Been home for a couple of hours, unpacking, doing laundry, decompressing. Anyway, despite the weather on Thursday and Friday, I know I enjoyed myself, but then again I've been coming to the 12 Hours since 1984 (quite a few as a paid employee) and previously I was at every USGP at the Glen from 1966 to 1979. I hope you enjoy the week through my eyes. Some are marginal, I thought a few were good. I wish I still had my Nikkor manual 35mm for the track shots.

T.C.


a. Audi in the Hairpin right before I saw Doug (Ein 6er) while I was searching for Joe's Series 9 compound.

b. Babes

c. Corvette Helmets at rest.

d. Dario Franchitti after a stint. Sorry, no sign of his beautiful wife.

e. Elevated. A sight a few of you might find too similar

f. Franchitti.

g. Graham Rahal. He was much taller than I expected.

h. Helio Castroneves signing a helmet for me

i. In the Pits

j. Jorg Bergmeister. Wow what a finish in the GT2 race. Nascar has got NOTHING on these boys

k. Kanaan, Tony Kanaan

l. Lizard in the ScarePin

m. MazdaSpeed, my co-host of the weekend (Skip Barber being the other)

n. Alan Mc Nish

o. Oops, it broke

p. Porsche

q. Quick for awhile

r. Ron Fellow's Special Edition Corvette in White for his last Sebring

s. Sascha Maassen

t. Timo Bernhard. Man this kid is fast

u. Utopia, racing at night at Sebring

v. Vintage

w. World Points Perks. I get this Helmet after they take the radio set out

x. Max (The AXE) Angelli trolling the paddock

y. if I stand on my head

z. Zoom-Zoom, when it was running. Kept having throttle issues, but drove to the end as an extended test

T.C.

Cool picks and according to my mom, she said it was a nice race. Thanks for the pics.

i believe that's Pearl White, if i remember their description

TC, what did the drivers think of that odd ball helmet?

OK, I just saw the other thread.

The finish to the GT2 race was amazing!

You did this through World Points? I've seen that on thier site and thought about doing it when American Le Mans comes to Laguna Seca. Was it worth the points? Which level did you do?

THANK YOU!!
Great pictures. Like I was there. You got some real inside access, eh?

Observations from a fan:
Ron Fellows is a true gentleman.
Mazda is showing great support for sports car racing!
Best finish I've seen in a long time, and even the Audi's had a few challenges, so GT-1 wasn't a bore.

More pit babe pics would not be unappreciated....

John, Yes, I turned in World Points ( I think 17,000 points, 2 all-access tickets, Mazda Suite and a Drivers worn helmet) as I didn't think Skip Barber was using the time slot. Then Skip Barber (with new Mazda sponsership took their time slot to run the National event, which meant that I was employed for the week with them). I leant the Suite passes to Joe O'Brien (Series 9), so I don't know much about that, but I'm sure that it was nice as it was shared with Panoz. The helmet will be shipped to me after they take the radio out. Would I do the World Points again, Sure, the helmet package I think is a much better package vs. the ones with waving a Flag at a Star Mazda race or a PaceCar lap as you get a Real Helmet. I collect helmets, so I know the value. Plus what was I going to do with my points, get a plane ticket? If I had enough points (I'm close) I'd do Laguna Seca and come see you West Coast teeners.

T.C.

John, I just talked to my World Points concierge and he said there only 2 races left with the helmet package, Utah in May and Road America in the summer. I don't know about the other packages availability even though the Flag and pacecar packages are more points (the pace car ride is 40,000 and the ride is in a support race, not the main event)

T.C.

Few more pictures. Those Kuhmo girls were hot.

Thanks for the info


I was on World Points last night, and might blow my whole wad on a Nintendo Wii If not, I'm going to sign up for one of the programs a Laguna.

Doug (Ein 6er) Where are your pictures? I'm OK with you making me look like I'm an amateur, because I am. I just get to be in the right places sometimes.

T.C.

More Autographs. The Dyson Porsche team

Thanks for the awesome pics!
Konrad

Cool! Thanks for those I'm going to the 24 heures du Mans this year for the first time and I really, really can't wait

Just back from Florida and slowly working through several gigabytes of shots from Sebring. Bear with me while I get used to posting pics through a URL. If the pic comes through as a URL, can someone let me know how to get it to show as an image.

Thanks



Friday AM inspection. The Penske group covered the rear wing nearly all of the time that they weren't on track.

Approaching turn 3 early in the race. The rear wing has two elements, the lower element mid-section isn't canted like the ends are. Must have spent a lot of time in wind tunnel testing.




The first lap



GT-1 and GT-2 on 1st lap





Gotta go for now, but I'll leave with a shot of my favorite Porsche "Cup" car:

I was really looking forward to seeing this race, but they've not entered Le Mans and neither has anybody else with a Spyder Everybody says the lack of works entry is because of VAG politics Dunno if that's true though.

A few more pics from Thursday's qualifying session, taken at turn 10, a 90 degree right hander approached from 6th gear!

The Spyker C8 appears to finally be sorted well enough to be competitive.



With everyone trying to run hot laps, it was a set up to watch drivers miss their braking points:



The Konrad Motorsport 996 RSR, also a little too late in braking:



And a Panoz on the escape:



Flying Lizard looked strong all through practice and qualifying:




And its nemesis:




Dario wearing Andretti Green:



The silent beast:




The Highcroft Acura:



More later.......

requests?