The 51st Annual Mobil 1
12 Hours of Sebring
Presented by Dodge
March 12-15, 2003
Veloqx Prodrive Racing
Photo Courtesy:Prodrive
The Prodrive Ferrari 550 GTS Maranello, which excited fans and competitors alike and was so scintillating to watch in the latter part of last year's American Le Mans Series, will next week be launching its claim for 2003 GTS title honours in the Sebring 12 Hour classic on Saturday, 15th March.
Second only to Porsche in the number of overall victories achieved since the inception of the US's oldest and largest sportscar race, the Ferrari marque is assured of a warm welcome at Sebring.
The newly launched collaboration that is the Veloqx Prodrive Racing team is well aware, however, that the outcome of this year's race is far from certain and will be something of a lottery. Despite expectations being significantly raised from this time last year, due to the development work and race programme completed over the last twelve months, a really tough challenge is expected amongst the GTS runners, particularly from the Corvettes and Saleens.
Two new 6-litre V12 engined Ferrari 550 Maranello GTS cars, owned by Care Racing Development - the sportscar racing division of Frédéric Dor's Care Group - will be campaigned by the team. Team members will include George Howard-Chappell as Team Principal, and experienced engineers such as Eddie Hinckley who will be helping guide the all-star driver line up.
Veloqx Prodrive Racing has secured the services of six drivers who have, between them, the mix of experience, speed and achievement which the team feels is necessary to compete at the highest level of endurance racing. All six have been successful at every level of their motorsport careers, and have multiple Championship titles beside their names in many different formulae.
Englishman Jamie Davies will be joining Czech driver Tomas Enge and Dutchman Peter Kox in one car - all of whom have raced in the 12 Hour event before - while Sebring 'rookies' Kelvin Burt, Anthony Davidson and Darren Turner, all from England, will be teamed in the other.
Davidson and Turner are current F1 test drivers for BAR and McLaren respectively, while Burt is a former British GTO Champion and touring car victor. The trio do not feel their lack of track experience will be overly disadvantageous as they plan to use their practice time to learn the circuit while the other car works on set up for the team.
Enge is the only member of the squad who raced the Maranello at Sebring last year, setting fastest race lap in the GTS class while there. He and Peter Kox became well known to the American Le Mans Series in the closing stages of last season by taking one class win, a 2nd and a 3rd place for the Care Racing supported Prodrive Ferrari team. Kox's Sebring experience comes from BMW and Spyker, while Davies was part of the Panoz Motor Sports entry which took 4th place in 1998.
Ferrari at Sebring
The Ferrari 550 last year became the first V12 GT Ferrari to race at Sebring since 1985 and debuted at the track on the 40th anniversary of the competition debut of the fabled Ferrari GTO.
That GTO finished 2nd overall in 1962 in the hands of Le Mans and Sebring winners, Phil Hill and Olivier Gendebien.
According to Sebring historical data, the last Ferrari GT class win at Sebring was in 1963 when a GTO driven by Roger Penske and Augie Pabst came in 4th overall.
2003 Sebring Index
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