Sebring 12 hour race 2001

Cockpit of an Audi R8

BMW M3 GTR

The 49th Sebring 12 Hours of Sebring , also The 49th Annual Exxon Superflo 12 Hours of Sebring presented by Dodge, Sebring International Raceway , took place on March 17, 2001 at the Sebring International Raceway and was the second race of the ALMS season 2001 .

Before the race

The season started that year with the 2.45-hour Texas race . The race took place on the Texas Motor Speedway , on which parts of the oval course and the infield course were also used. Surprisingly, the factory Audi R8 became a strong opponent thanks to the Panoz LMP07 . At the finish line, David Brabham and Jan Magnussen were only 26 seconds behind the winning cars of Rinaldo Capello and Tom Kristensen . The second-placed Audi of Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro was 18 seconds short.

The race

The race was under the influence of Bob Wollek's fatal accident in the run-up to the race. On the Friday before the race weekend around 4:30 p.m., after he had qualified for the 12-hour race and was cycling back to his hotel, he was driving along Highway 98 from Sebring when he was hit by one Motor home driven by an 82 year old American was hit. He died on the way to the hospital. The Frenchman won the 1985 race with AJ Foyt in a Porsche 962 registered by Preston Henn .

The race itself was one of the most exciting in all of Sebring's history. The reason was a late stop-and-go penalty for exceeding the permissible maximum speed in the pit lane, which in the last hour of the race threw leading Tom Kristensen back about 30 seconds behind his team-mate Rinaldo Capello. Kristensen managed to almost completely make up for the deficit before crossing the finish line, but was unable to overtake Capello. The 0.482 second gap between the first two cars remained the closest in the history of the Sebring race.

168,000 spectators were present on race day; Record in the history of the race so far.

Results

Final ranking

Item	class	No.	team	driver	vehicle	Round
1	LMP900	1	Audi Sport North America	Rinaldo Capello Michele Alboreto Laurent Aïello	Audi R8	370
2	LMP900	2	Audi Sport North America	Frank Biela Tom Kristensen Emanuele Pirro	Audi R8	370
3	LMP900	38	Champion Racing	Andy Wallace Dorsey Schroeder Ralf Kelleners	Audi R8	366
4th	LMP900	18th	Johansson Motorsport	Stefan Johansson Guy Smith	Audi R8	362
5	LMP900	37	Intersport Racing	Jon Field Duncan Dayton Rick Sutherland	Lola B2K / 10	332
6th	GTS	26th	Konrad Team Saleen	Oliver Gavin Terry Borcheller Franz Konrad	Saleen S7-R	332
7th	GTS	4th	Corvette Racing	Andy Pilgrim Kelly Collins Franck Fréon	Chevrolet Corvette C5-R	331
8th	GT	23	Alex Job Racing	Sascha Maassen Lucas Luhr Emmanuel Collard	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	326
9	GT	22nd	Alex Job Racing	Randy Pobst Christian Menzel Timo Bernhard	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	326
10	GT	42	BMW Motorsport	JJ Lehto Jörg Müller	BMW M3 GTR	324
11	GTS	3	Corvette Racing	Ron Fellows Johnny O'Connell Chris Kneifel	Chevrolet Corvette C5-R	322
12	GT	6th	Prototype Technology Group	Boris Said III Hans-Joachim Stuck Peter Cunningham	BMW M3 E46	318
13	GT	00	Larbre Compétition	Christophe Bouchut Patrice Goueslard Sébastien Dumez	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	317
14th	GT	53	Seikel Motor Sport	Alex Caffi Gabrio Rosa Fabio Babini	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	312
15th	GT	69	Kyser Racing	Joe Foster Kye Wankum Jeffrey Pabst	Porsche 911 GT3-R	306
16	GT	36	Jürgen Alzen Motorsport	Jürgen Alzen Ulli Richter	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	306
17th	GT	58	Freising Motorsport	Wolfgang Kaufmann Stéphane Ortelli	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	300
18th	GTS	45	American viperacing	Erik Messley Jeff Altenburg Stu Hayner	Dodge Viper GTS-R	298
19th	GT	09	Cirtek Motorsport	Keith Alexander Gavin Pickering Chris Gleason	Porsche 911 GT3-R	293
20th	GTS	44	American viperacing	Andy Pardoe Tom Weickardt Joe Ellis	Dodge Viper GTS-R	235
Disqualified
21st	GT	34	orbit	Peter Baron Leo Hindery Gian-Luigi Buitoni	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	84
22nd	GT	47	Broadfoot Racing	John Warner Paco Orti Allan Ziegelman	Porsche 911 GT3-R	64
Failed
23	GT	57	Freising Motorsport	Nigel Smith Klaus Horn	Porsche 911 GT3-R	276
24	GT	66	The Racers Group	Kevin Buckler Tom McGlynn Stephen Earle	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	271
25th	LMP900	16	Dyson Racing	Butch Leitzinger Elliot Forbes-Robinson James Weaver	Riley & Scott MK IIIC	205
26th	GT	43	BMW Motorsport	Dirk Müller Fredrik Ekblom	BMW M3 E46	168
27	LMP900	72	Pescarolo sport	Jean-Christophe Boullion Sébastien Bourdais Laurent Redon	Courage C60	167
28	GT	07	RWS Motorsport	Philipp Peter Dieter Quester Norman Simon	Porsche 911 GT3-R	127
29	GT	15th	Dick Barbour Racing	Grady Willingham Mark Neuhaus Randy Wars	Porsche 911 GT3-R	121
30th	LMP900	50	Panoz Motor Sports	David Brabham Jan Magnussen	Panoz LMP07	109
31	GT	17th	Trinkler Racing LLC	Owen Trinkler Andy Lally BJ Zacharias	Chevrolet Corvette C5	108
32	LMP675	11	Roock-KnightHawk Racing	Claudia Huertgen Mel Hawkins Steven Knight	Lola B2K / 40	105
33	GT	98	Kelly-Moss Motorsports	Cort Wagner Darren Law Rick Polk	Porsche 911 GT3-R	68
34	GT	52	Seikel MotorSport	Tony Burgess Andrew Bagnall Philip Collin	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	60
35	GT	10	Prototype Technology Group	Bill Auberlen Niclas Jönsson Joey Hand	BMW M3 E46	57
36	GT	12	Aspen Knoll's MCR	Shane Lewis Vic Rice Bob Mazzuoccola	Callaway C12-R	50
37	GT	99	Kelly-Moss Motorsports	David Murry Anthony Lazzaro	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	47
38	LMP900	51	Panoz Motor Sports	Klaus Graf Gaulter Salles	Panoz LMP07	28
Not started
39	GT	30th	Petersen Motorsports	Bob Wollek Johnny Mowlem Michael Petersen	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	1
40	GT	35	orbit	Tommy Byrne Richard Millman Tony Kester	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	2
41	GT	5	Dick Barbour Racing		Porsche 911 GT3-R	3
42	LMP675	77	Gunnar Racing	Wayne Jackson Gunnar Jeannette Bill Adam	Lola B2K / 40	4th

¹ withdrawn after a fatal accident by Wollek ² withdrawn ³ replacement car ⁴ refused by the race management

Only in the entry list

Here you will find teams, drivers and vehicles that were originally registered for the race but did not take part for a variety of reasons.

Item	class	No.	team	driver	chassis
43	LMP900	49	Panoz Motor Sports		Panoz LMP-1 Roadster S.

Class winner

class	driver	driver	driver	vehicle	Placement in the overall ranking
LMP900	Rinaldo Capello	Michele Alboreto	Laurent Aiello	Audi R8	Overall victory
LMP675	no participant in the finish
GTS	Oliver Gavin	Terry Borcheller	Franz Konrad	Saleen S7-R	Rank 6
GT	Sascha Maassen	Lucas Luhr	Emmanuel Collard	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	Rank 8

Racing data

• Registered: 43
• Started: 38
• Valued: 22
• Race classes: 4
• Spectators: 168,000
• Race day weather: warm and cloudy
• Route length: 5.955 km
• Driving time of the winning team: 12:00: 38.122 hours
• Total laps of the winning team: 370
• Total distance of the winning team: 2203.192 km
• Winner's average: 183.438 km / h
• Pole position: Emanuele Pirro - Audi R8 (# 2) - 1: 49.110 - 196.467 km / h
• Fastest race lap: Tom Kristensen - Audi R8 (# 2) - 1.49.666 - 195.471 km / h
• Racing series: 2nd run for the 2001 ALMS season
• Racing series: 1st round of the Le Mans Series 2001

Web links

• Race results at Racing Sports Cars

Previous race 2.45 Hours of Texas 2001

American Le Mans Series

Successor to the 2.45-hour race at Donington in 2001

Previous race none

Le Mans Series

Successor to the 2.45-hour race at Donington in 2001