Feigenwinter has been familiar with handling historic sports cars since racing in the British Sportscar Cup (BSC) and Crosslé Cup on a Crosslé 9S.
In Field B, Alain Rüede drove a 1982 Chevrolet Camaro IROC to second place behind a Chevron. The Zurich native thus won the GT class ahead of an American in a Porsche 911 IROC.
