Vintage Racing Services

Legends at Sebring 2010

Legends of Motorsports
Sebring International Raceway
Dec 2 – Dec 5, 2010

Most normal folks go to Florida in the winter to escape the cold and bask in the famous Florida sunshine. Normal folks don’t go to Florida when it’s in the grip of a freezing cold snap. Whoever said racers were normal? We are, by definition, addicted to wonderful, old, historic race cars and going as fast as possible in them. And we’ll go anywhere that affords us that opportunity. Normal, we are definitely not. In fairness, the weather for Bobby Rahal’s final event of 2010, while downright chilly in the mornings, warmed up to a comfortable, sunny 70 degrees every afternoon. Perfect racing weather.

Harvey had a full truckload of cars for his long trip to Sebring. Along for this season-ender were Jim Lenehan’s Swift DB2 and his newly lightened and painted Datsun 240Z (more on this later), new customer Mike Dube’s Ford Taurus Busch North stock car, Kent’s Porsche 914/6 and Larry’s Ginetta G16. As insurance, we have been taking our VRS Swift whenever we can…just in case.

Load in on Wednesday had to wait until late in the day but there was plenty of space in Sebring’s enormous paddock area even though over 120 cars turned out, Rahal’s best attendance this year. By Thursday morning, all was ready for some serious testing and learning the track for those of us who had not raced at Sebring before. Brian did the honors with Jim’s cars, taking out the usually perfect Swift for a few laps and then shaking down the Datsun which had undergone some major surgery since Watkins Glen in September. In the race shop, the Datsun had lost 160 pounds and gained some track width as well as an entirely new chassis setup. Brian pronounced the 240Z terrific and ready to race and we all anticipated Jim’s reaction when he drove the car the next day.

Unfortunately, Thursday was not without drama as Mike’s Taurus ate a ring and pinion. Mike and his helpers were able to get the car running by noon on Friday only to find that the gearbox was pouring out fluid at a prodigious rate. A valiant effort got the car on track again only to lose fourth gear! Larry and Brian shared the VRS Swift in Saturday’s all-comers Enduro finishing 13^th. Brian says he’s a bit faster in the Swift but he has 65 fewer pounds to haul around too!

Sunday’s feature races saw Jim Lenehan with a great drive in the Datsun, starting last since he missed the qualifier, and passing eight or ten cars to finish 15^th. Jim was delighted with the Datsun’s new-found performance, shaving a full six seconds off his best previous time with the car. Since he had to leave the track early to catch his flight home, Jim ran the Swift in the IMSA GT/USRRC/FIA Makes/CanAm group, finishing an excellent 8^th overall.

Thanks to all of our VRS racers and race crew for an excellent 2010 season. There were lots of good times to remember and, of course, the raw materials for some special trophies were produced as well.