Back-to-back Historic Sportscar Racing feature races kicked off the competition schedule late Thursday afternoon at Sebring International Raceway for the HSR Sebring Historics and this weekend’s eighth running of HSR Classic Sebring 12 Hour, Pistons and Props, presented by the Alan Jay Automotive Network.
A first-time HSR feature race winner emerged for the overall victory in the one-hour B.R.M. Chronographes Endurance Challenge race for the GT Classic (GTC) and Vintage classes while the Stoner Car Care Global GT sprint that immediately followed went to a familiar driver who just missed out on the win one race ago at the HSR Classic Daytona 24 earlier this month.
Colin Watson and Jeremy Adams broke through for their first B.R.M. Endurance overall victory and GTC class honors in their quick Boss Racing 2000 No. 91 Caterham C400. The British duo kept predominant race leader Todd Treffert in sight throughout the race and took advantage of some unusual late trouble the Porsche driver encountered.
Treffert looked on his way to another B.R.M. Chronographes Endurance race win only to be sidetracked by a loose window net and flat right rear tire while leading the race with less than 10 minutes remaining. Treffert was called to the pits by race officials to refasten the window net and then had to nurse the deflating tire to the finish.
Despite the setbacks, Treffert crossed the finish line in his Speedconcepts 1974 No. 141 Porsche 911 IROC prepared by the 901 Shop just 3.192s behind the winning Caterham, which showed its winning pace by setting the fastest race lap.
Third overall behind the Caterham and IROC 911 was Vintage-class winner Jamie Busby in his KMW Motorsports 1970 No. 188 Porsche 914/6.
Fourth overall and third in GTC went to co-drivers Dean DeSantis and Josh Tuggle in their Heritage Motorsports 1969 No. 133 Porsche 911 RSR.
The overall top-five was completed by the Boss Racing sister entry of Stephen Collins who also garnered runner-up honors in Vintage in his 2014 No. 69 Caterham 7 420R.
Third in the Vintage class was frequent HSR podium finisher Colin Dougherty in his 1988 No. 77 Porsche 944 Turbo Cup series car prepared by DAS Sport.
The Stoner Car Care race win was secured by Jeronimo Guzman who turned the tables on his 901 Shop teammate Juan Lopez-Santini in his 2015 No. 48 Audi R8 LMSA Ultra. Guzman finished second to Lopez-Santini in the Global GT race at Daytona but this time he led the similar 901 Shop 2016 No. 8 Audi R8 LMSA Ultra of his teammate across the line for the victory. The third-place finisher was Vin Barletta in the Turner Motorsport 2016 No. 96 BMW M6/GTLM.
Friday’s on-track HSR highlights at Sebring include the year-end one-hour HSR B.R.M. Historic/Prototype and GT Modern (GTM) Enduro, the first rounds of the season-ending HSR WeatherTech Sprint races, and the season-ending Sasco Sports International/American Challenge race.
Friday also features at 5pm the annual parade of vintage airplanes and warbirds from nearby Sebring Regional Airport to the Sebring International Raceway false grid area where they will be on display until Sunday morning at 10:30am.