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David Phillips
Editor and ChiefDavid Phillips is a long-time contributor to print and electronic publications in the U.S. and abroad, including Racer, Autosport, AutoWeek, Motor Sport and SPEEDtv.com, oversees the daily updating of news stories and assigns, edits and contributes feature material for inRacingNews.com.
Chris Hall
iRacing.com Series WriterChris Hall has been writing since the nineties and moved into motorsports reporting in 2005, covering series such as ALMS, British GT, FIA GT, Le Mans and 2CV racing for Full Throttle magazine, Motorsport.com, The-Paddock.net, GTGateway.com, L' Endurance and, of course, inRacingNews. During 2008 and 2009, he worked with the RSS Performance Porsche Carrera Cup Team (and former British GT(C) champions) as a data engineer for a variety of drivers and models of 997s.
Jameson Spies
Contributing Writer19 years old, Jameson Spies lives in Quartz Hill, California. He grew-up surrounded by racing. His mother raced late models throughout Southern California while his father built and setup the car. Not surprisingly, Jameson began racing go-karts at the age of 13, and is now racing Spec Trucks at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. He has a passion about all forms of racing and hopes to make a career out of it.
Jason Lofing
iRacing.com Series WriterJason is 21 years old and was born and raised in Elk Grove. California. A big time NASCAR fan, he hasn’t missed a race on Sunday in years. Lofing is also a huge San Fransisco Giants fan and tries to take in at least a couple games a year. Other than sim racing, his biggest (and far more expensive!) hobby is photography. Although he is rather new to sim racing, Lofing has already accomplished some pretty impressive results, qualifying for the 2011 iRacing Oval Pro Series in Season 1, 2011, winning the inaugural Landon Cassill Qualifying Challenge and finishing runner-up in the second one.
Ray Bryden
Technical contributorRay grew up in Nova Scotia, which means he’s a hockey nut, but in Nova Scotia’s two non-winter months he had to find other diversions, which meant watching F1 racing on weekends with his dad and brothers. Without the resources to get started in racing, he gravitated to computer versions of racing – first Atari games like Pole Position, followed by PC racing games like Indianapolis 500: The Simulation. Dozens of others came and went, until Grand Prix Legends came along and he decided sim-racing was his official hobby. Years were spent enjoying this both offline and online until a few years of fatherhood took priority. When free-time reappeared he heard about iRacing and signed up in 2008 and became so involved in the service that he wrote one of the first books on the subject of sim-racing, iRacing Paddock. When not writing for inRacingNews.com, his main occupation is as a research associate with Saint-Gobain working on advanced ceramic materials.
Patrick Atherton
Contributing WriterPatrick Atherton, originally from Adelaide in the state of South Australia, currently resides just outside of Melbourne, Victoria with wife of 17 years and 3 kids. A business manager by profession, but also dabbles with blogging, cartooning and fine art, having been published both as a writer in a short-lived South Australian motorsport yearbook and later as a cartoonist in a niche trade magazine. At the age of 19 he competed in club circuit events in an Austin Healey Sprite, later indulging in sprint karts between 1994 and 2000. Following the move to the State of Victoria he raced Road Race Karts (“Superkarts” as they are known in Australia) in the popular Rotax class, competing at Phillip Island, Oran Park, Mallala, Wakefield Park, Eastern Creek, Calder Park, Sandown and Winton. It was during this time he met former Australian F2 champion and inventor of Australia’s first, and most prolific race simulator rig, Jon Crooke. This culminated in an introduction to Papyrus’ legendary NR2003 simulation, and the subsequent sim racing addiction which brought him to iRacing.
Tim Terry
Contributing WriterTim Terry, aka the voice of Maritime stock car racing, fell in love with sim racing in 2004 after he joined the Sim Racing Network crew as a pit reporter. From October 2004 to SRNtv’s closure in June 2007, he’s covered prestigious races and leagues such as the Online 500, FLM Fall 400, Real Racing Online and the DMP Racing League – each as the lead broadcaster for the company. At the same time the wheels started to turn in another direction as he began announcing stock car racing locally. Terry became the assistant announcer at Scotia Speedworld in May 2007 and took over full duties in May 2009 when long-time voice Mike Kaplan retired from the track. Terry also became the series voice of the Parts For Trucks Pro Stock Tour in ’09 and continues to hold down both posts in 2011. He has also announced races for the Pro All Stars Series, Atlantic Open Wheel and Maritime League of Legends tours and has called races at six different Atlantic Canadian tracks. Terry can be heard online at WebRacingNetwork.com, RLMtv.com and OLRtv.com covering sim races. He also makes occasional appearances on PSRtv.com. In addition to inRacingNews, his articles and columns can be read on ScotiaSpeedworld.ca, MaritimeProStockTour.com and his own website at timterryonline.com.
David Allen
Contributing WriterNorth Carolina born and raised with over 15 years of computer/IT experience, I combine two of my biggest hobbies -- racing and technology -- here at inRacingNews. In my spare time I run a Nascar fan site and cure my own need for speed riding atvs. If it involves technology or racing I'll be there, but combine the two and I'll be looking a front row seat. Stop by and say hello anytime!
Allen Krier
Contributing WriterAllen was born in West Palm Beach, Florida but grew up in Atlanta and attended Georgia College and State University where he received a BS in Information Systems. Currently a resident of Albany, GA, he started sim racing in 2008 while in college when iRacing was first released to the public. Since then, Krier has been a two time iRacing Pro Series driver (2009 and 2010), picking up one Pro Series win at Daytona in ‘09. Besides sim racing, Allen’s other hobbies include RC Car racing as well as “attending and watching any sporting event that I can including going to the local dirt track.
Who Will Be The New Kings Of Sebring?
March 16th, 2010
New Team Guaranteed To Earn First Overall Victory At Sebring
HARRISBURG, N.C. — In nine of the last 10 Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring, the overall winner has been powered by an Audi engine.
In fact, seven of the last 10 overall winners have been factory-backed Audi squads, including the Audi Sport team that claimed the 2009 edition of the Sebring classic.
Audi will not return to Florida’s Sebring Int’l Raceway for this year’s 58th running of the prestigious event, opening the door for a number of other teams to sweep in and capture their first Sebring victory.
Leading that charge is the Aston Martin Racing Lola shared by Adrian Fernandez, Chris Buncombe and Harold Primat. The trio was fastest during the annual winter test held at the former World War II airbase just weeks ago, though they face added adversity after Primat crashed on the final day of testing, forcing the team to work around the clock to prepare the car for Sebring’s tricky 3.7-mile circuit.
Joining Aston Martin at Sebring is European-based Peugeot, which is fielding two LMP1 entries for this year’s event. Sebastien Bourdais, Nicolas Minassian and Pedro Lamy will share one car with Marc Gene, Alexander Wurz and Anthony Davidson driving the second car.
Also among the contenders is the Acura ARX-01c from reigning American Le Mans Series LMP1 champions Patron Highcroft Racing. The team will debut a new driver lineup this year, with veteran Highcroft star David Brabham leading Marino Franchitti and former rival Simon Pagenaud.
Sebring will be one of two ALMS events this season to feature two prototype classes. In order to address costs, ALMS officials and sanctioning body IMSA have created a new class structure for 2010, which includes the combination of the LMP1 and LMP2 classes into a single LMP category for most of the season.
Two events during the nine-race ALMS schedule will be run with two LMP classes — the 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.
Making its inaugural appearance at Sebring will be the new Le Mans Prototype Challenge class, which has been designed as a cost-conscious prototype feeder series. Each of the five teams entered this weekend will field Oreca FLM09s built specifically for this class.
British racer Andy Wallace, a two-time overall winner at Sebring, will drive the No. 36 for Genoa Racing in the new LMPC class alongside J.R. Hildebrand and Tom Sutherland.
The GT classes have also been reworked. Formally GT1 and GT2, the two classes have been combined to create one GT class. Officials have also renamed the former ALMS Challenge class, calling it GT Challenge. That class will be for Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars and run the entire ALMS schedule.
The GT class features a bevy of entries from a number of powerful race teams. Established teams such as Corvette Racing, Flying Lizard and BMW Rahal Letterman will wage war alongside Scott Sharp’s upstart Extreme Speed Motorsports for the GT crown.
Corvette Racing, which will be fielding two Chevrolet Corvette ZR1s, may pose the biggest threat to those in the GT class this year. Corvette will sport a decorated driver lineup, including seven-time Sebring class winner Johnny O’Connell and Emmanuel Collard, the overall winner at Sebring alongside Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard while driving a Penske Porsche in 2008.
Making its return to Sebring in the GTC class is The Racers Group, regulars in the Grand Am Rolex Series. TRG will be making its first 12 Hours of Sebring start since 2005.
Joining TRG in the GTC class is a three-car assault from Alex Job Racing, featuring 2009 Grand Am Rolex Series GT class co-champion Leh Keen.
Last year only 27 cars took to Sebring’s difficult road course in search of glory. This year that number has grown to 36 entries spread among four classes.
SEBRING TIDBITS
Hall Bound
A unique mix of people and one company will join the Sebring Hall of Fame Friday, a day before the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring. Drivers Phil Walters, Hurley Haywood, Derek Daly and John Morton will join race official Reggie S. Smith and tire company Michelin in the 2010 Sebring Hall of Fame class.
Indy Brethren
There are no Indianapolis 500 winners in the field at Sebring this year, but there are five drivers with Indy 500 experience. Adrian Fernandez (Aston Martin), Scott Sharp (Extreme Speed), Sebastien Bourdais (Peugeot), Nicholas Minassian (Peugeot) and Ryan Hunter-Reay (Level 5) have started the Indianapolis 500.
Rolex 24 Victors
Ryan Dalziel and Joao Barbosa, who shared the seat of the Action Express Racing prototype that recently won the Rolex 24 at Daytona Int’l Speedway, are both entered at Sebring in the GT class. Dalziel is entered in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 430 GT while Barbosa will drive the No. 02 Extreme Speed Motorsports Ferrari 430 GT.
Live Coverage
Speed will air 11 hours of live television coverage of the 12 Hours of Sebring. Coverage begins at 10 a.m. eastern Saturday and continues until noon. Coverage will resume at 2 p.m. and run until 11 p.m. Full coverage is available at americanlemans.com.
Different Franchitti
Last year at Sebring Dario Franchitti shared the seat of the Patron Highcroft Racing entry with David Brabham and Scott Sharp. This year it will be Dario’s bro-ther, Marino Franchitti, joining Brabham and Simon Pagenaud behind the wheel of the Highcroft Racing’s Acura ARX-01c.
Invitation To France
Five American Le Mans Series teams making up six entries have been extended invitations to this year’s running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Among them are reigning LMP1 champions Patron Highcroft Racing, two entries from Risi Competizione, Flying Lizard Motorsports, Corvette Racing and Lowe’s Fernandez Racing have been invited to the biggest endurance race in the world. The Fernandez team will not compete at Le Mans because the team has since shut down.
Poster Party
The 2010 Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring poster was painted by artist Roger Warrick and features three of the top ALMS teams entering Cunningham Corner (turn 10) at Sebring. Featured are the Drayson Racing Lola, the Patron Highcroft Racing Honda Performance Development ARX-01c and the new Jaguar RSR Jaguar XKR GT.